Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument

( printed page 45169) Proclamation 11043 of July 13, 2026 Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument A Proclamation On December 28, 2016, President Obama issued Proclamation 9558, which established the Bears Ears National Monument (Monument) in the State of Utah; reserved approximately 1.35 million acres of Federal land as part of the Monument; and directed that the Monument be jointly managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture's United States Forest Service (USFS). On December 4, 2017, exercising my authority under section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (the “Antiquities Act”), I issued Proclamation 9681 to modify the boundaries of the Monument in accordance with the requirements of that Act, as well as to ensure the Monument's proper management. Proclamation 9681 excluded approximately 1.15 million acres from the Monument, and also reserved approximately 11,200 acres as part of the Monument that were not originally reserved by Proclamation 9558. On October 8, 2021, President Biden issued Proclamation 10285 to modify the boundaries of the Monument to include all lands previously excluded, expanding the Monument to encompass approximately 1.36 million acres. The Antiquities Act authorizes the President to declare historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on land owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments. The Antiquities Act further requires that any parcel of land reserved as part of a monument be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. Where the President determines that the structures and objects identified by a prior monument proclamation no longer are, or never were, deserving of the Antiquities Act's protections, the Antiquities Act permits the President to remove land from the monument and retu…