Utah's congressional delegation is moving to overturn the management blueprint for a national monument in Utah, a move public lands advocates warn could have implications for other protected areas in the Mountain West.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) introduced a joint resolution of disapproval Wednesday to reject the Resource Management Plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was finalized during the Biden Administration.
"The plan dismisses the recommendations of the State and local communities and locks in binding management direction for visitation, access, and allowable uses. It was developed in Washington, D.C., detached from the realities facing the Utah communities most affected," Lee said in a statement.
Lee and Maloy are employing the 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to undo federal agency decisions.
Republican lawmakers are increasingly turning to the CRA to overturn public lands decisions, including two management plans in Montana and Wyoming last year, but it's never been used to target a national monument. Environmental groups called the resolution by Lee and Maloy an escalation.
“If there's any member of Congress who has a problem with any national monument, they would have the precedent to be able to use this tool in this way,” said David Feinman, vice president of government affairs at the Conservation Lands Foundation.
President Bill Clinton established the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996 via presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act. It protected roughly 1.87 million acres known for fossils, geologic features and cultural sites. During his first term, President Donald Trump shrunk the monument’s size and President Joe Biden later restored it.
Utah’s congressional delegation criticized the management plan when it was finalized at the end of the Biden administration.
Scrapping the plan would not change the monument’s boundaries. But advocates said it would throw out the blueprint guiding how the land is managed, creating uncertainty for grazing permittees, recreation users and conservation efforts.
Autumn Gillard, coordinator of the Grand Staircase Escalante Intertribal Coalition, said it could also leave vulnerable sensitive landscapes and cultural resources.
“This monument contains many cultural sites that are still in pristine condition because they have not been surveyed or have not been tampered with – because of protections like the Resource Management Plan,” she said.
Gillard added that undoing the plan would disregard the two-year public process that included tribal input.
It’s unclear what would follow if Congress were to revoke the management plan under the CRA, as the law prohibits agencies from submitting new rules that are substantially similar.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
