Donald Trump slashes size of national parks in Utah to allow drilling
President Trump has announced plans to slash the size of two US national parks, provoking fury from environmentalists, native american tribes and conservationists.
Mr Trump called for the 1.3 million acre Bears Ears National Monument to be cut back to 228,784 acres split into two separate areas.
He also called for Grand Staircase Escalante Monument to be slashed by half to just under one million acres and split into three areas.
Both parks, or monuments as they are called, are in the dramatic Southern Utah red rock country.
The changes will make way for oil and gas drilling, mining and other resource extraction activities in the beauty spot.
Unlike national parks that can only be created by an act of Congress, national monuments can be designated unilaterally by presidents under the century-old Antiquities Act, a law meant to protect sacred sites, artifacts and historical objects.
Mr Trump travelled to Salt Lake City to make the announcement at a rally on Monday. A protest is being organised by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and on Saturday, thousands of demonstrators holding signs with messages like "Protect Wild Utah" converged on the steps of the Utah State Capitol.
The president had previously called for a review of more than two dozen national monuments that had been created over the past few decades to address the complaints of some politicians and local people who had objected to their designations which protected the areas from development.
Before President Barack Obama left office he designated more than 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling.
Mr Trump called the move an "egregious abuse of power".
Republican Rob Bishop of Utah, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, is expected to introduce legislation after Mr Trump's announcement to carry out the cuts. It is unclear if the measure would have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Mr Trump will also ask Congress to look at the areas that are being removed from the current monuments to consider designating some as a national conservation or national recreation areas, and create a co-management structure for tribes.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters the changes were supported by Utah's Republican Governor Gary Herbert, along with Utah's congressional delegation, the state legislature, and the local county Commissioner Rebecca Bennally.
But tribal leaders representing the five tribes that pushed for the creation of the monument, and who now manage it, said they will take the Trump administration to court.
They include the Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Mountain and Ute Indians who consider Bears Ears sacred.
"We will be fighting back immediately. All five tribes will be standing together united to defend Bears Ears,” said Natalie Landreth, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which believes the cut would violate the Antiquities Act.
Utah has gone well beyond any other in the region in trying to pry the federal government's hands off land it sees as belonging to its residents.
In 2012, its Legislature passed a law demanding the federal government give 30 million acres (121,000 square kilometers) of the land it owns in Utah to the state government - a measure other Western states have balked at replicating, even deeply conservative ones like Idaho.
Earlier this year, a Utah congressman introduced a bill to sell more than 4,600 square miles of Western federal land to private entities but pulled it after a backlash.
"Utah's certainly on the tip of the spear," said state Congressman Mike Noel, who represents south-central Utah, where some residents have fought to shrink or eliminate Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument since President Bill Clinton created it in 1996.
