Modifying the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

( printed page 45179) Proclamation 11044 of July 13, 2026 Modifying the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument A Proclamation On September 18, 1996, as part of an effort to prevent development of significant coal reserves and other resources on the Kaiparowits Plateau, President Clinton issued Proclamation 6920, which established the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Monument) in the State of Utah, reserving approximately 1.7 million acres of Federal lands as part of the Monument, and directing that it be managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM). On December 4, 2017, exercising my authority under section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (the “Antiquities Act”), I issued Proclamation 9682 to modify the boundaries of the Monument, ensure proper management, and more closely reflect the intent of the Antiquities Act. Proclamation 9682 removed approximately 860,000 acres from the Monument. On October 8, 2021, President Biden issued Proclamation 10286, increasing the size of the Monument to approximately 1.87 million acres, the size of the Monument immediately prior to the issuance of Proclamation 9682. 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 return it to its prior federally managed status. Determining the appropriate protect…