Donald Trump Drastically Reduced the Territory of 2 National Monuments

US President Donald Trump will visit Utah to announce big cuts to the state's sprawling wilderness national monuments, a move that is likely to trigger legal challenges from tribes and environmental groups. This is the largest shrinkage of a protected area in the US history, Reuters reports.

Trump's visit to the state follows a months-long review by the Interior Department that he ordered in April to identify which of 27 monuments designated by past presidents should be rescinded or resized to make way for development.

Unlike national parks that can only be created by an act of Congress, national monuments can be designated unilaterally by presidents under the century-old Antiquities Act, a law meant to protect sacred sites, artefacts and historical objects.

But Trump has said former presidents abused the act by putting unnecessarily big chunks of territory off limits to drilling, mining, grazing, road traffic and other activities — a headwind to his plan to ramp up US energy output.

Trump will call for an 85% cut to Utah's 1.3mn acre Bears Ears National Monument created in 2016 by then-president Barack Obama, and a 50% cut to the state's 1.9mn acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument created by Bill Clinton in 1996, according to documents published last week by the Washington Post.

Republican Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, is expected to introduce legislation after Trump's announcement to carry out the cuts, a House aide said. It is unclear if the measure would have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled body.

Any effort at cuts, however, would likely touch off lawsuits by Native American tribes like the Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute...