A majority of Utah’s residents opposed shrinking Bears Ears Nationwide Monument earlier than President Donald Trump drastically slashed its measurement final week, in accordance with a number of polls carried out over the previous few years. These findings distinction with statements from Utah’s political leaders who argued that the cuts mirrored what Utahns need.
President Donald Trump signed two government orders shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears nationwide monuments by roughly 90 % every. He introduced the change flanked by members of Utah’s congressional delegation and Governor Spencer Cox, all of them Republicans. Trump’s proclamation stated the transfer “will higher align the usage of these public lands with the general public curiosity,” citing the area’s deposits of important minerals similar to copper, nickel, and uranium, amongst others.
On Monday, a whole bunch gathered exterior the Governor’s Mansion in Salt Lake Metropolis to protest the cuts, a part of efforts organized by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance throughout the state to strain lawmakers.
The 2 monuments, which totaled about 3.3 million acres in southern Utah earlier than Trump’s government orders, have been created by Democratic presidents regardless of protests from Utah’s elected Republican leaders.
Throughout the signing ceremony within the Oval Workplace, Utah Consultant Celeste Maloy, a Republican, stated that supporters of shrinking the monuments included “the locals who’re anxious about dropping a number of makes use of on these federal lands,” and stated that Trump was “listening to the individuals of Utah” in lowering the dimensions of each monuments.
“It was very unfair to the individuals of Utah,” Trump stated, “and now equity has been introduced again.”
However separate polls carried out earlier than Trump shrank the monuments present that the majority Utahns and residents of different Mountain West states favored retaining their current designations.
“It is rather contradictive of our findings,” stated Michaelann Nelson, a professor of environmental rhetoric on the Utah State College campus in Worth. “They’re form of selecting and selecting which Utahns they’re taking note of and listening to.”
In surveys carried out in 2024 and 2025, researchers with Utah State College discovered that 61 % of Utahns both supported or strongly supported preserving Bears Ears as a nationwide monument, with simply 19 % opposed or strongly opposed. Some 53 % of respondents opposed or strongly opposed lowering Bears Ears, whereas 26 % supported the concept. The remaining 21 % neither supported nor opposed shrinking the monument.
Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune
Practically half — 46 % — opposed Utah pursuing authorized motion to overturn the Bears Ears Nationwide Monument designation, which was initially created by President Barack Obama in 2016 below the Antiquities Act. It included 1.35 million acres, however has now been decreased to about 121,000 acres.
Grand Staircase-Escalante wasn’t included within the Utah State College research. President Invoice Clinton designated that monument in 1996, and it will definitely reached practically 1.9 million acres after some changes by Congress. After Trump’s order to chop the monument final week, it now consists of simply over 181,500 acres.
Nelson, the lead creator of the ballot, stated she targeted her surveys on Bears Ears as a result of it was newer and an even bigger focus of Utah politicians’ ire on the time. However she expects Utahns’ sentiments towards Grand Staircase-Escalante are related.
“In some methods, maybe [Utahns would be] much more in favor of Grand Staircase,” Nelson stated, “simply because we’ve existed with it for greater than 20 years.”
Jessica Schad, a professor of sociology and the director of the Utah State’s Neighborhood and Pure Sources Institute, oversaw the survey efforts. She suspects Utahns’ attitudes towards monuments haven’t shifted a lot within the months since researchers polled them.
“It looks as if this subject has develop into actually politicized,” Schad stated, “and our legislators aren’t considering what residents are preferring.”
The ballot included 468 respondents in Utah, and the college tapped sociologists based mostly in rural components of the state so the outcomes didn’t overrepresent residents within the extra city Wasatch Entrance, residence to Salt Lake Metropolis. “We use high-quality, actually rigorous survey strategies,” Schad stated.
Different surveys carried out throughout eight Mountain West states confirmed related sentiments about nationwide monuments to the Utah State College ballot. A complete of 91 % of voters in these states needed current nationwide monuments stored in place as of January, in comparison with 88 % final yr and 80 % in 2017, in accordance with the annual Conservation within the West Ballot carried out by Colorado Faculty.
This yr’s research included interviews with voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. About 24 % of respondents lived in rural areas or small cities, 24 % lived in cities, and the remaining lived in suburbs. Politically, 36 % recognized as Republicans, together with 35 % who stated they supported MAGA; one other 36 % have been unbiased, and 28 % have been Democrats.
The survey discovered help for current nationwide monuments nationwide was sturdy throughout occasion affiliations, backed by 87 % of Republicans, 92 % of independents, and 96 % of Democrats. The share of MAGA supporters who needed to maintain current nationwide monument designations in place grew from 81 % in 2025 to 87 % this yr.
“We’ve requested about this many occasions through the years,” stated Lori Weigel, a principal with New Bridge Methods, a Republican public opinion analysis group that assists Colorado Faculty with its annual ballot. “What we now have seen very constantly within the knowledge is that folks need further protections for these public lands.”
The ballot additionally discovered that voters from each events needed to prioritize “conservation, recreation, and renewables over fossil gas improvement,” in accordance with a press release accompanying the outcomes. A separate December 2024 survey by New Bridge Methods discovered 71 % of Utah voters supported retaining Bears Ears protected as a nationwide monument, and 74 % felt the identical about Grand Staircase-Escalante. One other 75 % of Utahns surveyed backed a president’s capacity to create extra nationwide monuments.
Utah’s politicians, together with Cox and Senator Mike Lee, have asserted Democratic presidents went too far in designating the 2 monuments. The 1906 Antiquities Act permits presidents to guard websites of historic and scientific curiosity as nationwide monuments, however directs presidents to protect “the smallest space appropriate with the right care” of these lands.
“These multimillion-acre monuments which are greater than the state of Delaware actually don’t match that designation,” Cox stated at Monday’s occasion with Trump.
The designations have introduced extra guests to the Bears Ears and Escalante areas, a assertion issued by the Utah Senate notes. That places a pressure on land administration businesses and regulation enforcement, inflicting “degradation” on the websites.
When Trump downsized the 2 monuments throughout his first time period in 2017, data confirmed mining corporations had lobbied administration officers to scale back the boundaries of Bears Ears. The president’s newest orders each cite a have to mine home provides of important minerals on public lands as a part of the justification for lowering Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Throughout the signing ceremony final week, Trump complained that the earlier monument boundaries closed off entry to recreation, too. “You’ll be able to’t do something. You’ll be able to’t go searching. You’ll be able to’t go fishing. You’ll be able to’t do something. You’ll be able to nearly not even stroll on it,” he stated.
However the truth is that searching, fishing, driving off-road autos on designated trails, and different recreation are allowed in each Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — actions which are typically prohibited at different nationwide monuments. Bears Ears additionally had an intertribal fee that federal businesses consulted for administration of the monument and safety of its sources. Trump’s order disbanded that physique.
Practically 90 % of Utahns supported Native American tribes having a powerful function in managing ancestral lands, in accordance with the 2024 New Bridge Methods survey, and 81 % stated that the incoming Trump administration ought to maintain agreements with tribes in place for managing Bears Ears.
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