Panguitch, Utah, is about 60 miles from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is part of Garfield County. It covers roughly 1.9 million acres now.
Because President Donald Trump signed proclamations on July 13 to dramatically reduce two of Utah's national monuments' borders, Grand Staircase will shrink by 90% on Sept. 11, down to about 180,000 acres. Bears Ears will lose 91% of its own footprint.
Some people support it in the local area, and others not so much.
"I felt really good," Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock said. "Yes, it's a blessing for us."
He's pushed to shrink the monument since 2009. He blames it for decades of decline here — though the rules he points to restricted new range projects, they didn't ban them, and grazing continued on most of the monument.
But to Pollock, the native pinyon pine and juniper have made the former grassland unhealthy and is a habitat concern. That’s because it can crowd out the grasses and plants wildlife and cattle depend on.
Pollock said most of the original 1.9 million acres wasn't worth protecting to begin with.
He referenced "Planet of the Apes," because some of the scenes were filmed in this area.
"Charleston Heston crash lands into the water, gets out and walks on that desolate wasteland," Pollock said. "You think it's a movie set? No, that's what they made a monument into."
But Jackie Grant, executive director of Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, said that framing misses what's actually here — rare plants, fragile biocrust, and ongoing fossil digs.
They’re an organization that collaborates with federal agencies and private landowners to manage landscapes and combat invasive species. They address the invasive Russian olive, sustainable visitor impact, and collect native plant seeds.
Grant said redrawing the boundaries comes with its own costs, starting with dozens of road signs the group now has to replace.
We’re in the Blue’s Wilderness Study Area within the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. A couple cars drive by while our footsteps crunch the soil. Other than that, it's quiet here. The area is rich in coal and fossils. Pink and sandstone cliffs are in the distance.
"Wilderness study areas have been set aside and sitting in limbo since the '70s, waiting for Congress to come together and agree," Grant said. "So they have to be managed as wilderness until Congress decides to either put them in or take them out."
She said redrawing the boundaries comes with its own costs, starting with dozens of road signs the group now has to replace. They’re working with the Bureau of Land Management on that project.
"So you can see how this whole thing is a waste of taxpayer dollars and funders' dollars in many different aspects," she said. "Not just the maps have to be reprinted, but all the work that goes into managing public lands and keeping people safe has to be reevaluated."
Charlie Luke, Utah state director for the Wilderness Society, said the fight goes beyond acreage.
"These are living landscapes. It's not vacant land just sitting there waiting to be developed," he said. "The monuments protect sacred, tribal homelands, irreplaceable archeological sites, wildlife habitat, and world-renowned recreation opportunities that belong to all Americans."
The federal government did not include Tribal nations tied to both monuments in drafting the new boundaries. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition had not responded to a request for comment by publish time.
And since the change came by proclamation, not law, both sides know a future administration could reverse it again.
