After shrinking Bears Ears National Monument, the Trump administration won’t even protect what’s left of it

As if reducing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument by a reprehensible 85 percent wasn’t enough, the Trump administration is now failing to protect the rest of this historic and beautiful part of the country, which is held sacred by the region’s Native American tribes. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service released a management plan for the monument that ditches any attempt at preserving 82,000 acres as true wilderness, weakens protections for the land’s iconic views, and threatens some of the world’s most well-preserved cultural artifacts. The plan would allow ranching, mining, and drilling on the land, as well as off-road vehicles to run roughshod over sacred sites and sensitive ecosystems. One Zuni tribe leader describes the plan as “like seeing that your grandmother’s house has been robbed.”