Trump slashes protections for national monuments created by Obama, Clinton

President Trump on Monday dramatically scaled back two sprawling national monuments in Utah, cutting Bears Ears to 220,000 acres from 1.5 million and slicing the 2-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante in half.

“Public lands will once again be for public use,” the president said in Salt Lake City as he reversed executive actions taken by former Presidents Barack Obama on Bears Ears and Bill Clinton on the Grand Staircase.

“Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington. And guess what, they’re wrong,” Trump added.

The move was supported by Utah’s top Republicans but opposed by Native American tribes and environmental groups, which want the national monuments left alone. The land removed from protection can now be leased for oil and gas exploration or opened for recreational activities.

Roughly 2,000 demonstrators lined up near the Utah State Capitol to protest Trump’s announcement, with many chanting, “Keep your tiny hands off our public lands!” and “Lock him up!”

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye rebuked the president.

“The Navajo Nation has made repeated requests to meet with President Trump on this issue,” he said in a statement.

“The Bears Ears Monument is of critical importance, not only to the Navajo Nation but to many tribes in the region,” Begaye added.

“The decision to reduce the size of the monument is being made with no tribal consultation. The Navajo Nation will defend Bears Ears. The reduction in the size of the monument leaves us no choice but to litigate this decision.”

Unlike national parks, which can be created only by an act of Congress, national monuments can be designated unilaterally by presidents under the century-old Antiquities Act, a law meant to protect sacred sites, artifacts and historical objects.

Trump said former presidents abused the act by making unnecessarily large chunks of territory off-limits to drilling, mining, grazing, road traffic and other activities.

While a handful of monuments have been resized in the past, none has been cut back to such an extent, putting the president’s proclamation in uncharted legal territory.

Previous presidents. including William Howard Taft. reduced some monuments and were never challenged in court

Trump also took time to praise Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, 83, urging him to seek re-election. That would block former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate should Hatch retire and who has criticized the president.

With Post wires