President Donald Trump claimed hikers, hunters and anglers were locked out of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument and used that story to justify slashing its size by more than 1.2 million acres.
Newly obtained government documents tell a very different tale.
“You can’t go hunting, you can’t go fishing, you can’t do anything, you can virtually not even walk on it,” said Trump at his announcement of the rollback last month, to which Interior Department deputy Kate MacGregor chimed in, “That’s exactly right, sir, so you are remedying that today.”
But documents obtained by The New York Times through a public records request show Trump officials were briefed just weeks earlier on the monument’s popular recreational trails — including a route open to off-road vehicles offering “motorized access deep into the area,” and a backcountry corridor frequently used by backpackers tackling a 40-mile wilderness loop.
Utah’s own Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office sent the briefing memo to a senior Interior Department adviser in June, specifically confirming “current recreational access” existed at the site. And records indicate that Utah officials allow people to hunt and fish in the area provided they have the required licenses.
Experts were stunned by the revelation.
Steve Bloch, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance legal director, told The Times that these documents indicate Trump was “lying or spreading misinformation about these fantastic public lands,” while Louis Williams, who founded a group for indigenous-led tours of the monument, said, “I was shaking my head. I was like, ‘I wonder if he’s ever been here to this region, because if he knew this region, he would find out this place is totally accessible.’”
National monuments, which can be designated by presidents, have similar protections to national parks; recreational use of the land is allowed, but development like grazing, drilling, and mining are prohibited.
Bears Ears was first designated a national monument in 2016 by former President Barack Obama. Trump made a similar push to roll back protection on most of the land in his first term, over the objections of local tribal groups. He was sued over the change, but the Biden administration restored the full monument before that case could be resolved.
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