"Little on-the-ground damage to the parks has been seen since they were shrunk in 2017. But conservationists say the sooner they can be properly protected again, the better."
"On Dec. 4, 2017, President Donald Trump announced an unprecedented move in a presidency that would prove to be full of them. Standing before Utah’s state capitol in Salt Lake City, he signed a proclamation drastically shrinking two sprawling national monuments in southern Utah that his Democratic predecessors had established.
“I’ve come to Utah to take a very historic action to reverse federal overreach,” he said, as he slashed Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument nearly in half.
Sometime soon after his inauguration, however, President Joe Biden is expected to act to reverse those reversals. “As President,” his campaign promised, “Biden will take immediate steps to reverse the Trump Administration’s assaults on America’s natural treasures,” including Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante."
Hannah Nordhaus reports for National Geographic January 14, 2021.
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