World News | Biden to Expand 2 Utah National Monuments Cut by Trump

Salt Lake City, Oct 8 (AP) President Joe Biden will expand two sprawling national monuments in Utah, the governor has said.

President Donald Trump's administration in 2017 significantly downsized Bears Ears National Monuments and Grand Staircase-Escalante in southern Utah.

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The cuts were decried by environmental and tribal groups who sued to reverse them, while conservative state leaders considered the size of both monuments US government overreach and applauded the move.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday expressed disappointment in the decision to expand the monuments' boundaries.

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous Cabinet secretary, travelled to Utah in April to visit the monuments, becoming the latest federal official to step into what has been a yearslong public lands tug-of-war.

Bears Ears National Monument on lands considered sacred to Native Americans was downsized by 85 per cent, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was cut by nearly half under Trump. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)