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Trump rescinds national monument protections on 1.9 million acres of Utah canyon land

  • President Donald Trump has signed proclamations vastly reducing the size of two protected wildlife areas in Utah: The Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
  • The immediate effect of the two proclamations will be to remove protections on nearly 2 million acres of land currently under the Obama-era national monument designations.
  • The decision is expected to spark a protracted legal battle over the president's authority to set aside land for conservation.

President Donald Trump speaks at the Utah State Capitol, after he called for a 90 percent reduction in the size of Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and 50 percent reduction to the state's Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., December 4, 2017.Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump on Monday signed presidential proclamations which vastly reduce the size of two protected red rock canyon areas in Utah: The Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

"I come to Utah to reverse federal overreach and restore this land" to local residents, Trump said in a speech at the Utah state Capitol in Salt Lake City.

"You know best how to conserve these lands for many, many years to come," the president told the invitation-only crowd.

The first proclamation Trump signed will shrink the size of the Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent, or around 1.1 million acres. The second will reduce the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by another 800,000 acres, to just under half of its current size, according to fact sheets from the White House.

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