President Joe Biden recently restored protections to three national monuments that were removed by the Trump administration, a news release said.
Biden reestablished the previous boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. He also restored management conditions to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, the news release said.
“I am proud to stand with President Biden in restoring these monuments and fulfilling his commitment to the American people,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “On my visit to Utah, I had the distinct honor to speak with many people who care deeply about this land. The historical connection between Indigenous peoples and Bears Ears is undeniable; our Native American ancestors sustained themselves on the landscape since time immemorial and evidence of their rich lives is everywhere one looks. This living landscape must be protected so that all Americans have the profound opportunity to learn and cherish our history.”
Trump in late 2017, issued a proclamation that reduced the Bears Ears National Monument by 1.15 million acres, or nearly 85 percent, the news release said.
The monument includes "deep sandstone canyons, broad desert mesas, towering monoliths, forested mountaintops dotted with lush meadows, and the striking Bears Ears Buttes," the news release said.
Trump also reduced the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by nearly half, or more than 860,000 acres, the Department of the Interior said.
In 2020, Trump lifted the ban on commercial fishing in the the northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, "an action that conservation groups have argued in court that a president does not have that authority to take," the news release said.
