State lawmakers asked Washington earlier this year to shrink the Grand Staircase Escalante and completely scrap Bears Ears. So, critics of the two national monuments are happy to hear the White House plans to cut the size of both monuments, even if they still don’t know by how much.
“Have you seen the proposal the President’s going to approve?” asked Rep. Joel Briscoe, D Salt Lake City.
“I have not,” said Ron Dean, an aide to U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Dean told the Commission on Stewardship of Public Lands Tuesday that he’d heard what he called “grapevine estimates” about how much smaller the Utah monuments might be. He said Bears Ears could be as little as one-thirteenth its current size. Grand Staircase could be one-fourth.
“And that being said, when the announcement’s made, if the announcement is outside those parameters,” said Dean, “then my rumors were bad rumors.”
It’s still not clear when the White House will announce its plans. And Dean did say that the idea of scrapping Bears Ears altogether - that won’t happen.
Still, Republican members of the commission seemed pleased.
“We invite you to pass on to the senator that as a commission we’ll, members will be glad to support in any way we can the president’s plans,” said Commission Chairman and State Representative, Keven Stratton, R-Orem.
When Trump might come next month and what he plans to do here still hasn’t been announced.