BY STEPHEN TRIMBLE
President Obama deserves our gratitude for designating the rich natural and cultural treasure of the Bears Ears region in southeastern Utah as a national monument. He had to think big. In granting 1.35 million acres of federal land new, needed protections, he preserved for the future a place of learning, grandeur, sanctuary, and healing.
Against political headwinds, Obama used the executive power inherent in the Antiquities Act of 1906 — the same legislation that first protected four of Utah’s “Mighty Five” national parks. Arches, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef were all presidential-proclamation monuments first; Canyonlands was created as a park by Congress.