WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden on Friday restored full protections to three national monuments that had been slashed in size by former President Donald Trump, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah -- known for their desert landscapes and historical treasures of American Indian art and settlements, as well as a rich fossil record.
Biden used an executive order to protect 1.36 million acres in Bears Ears -- slightly larger than the original boundary that President Barack Obama established in 2016 -- while also restoring the 1.78 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument. Biden also reimposed fishing restrictions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England that Trump had opened to commercial fishing.
Biden signed the proclamations in a ceremony outside the White House, in front of tribal leaders and others. He used his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
"This may be the easiest thing I've ever done so far as president," Biden said before the signing.
"Protection of public lands must not become a pendulum that swings back and forth depending on who's in public office. It's not a partisan issue," he added. "National monuments and parks are part of our identity as a people. They are more than natural wonders. They are the birthright we pass from generation to generation -- a birthright of every American."
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Biden had campaigned on reversing Trump's rollbacks to Bears Ears and other monuments, but tribal activists and conservationists had grown increasingly frustrated in recent months that he had not acted. The Washington Post reported in June that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recommended to the White House that Biden restore protections to the monuments.
Last month, leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition sent a letter to Biden calling for "immediate action" to protect the monument and that "real harm, much permanent, is occurring on this sacred landscape."
On Friday, Pat Gonzales-Rodgers, the coalition's executive director, said "we're incredibly grateful to the administration."
Biden administration officials described the monument restoration as part of a larger effort to protect ecosystems as a way to fight climate change and the impacts of extreme weather.
"We strengthen the power of our soils, our grasses and our trees to trap carbon pollution," said Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate adviser. "And healthy natural systems build up our resilience against the climate impacts that we know we are already facing."
In Bears Ears -- named for the twin buttes that rise above the landscape -- tourists and looters routinely steal ceramic shards, arrow heads and other remnants of the settlements of the Ancestral Puebloan Indians who lived in the area. Some of the ancient rock art has been defaced.
Haaland, the first American Indian cabinet secretary, thanked Biden for his "profound action" to "permanently protect the homelands of our ancestors."
"Our songs, our languages and our cultures are strong and many people from many Indian tribes have sung and spoken in unison to protect this sacred space," Haaland said. "Bears Ears is a living landscape. When I've been there I've felt the warmth and joy of ancestors who've cared for this special place since time immemorial."
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, and the state's congressional delegation has argued that land-use rules for the area should be established by legislation, rather than executive order, to avoid regular changes to the boundaries by future presidents.
"President Biden's decision to expand the monuments is disappointing, though not surprising," Cox said in a statement along with other Utah officials. "For the past 10 months, we have consistently offered to work with the Biden administration on a permanent, legislative solution, one that would end the perpetual enlarging and shrinking of these monuments and bring certainty to their management."
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and other members of the state's congressional delegation also criticized the decision, calling it a "devastating blow" to their efforts to solve the issue legislatively.
"Rather than take the opportunity to build unity in a divided region and bring resources and lasting protections to sacred antiquities by seeking a mutually beneficial and permanent legislative solution, President Biden fanned the flames of controversy and ignored input from the communities closest to these monuments," they said.
The tribes that make up the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition -- the Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe and Pueblo of Zuni -- consider this area sacred, and it is filled with remnants of settlements, rock paintings and pottery.
Biden also restored protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 5,000 square miles off Cape Cod, Mass., which was established by Obama.
The White House announced that commercial fishing will be prohibited, and fishing for red crab and American lobster will be phased out by September 2023. Recreational fishing will continue.