By McKenzie Romero | Editor
When President Donald Trump drastically shrunk Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national parks during his first term, a slew of legal challenges quickly followed.
Those lawsuits were paused, however, when former President Joe Biden took office and restored the monuments to their original sizes. Now, they’re back in play.
In this weekend’s Dispatch we update you on the court battle over Utah’s two embattled national monuments and bring you our top stories of the week, including why 4,300 Utah voters will only see federal races on their ballots and a roadblock for the U.S. Forest Service’s move to Salt Lake City.
“Because of this unlawful act, irreplaceable cultural resources and the monuments’ unique geology and flora and fauna are now at risk from activities like mining.” — Steve Bloch, legal director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, in a statement about the group’s efforts to to revive its lawsuit over reductions to the monuments.
Ruins and a petroglyph along the sheer face of Arch Canyon in Bears Ears National Monument. (Getty Images)
By Annie Knox
A U.S. District Court judge lifted stays on lawsuits from environmental groups challenging reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, allowing the cases to move forward and requiring the Trump administration to give 48-hours’ notice prior to ground-disturbing activities on lands cut out of the monuments.
President Donald Trump and the White House have said the Obama and Biden administrations abused the Antiquities Act when they used it to create the monuments and that Trump’s July orders rightsized Bears Ears to allow for common-sense land use and mining of uranium, copper and other critical minerals.
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