PUBLIC LANDS WATCH

Bears Ears National Monument

San Juan County, southeastern Utah · National Monument (reduced boundary as of July 2026) · managed by Bureau of Land Management / U.S. Forest Service

Status: Boundary cut — reopening to mining claims in progress Threat: Monument boundary rollback / mining and drilling
Coordinates
37.6167, -109.9167
Page last verified
2026-08-12
Site maintainer of record
Alicen M.
File
/bears-ears

01 — Historical & Cultural Record

The Bears Ears Cultural Landscape holds documented human presence going back roughly 12,000 years, including cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, ancient roads, and thousands of archaeological sites. In 2015, five sovereign tribal nations — the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Zuni Tribe — formed the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, the first time multiple tribes had jointly petitioned for a national monument.119 President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument on December 28, 2016, at 1.36 million acres, with a management structure including the Bears Ears Commission, a body of tribal representatives working alongside the BLM and Forest Service.111

02 — Current Threat

In December 2017, the first Trump administration cut Bears Ears by roughly 85%. President Biden fully restored the monument's original boundaries in October 2021, a restoration federal courts upheld.4 On July 13, 2026, President Trump signed a new proclamation cutting Bears Ears from approximately 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres — a reduction of more than 90%, deeper than the 2017 cut — and purported to terminate the Bears Ears Commission.13 The proclamation directs that the roughly 1.24 million acres removed from the monument may reopen to mineral leasing, mining claims, and other public land dispositions 60 days after signing (on or around September 11, 2026).52 The stated rationale cited critical minerals including silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.1

03 — Documented Impact: Environmental

Geology: The excluded land sits atop the San Juan Basin/White Canyon uranium district and holds documented uranium and vanadium deposits; over 300 uranium mining leases and more than 350 uranium claims have historically been tied to the broader monument footprint, more than a third owned by a single company subsidiary (see Named Companies section).

Water & Contamination: The nearest operating uranium processing facility, the White Mesa Mill (about 1 mile from the monument boundary and 2-3 miles from the White Mesa Ute community), has documented regulatory history relevant to any expanded regional uranium activity: the EPA barred it in 2025 from accepting radioactive Superfund waste after finding an "egregious" violation;14 the facility's oldest waste ponds use a single-liner design (versus the double-liner-with-leak-detection standard required for new facilities), and White Mesa community members and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe have raised longstanding concern that groundwater beneath the mill flows toward their drinking water source. The mill holds over 700 million pounds of accumulated waste as of recent reporting.1315 State regulators (Utah DEQ) state the mill complies with NRC exposure limits and holds a state groundwater permit.

Air Quality: The mill is documented to emit radon, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide; radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.13 Increased regional uranium hauling (trucking ore from mines including one near the Grand Canyon, through Navajo Nation land) is tied to this facility's operations.16

Habitat & Endangered Species: Bears Ears is home to at least 18 species listed under the Endangered Species Act.12

Cultural Sites: The excluded lands include thousands of archaeological and cultural sites — cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, ancient roads, and burial sites — that lose federal monument protection once the boundary reduction takes effect, increasing vulnerability to looting and vandalism, a documented, longstanding problem at this site prior to 2016 designation.

Long-Term Effects: Uranium mining and milling waste in this region has multi-decade to multi-century decay timescales; tribal leaders and residents have specifically framed groundwater contamination risk as a multigenerational concern ("poison drinking water for future generations").

03 — Documented Impact: Cultural & Archaeological

See cultural-sites detail folded into the environmental section above; a dedicated archaeological site count specific to the 1.24-million-acre excluded area (distinct from the monument-wide totals already cited) is not yet documented.

03 — Documented Impact: Economic & Fiscal

Congressional Democrats (Reps. Jared Huffman and Maxine Dexter) opened an investigation in August 2026 into whether Energy Fuels executives engaged in insider trading: CEO Ross Bhappu purchased 74,000 shares of company stock on July 7, 2026, and board chair Bruce Hansen purchased 4,000 shares the following day — six days before Trump signed the July 13 proclamation reducing the monument.8 Bhappu's purchase is recorded in a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 7, 2026, which reports him as President and CEO of Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) and records 74,000 common shares acquired under transaction code P — an open-market purchase — at an average price of $13.08 per share, or approximately $968,000, with 256,583 shares held directly following the transaction. The filing's remarks state the price "represents an average purchase price over multiple same-day purchases."6 Hansen's purchase is recorded in a separate Form 4 covering a July 8, 2026 transaction: 4,000 common shares, also under code P, at $12.695 per share, or approximately $50,780, with 313,844 shares held directly afterwards. That form records his relationship to the issuer as Director; Form 4 carries no board-chair designation, so the chairmanship is not established by the filing itself.7 Energy Fuels has stated it holds no properties, mining claims, or economic interests within the monument and has not advocated for changes to it under the current administration; this contradicts the company's documented 2017 lobbying record cited in the Named Companies section. Separately, Energy Fuels has received at least $1.75 million in U.S. Department of Energy taxpayer subsidies for a related rare-earths processing line at its adjacent White Mesa Mill, and has committed to paying the Navajo Nation $0.50 per pound of recovered uranium transported across Navajo land plus a $1.2 million community/environmental trust contribution.1716 A broader fiscal analysis of the reduction's impact to the federal government (lost recreation revenue, opportunity cost of foregone monument-status protections) is not yet documented.

03 — Documented Impact: Legal Status

Litigation over the 2017 cuts (NRDC et al. v. Trump et al.) remains stayed pending resolution of Garfield County et al. v. Biden et al. in the Tenth Circuit, which returned the case to district court in June 2026 for further review. The state of Utah separately challenged the 2021 Biden restoration; a federal court upheld the restoration.4125 New legal challenges to the July 2026 proclamation were anticipated but not yet filed as of this page's last verification.

03 — Documented Impact: Human Health

White Mesa community members and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe have raised documented health concerns tied to the adjacent mill, including a specific account of a young family member born with breathing complications requiring emergency hospitalization, attributed by residents to air quality near the mill (see also Air Quality detail in the environmental section). Radon — the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers — is a documented mill emission. A dedicated epidemiological study specific to the reduced-monument mining reopening (as distinct from the existing mill's operations) was not identified in current sourcing.

03 — Tribal / Public Consultation Status

The July 13, 2026 proclamation itself terminated the Bears Ears Commission, the formal tribal consultation body that had been in place since the 2016 designation to guide co-management with the five sovereign tribal nations. This is a documented, direct rollback of an existing consultation structure, not merely an absence of consultation — the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition's July 14, 2026 response explicitly protests both the boundary reduction and the Commission's termination.

04 — Named Companies & Responsible Parties

05 — Recorded Opposition & Support

06 — Timeline of Developments

07 — Sources

Primary

Secondary

Corrections Log

None on record as of 2026-08-12 (page last substantially expanded).

Take Action

No published federal comment deadline on record as of last verification; lands reopen to claims September 11, 2026.

Sign / comment on the public record for Bears Ears National Monument →