Overview

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Bears Ears National Monument is a United States national monument located in San Juan County in southeastern Utah, established by President Barack Obama by presidential proclamation on December 28, 2016. The monument's original size was 1,351,849 acres, which was controversially reduced 85% by President Donald Trump on December 4, 2017. The monument protects the public land surrounding the Bears Ears—a pair of buttes—and the Indian Creek corridor rock climbing area. The Native American names for the buttes have the same meaning in each of the languages represented in the region.

The area within the monument is largely undeveloped and contains a wide array of historic, cultural and natural resources. The monument is co-managed by the Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service, along with a coalition of five local Native American tribes; the Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni, all of which have ancestral ties to the region. The monument includes the area around the Bears Ears formation and adjacent land to the southeast along the Comb Ridge formation, as well as a separate section at Indian Creek Canyon to the northeast. The monument had also included the Valley of the Gods to the south, the western part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest's Monticello unit, as well as the Dark Canyon Wilderness to the north and west. Canyonlands National Park borders Indian Creek Canyon, while the original monument also bordered the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and surrounded Natural Bridges National Monument.

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