Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument
Record date: 2026-07-17
( printed page 45169) Proclamation 11043 of July 13, 2026 Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument A Proclamation On December 28, 2016, President Obama issued Proclamation 9558, which established the Bears Ears National Monument (Monument) in the State of Utah; reserved approximately 1.35 million acres of Federal land as part of the Monument; and directed that the Monument be jointly managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture's United States Forest Service (USFS). On December 4, 2017, exercising my authority under
What this record contains
- Federal Register document
- 2026-14548
- Publication date
- 2026-07-17
- Citation
- 91 FR 45169
- Issuing office
- Executive Office of the President
Official record excerpt
( printed page 45169) Proclamation 11043 of July 13, 2026 Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument A Proclamation On December 28, 2016, President Obama issued Proclamation 9558, which established the Bears Ears National Monument (Monument) in the State of Utah; reserved approximately 1.35 million acres of Federal land as part of the Monument; and directed that the Monument be jointly managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture's United States Forest Service (USFS). On December 4, 2017, exercising my authority under section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (the “Antiquities Act”), I issued Proclamation 9681 to modify the boundaries of the Monument in accordance with the requirements of that Act, as well as to ensure the Monument's proper management. Proclamation 9681 excluded approximately 1.15 million acres from the Monument, and also reserved approximately 11,200 acres as part of the Monument that were not originally reserved by Proclamation 9558. On October 8, 2021, President Biden issued Proclamation 10285 to modify the boundaries of the Monument to include all lands previously excluded, expanding the Monument to encompass approximately 1.36 million acres. The Antiquities Act authorizes the President to declare historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on land owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments. The Antiquities Act further requires that any parcel of land reserved as part of a monument be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. Where the President determines that the structures and objects identified by a prior monument proclamation no longer are, or never were, deserving of the Antiquities Act's protections, the Antiquities Act permits the President to remove land from the monument and return it to its prior federally managed status. Determining the appropriate protective area involves examining several factors, including the uniqueness and nature of the objects to be protected, the nature of the protection needed, the protection provided those objects by other laws, executive department and agency resources available to manage the parcel, and whether the lands are better suited for other non-monument uses. Given these considerations, the monument designation made in Proclamation 10285 suffers from several flaws under Antiquities Act analysis that require the action taken by this proclamation. First, Proclamation 10285's designation rests on the purported need to protect items that are not historic landmarks, historic or prehistoric structures, or other objects of historic or scientific interest. For example, Proclamation 10285 protects various generic features and landscapes found within the Bears Ears region, such as “deep sandstone canyons, broad desert mesas, towering monoliths, forested mountaintops dotted with lush meadows” and “low bluffs and high mesas.” While scenic, these generic features are not “landmarks,” “structures,” or “objects of historical or scientific interest” worthy of protection under the Antiquities Act. Second, certain landmarks, structures, or objects identified in Proclamation 10285 that could have the necessary historic or scientific interest in other contexts are prevalent throughout the Four Corners region and, in some ( printed page 45170) cases, throughout the American West. The relative commonness of these cultural resources within the broader area suggests that the specific instances of such objects found within the Monument are not of particular historic or scientific interest. For instance, lithic scatters, projectile points, prehistoric campsites, petroglyphs, and pictographs are found across the American West and are not unique to the Bears Ears region. Accordingly, a monument reservation was neither necessary nor appropriate to protect these items. Third, because Proclamation 10285 reserved lands that were intended to protect several landmarks, structures, or objects that lack the necessary historic or scientific interest, it also disregards the Antiquities Act's requirement that the reservation of Federal lands for a national monument be confined to the “smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” If the parcel had been properly tailored to protect only those objects identified in Proclamation 10285 that do warrant protection under the Antiquities Act, it would have been much smaller. Finally, a monument designation and reservation of land were unnecessary to protect many of the objects of historic
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