Trump administration plans for managing the Grand Staircase-Escalante (above) and Bears Ears national monuments drew immediate condemnation Thursday/BLM, Bob Wick

Plans by the Trump administration to open lands once inside the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah to mining and other resource-impacting uses drew heavy criticism from environmental and conservation groups Thursday. 

“The administration is illegally gutting protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, and the repercussions will be felt far beyond the monuments’ boundaries," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association.

"The administration’s reckless management plans set our worst fears in motion, leaving these treasured monuments and surrounding national parks needlessly vulnerable. The new plans put at risk the very things these sites were established to protect, including sacred spaces, adjacent national park landscapes and troves of cultural and scientific resources," she added. "Our national monuments and parks are meant to be protected for and enjoyed by all, and we will continue to fight until this landscape is protected as it was intended.”

The final management plans were released Thursday morning, even as litigation over President Trump's proclamations in 2017 to significantly shrink both Bears Ears and nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument continues. When President Trump declared new boundaries for the two national monuments, a move that shed 2 million acres combined from the two, he claimed he was acting to preserve "states rights." At the same time, his action, if the litigation fails, would allow those 2 million acres of federal lands to be opened to energy development and other uses monument status had banned.

Trump's proclamations cut the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by a bit more than 1 million acres and broke it into three monuments to be known as Grand Staircase, Escalante Canyons, and Kaiparowits. Bears Ears National Monument shrank to a bit more than 201,000 acres in the Indian Creek and Shash Jáa units from its original size of 1.3 million acres.

Conservation and environmental groups immediately went to court to challenge the legality of the president's actions, litigation that continues today in the federal court system.

“The approved plans keep the commitment of this administration to the families and communities of Utah that know and love this land the best and will care for these resources for many generations to come,” said Casey Hammond, BLM's acting assistant secretary, land and minerals management. “These cooperatively developed and locally driven plans restore a prosperous future to communities too often dismissed and punished by unilateral decisions of those that would not listen to the voices of Utahns.”

Praising the management plans was Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.

"I appreciate the President's and Secretary Bernhardt's collaborative approach to both the Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Bears Ears national monuments,” said Herbert. “As the Antiquities Act itself states, and as I have reiterated for years, monuments should be as small as possible to protect artifacts and cultural resources. And they should not be created over the objections of local communities. I'm happy to see the Administration develop management plans that protect areas with sensitive artifacts and yet still provide a way to use these lands for recreation, grazing, and management practices that will keep the lands healthy. The outcomes are always better when the federal government works with local communities rather than presumes to know what is best for them."

The Indian Creek unit of the redrawn Bears Ears National Monument/BLM, Bob Wick

U.S. Rep. Rául Grijalva, D-Arizona, remained confident the courts would overturn Trump's actions and order the monuments' original boundaries to be put back.

“President Trump’s campaign to dismantle our national monuments is illegal and unpopular, and the courts are going to overturn it,” said Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “He and his allies have spent years treating our public lands like treats to fossil fuel and mining companies, and the new giveaway is part of a pattern that won’t end until he’s out of office. This president is willing to inflict lasting damage on our country to benefit his industry boosters, and anyone who invests a dollar in drilling or digging in the newly opened areas should be prepared to lose their bet against public opinion and the strength of our legal system.”

At Defenders of Wildlife, President Jamie Rappaport Clark said the plans fail to protect the cultural and ecological values within the monuments' truncated boundaries.

"The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase landscapes are like no other. They deserve reverence and protection, but instead the Trump administration is abandoning the vast majority of these monuments to drilling, mining and other destructive uses," she said. "Exposing these lands to such irreparable damage is beyond shameful. We will never stop fighting for the protection of lands within national monuments and for the eagles, elk, owls and all the other wildlife that call it home.”

At the Sierra Club's Utah chapter, Carly Ferro said the administration's "motivation all along has been to exploit public lands to benefit the dirty fuel industry, regardless of the cultural, natural and economic costs. That’s not a price Utahns are willing to pay."

“The bottom line is that the Trump administration acted illegally when it stripped lands of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante of national monument status," she added. "This process remains egregious and this plan confirms (Interior Secretary David) Bernhardt’s Interior is clearly trying to let in mining and drilling before a court can overturn the rollbacks."

Also condemning the plan was the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

"We believe this management plan fails to provide adequate protection for the irreplaceable prehistoric sites and cultural landscapes that led to President Obama’s designation of the Bears Ears National Monument," said Paul Edmondson, the Trust's president and CEO. "This management plan was developed on a rushed timetable that did not adequately consider the views of Native American tribes or the public. There is simply no rationale for rushing to complete this plan when litigation challenging the legality of the monument revocation is still pending.”