President Donald Trump signed executive orders last week reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by approximately 90 percent each. The proclamation cited the need to access critical minerals such as copper, nickel, and uranium on the public lands. The move was announced at a ceremony attended by Utah’s Republican congressional delegation and Governor Spencer Cox.
Multiple polling surveys conducted in recent years indicate that a majority of Utah residents and voters across the Mountain West oppose reducing the national monuments. Utah State University researchers found that 61 percent of Utahns supported preserving Bears Ears as a national monument in surveys conducted in 2024 and 2025, with only 19 percent opposed. Additionally, 53 percent of respondents opposed shrinking Bears Ears. A December 2024 survey by New Bridge Strategies found 71 percent of Utah voters supported keeping Bears Ears protected and 74 percent felt the same about Grand Staircase-Escalante.
A broader regional survey by Colorado College covering eight Mountain West states found that 91 percent of voters wanted existing national monuments preserved as of January, with support across party lines including 87 percent of Republicans. Despite these findings, Utah’s political leaders have argued that the monument reductions reflect the public’s preferences. Trump stated the action “will better align the use of these public lands with the public interest,” while Representative Celeste Maloy claimed the administration was “listening to the people of Utah.”
Researchers noted the disconnect between public opinion data and political messaging. Utah State University professor Michaelann Nelson observed that political leaders appear to be “picking and choosing which Utahns they’re paying attention to.” Notably, 81 percent of Utahns surveyed supported maintaining agreements with Native American tribes for managing Bears Ears, though Trump’s order disbanded the intertribal commission previously involved in monument management. The monuments, originally totaling 3.3 million acres, now cover substantially smaller areas following the executive action.
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