Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah, two vast swaths of red rock canyons at the heart of land protection in the West, were restored to full size by President Joe Biden on Friday.
Biden also used his executive authority to restore environmental protections covering the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument in the Atlantic Ocean off the New England Coast.
“This may be the easiest thing I’ve ever done so far as president,″ Biden said at a White House ceremony attended by Democratic lawmakers, tribal leaders, and environmentalists.
Biden reinstated and expanded the original 1.3 million acre boundaries of Bears Ears, and restored the original 1.8 million acre boundaries of Grand Staircase.
The White House said the Bureau of Land Management will assign additional rangers to the region; work with local communities, the state of Utah, and tribal leaders on assessing the potential opportunity for a Bears Ears visitors center that highlights the monument’s cultural resources; and support the Bears Ears Intertribal Commission’s participation in management of the national monument.
Grand Staircase was created by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, and former President Barack Obama created Bears Ears in 2016, at the request of five American Indian tribes with ancestral ties to the lands. The Trump administration redrew borders for both monuments to allow coal mining and oil and gas drilling on lands that used to be off limits.
Former President Trump cut Grand Staircase from 1.8 million to 1 million acres and Bears Ears from 1.3 million to 200,000 acres. Both moves were applauded by Utah’s state and congressional Republican leaders, who called the monuments federal government overreach and who opposed a review ordered by the Biden administration in January.
Lawsuits were filed by environmental, tribal, and outdoor recreation organizations to restore the full sizes of the monuments, arguing that presidents do not have the authority to change monuments created by predecessors.
Clinton and Obama used the federal Antiquities Act to create the monuments, saying their actions were necessary to protect cultural artifacts, fossil resources, and natural wonders. The moves blocked future mineral development and limited motorized access, but allowed livestock grazing to continue.
The lands are sacred to tribes in the American Southwest, and are popular for outdoor recreation.
Biden asked Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in January to review the cuts made to the monuments and submit a report within 60 days providing recommendations.
Haaland—the first Native American US Cabinet secretary—visited the monuments in April and met with state leaders and local tribes, many of which have ancestral ties to Bears Ears, including Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.