A bill asking President Donald Trump to rescind the new Bears Ears National Monument flew through the Utah legislature in the past week and was signed into law by Governor Gary Herbert.
The legislation formalizes state opposition to the 1.35-million acre national monument, which includes more than one-quarter of San Juan County.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is very close to announcing a resolution to the longstanding controversy over motorized travel in Recapture Canyon, east of Blanding.
Ed Roberson, the new state director of the BLM, announced the process to the San Juan County Commission on February 7.

While it has been two weeks since U.S. President Barack Obama created the 1.35-million acre Bears Ears National Monument, the process is just beginning to address the next question, “What happens next?”.

“It’s a great day to celebrate,” Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told approximately 400 people who gathered at the Monument Valley Welcome Center on January 7 to commemorate the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument.
“This is what we all did,” Begaye went on to say, “This is what working together is all about. We are a powerful voice.”

With the BLM and Forest Service management, Bears Ears has a new model for a national monument in the county.
The existing national monuments in the county – Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, and Rainbow Bridge – are managed by the National Park Service.

In his designation of the Bears Ears National Monument on December 28, U.S. President Barack Obama called for the creation of a “a Bears Ears Commission to ensure that tribal expertise in traditional knowledge help inform the management of the Bears Ears National Monument and help us to best care for its remarkable national treasures.”

Elected officials representing the area impacted by the National Monument came out with a solid wall of opposition to the designation.
Every elected official with responsibility over San Juan County has voiced opposition to the designation, including San Juan County commissioners, the elected state legislators representing San Juan County, every statewide elected official, and every member of the Utah congressional delegation.

“Today San Juan County mourns after President Barack Obama gave into pressure from extreme environmental groups, out-of-state tribal leaders, and corporate interests by designating the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument. 

The proclamation creating Bears Ears National Monument directs the Secretary of the Interior to explore, within 30 days, a land exchange with the State of Utah.
The exchange would transfer Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration land within the Bears Ears boundary in exchange for BLManagement land outside of the boundary.  

A crowd estimated at 500 people gathered in Monticello on December 29 to protest the new Bears Ears National Monument.
President Barack Obama created the 1.35-million acre monument on December 28. It takes up more than one-quarter of the landmass of San Juan County.

The Bears Ears National Monument was created by presidential decree on December 28, resulting in a massive new national monument that takes up more than one quarter of the land mass of San Juan County.
The monument designation includes 1,351,849 acres of federal land, but does not include the 109,106 acres of state land and the 12,652 acres of private land that are now within the national monument boundaries.

With the days ticking down on the presidency of Barack Obama, anxiety is building in San Juan County over the possible designation of the Bears Ears National Monument.
Rumors are flying over the designation, which could result in a new national monument as large as 1.9 million acres.
Obama said in a 2014 State of the Union Address that he would designate monuments if Congress did not act. His term ends January 20, 2017.