Patrice Arent: Monument designations in a changing world

“Stroke of a pen” national monument designations tend to evoke intense reactions from many Utahns, as we saw when the two most recent national monuments were designated in our state.There were powerful reasons to create the monuments, and strong arguments to reduce their original size. Today, however, our economic opportunities are changing. This is where Utah finds itself now and it is through this new lens that we need to re-examine the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears Nati