On Monday, July 13, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders removing protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.
The Associated Press reports the Grand Staircase-Escalante holds large coal reserves, while the Bears Ears area has uranium deposits.
The impact immediately affects cyclists who use the Cedar Mesa Loop and Grand Staircase Loop routes.
The Outdoor Alliance says the “extraordinary landscapes are home to world-class bikepacking.”
“They also protect irreplaceable cultural landscapes, wildlife habitat, and the ancestral homelands of Tribal Nations that have stewarded these places since time immemorial,” said the Alliance on its website.
The reduction in access to safe, off-road cycling spaces comes in an era when road cyclists make up its largest ever reported percent of traffic fatalities.
Under Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, “DEI bike lanes,” speed cameras, and other data-backed measures and best practices for reducing cyclist fatalities and collisions were removed.
The scope and impact of land protections reduction
View from Highway 12 over the landscape of Escalante River Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Trump administration slashed the two Utah monuments by a combined roughly three million acres, reducing them to approximately a tenth of their previous size.
Grand Staircase-Escalante protections were reduced from 1.87 million acres to 181,500 acres, and Bears Ears protections were slashed from 1.36 million acres to 121,100 acres.
The now-excluded land is available for further development and non-passive uses, such as mineral extraction, road construction, off-highway vehicles, and ranching.
Opponents including tribal coalitions and environmental groups contend that the Property Clause of the The Constitution (Article IV, Section 3) grants Congress, not the president, exclusive power to dispose of or reduce federal property.
The Salt Lake City Tribune reported the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance plans to sue over the monument size reductions.
Indigenous tribes were not informed or asked about the decision to reduce the monument boundaries, reported The Tribune.
Tribes were part of a years-long consultation process that shaped the current management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante, the group said.
The power to remove protections for public use lands
National parks are established by Congress, however national monuments are created by presidents through the Antiquities Act of 1906, which grants the president the power to create boundaries.
The Act does not specify the executive branch’s ability to change protections once established.
The current administration claims that because the protections were created by the Antiquities Act, it inherently has the power to alter or remove the same boundaries.
President Bill Clinton established the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and President Barack Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in 2016.
During his first term, Trump reduced the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
The recent actions were immediately challenged in federal court by a coalition of tribes and conservation groups, however, the specific lawsuits were never resolved when the subsequent Biden administration restored the monument boundaries.
President Biden issued protected monument proclamations for Bears Ears, highlighting its “unparalleled rock climbing” at Indian Creek, “the paradise for hikers, birders, and horseback riders” in Elk Ridge and other “hunting, backpacking, canyoneering, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking” destinations.
Similarly, Biden’s Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamation emphasized the area’s “world-class outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock climbing, hunting, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, river running, mountain biking, and horseback riding.”
The Supreme Court never definitively ruled on whether a president has the authority to abolish or shrink a national monument.
How to take action to preserve national monuments
Those who want to take action and try to help restore protections to national monuments can sign a petition that forwards an email to the White House.
You can also contact the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service at national and state levels, and make your opinion known to your state representative.
