Mining Claims To Open In Land Stripped From Utah National Monuments

WASHINGTON — More than 2 million acres of Utah wilderness — land that President Donald Trump cut from a pair of protected national monuments — will be opened early Friday to new mining claims.

Trump signed a pair of proclamations to dismantle the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument and the 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in December.

The move is the largest reduction of national monuments in history..