In the fall of 2017 a memo was leaked from the United States Department of the Interior. The memo outlined plans to drastically reduce the borders and protections for four western national monuments: Cascade-Siskiyou (Oregon and California), Gold Butte (Nevada), Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bears Ears (both in Utah). On Dec 4, 2017 the administration signed presidential proclamations eliminating protection of public lands and sacred Indigenous sites in Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Bears Ears alone was slashed from 1.3 million acres to 200 thousand acres, reducing its size by 85%. In the summer of 2018 mining companies staked claims for oil, gas and uranium in both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears.