It was one of Donald Trump’s most provocative environmental decisions. After a year in office, he angered preservationists and Native American tribes and ordered that two treasured national monuments be dramatically reduced in size.
The areas falling outside the diminished monuments, both expanses of rocky outcroppings dense with archaeological artifacts in Utah, lost environmental protections. A few years later, he also ordered that commercial fishing be allowed in a marine preserve off the coast of New England.
Now the fate of those monuments appears to be coming full circle. The US interior secretary, Deb Haaland, on Tuesday recommended that Joe Biden restore their former size and protections, the Washington Post first reported...