Word broke Friday that President Trump intends to reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (pictured) and Bears Ears National Monument/BLM

A long anticipated move by President Trump to reduce the size of some national monuments drew near Friday, with a U.S. senator's office saying Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah would be shrunk by the president, in part to allow coal mining. Conservationists and some members of Congress immediately responded with outrage and promised legal action.

Whether the president's action is legal has been hotly debated. Past presidents have reduced the size of national monuments, according to National Park Service records.

* President Eisenhower reduced the reservation for Great Sand Dunes National Monument by 25 percent. (He reduced the original 35,528-acre monument by a net 8,920 acres.)

* President Truman diminished the reservation for Santa Rosa Island National Monument by almost half. (The original 9,500-acre reservation by Franklin Roosevelt was diminished by 4,700 acres.)

* Presidents Taft, Wilson, and Coolidge collectively reduced the reservation for Mount Olympus by almost half, the largest by President Wilson in 1915 (cutting 313,280 acres from the original 639,200-acre monument).

* The largest percentage reduction was by President Taft in 1912 to his own prior reservation in 1909 for Navajo National Monument. (His elimination of 320 acres from the original 360-acre reservation was an 89 percent reduction.)

But recently introduced legislation to rewrite The Antiquities Act that gives presidents the authority to establish national monuments raised the question of whether presidents have that authority, according to U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, along with other members of Utah's all-Republican congressional delegation, has pressured President Trump for months to shrink both sites. Earlier this month he introduced a bill to clearly give presidents the power to reduce in size or eliminate monuments. The Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the authority to create monuments, has never had any such language.

“The president’s move in Utah is illegal, unpopular, and unwise. Republicans are ignoring the courts of law and public opinion to pander to drillers and developers who have no regard for our special places," said Rep. Grijalva. "The vast majority of the millions of public comments on this summer’s national monument ‘review’ favored current protection levels, and public polling in Utah and across the West shows monument supporters far outnumbering opponents. It should be clear this ‘review’ was a sham designed to let rich companies get richer off our public lands and settle grudges against Presidents Obama and Clinton.”

President Trump directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke back in April to review 27 national monuments, established as long ago as 1996, to determine whether their designations had been properly made under The Antiquities Act. The Interior secretary visited just eight of the 27, and in late August submitted to the president recommendations that included calls for reductions in the size of the two monuments in Utah. 

The Grand Staircase-Escalante monument is 1.9 million acres in size, and has proved to hold a treasure trove of paleontological wonders. Bears Ears National Monument, at roughly 1.3 million acres, contains archaeological wonders from long ago civilizations and parts of it are considered sacred by Native Americans.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the president on Friday informed U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, both Utah Republicans, of his intention to shrink the two. The president's spokeswoman said President Trump would visit Utah in December and reveal more details of his decision at that time.

"I will not get ahead of the president’s announcement on the specifics of that, but I can tell you he will be going to Utah in the first part of early December and we will be releasing more details at that point,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a White House briefing.

According to Sen. Hatch, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument would be reduced in size at least enough to allow coal mining on the Kaiparowits Plateau. Coal companies were poised to dig into the plateau in 1996, when President Clinton stopped that possibility by designating the monument. Realizing the unpopularity in Utah of his decision, President Clinton made the announcement from the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

The 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument embraces a harsh, rugged landscape/BLM

Other affected national monuments and the secretary's recommendations to the president were:

* Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument: boundary revision to allow timber harvesting

* Gold Butte National Monument: boundary revision

* Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument: timber harvesting

* Northeast Canyons and Seamounts: commercial fishing

* Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument: revise proclamation

* Pacific Remote Islands National Monument: boundary revision to allow commercial fishing

* Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument: revise proclamation

* Rose Atoll National Monument: boundary revision to allow commercial fishing

There was no immediate indication Friday of how President Trump might act on those recommendations.

“The Trump administration has once again demonstrated their disregard for the people of this country by their willingness to ignore the nearly 2.8 million public comments urging Trump and Zinke to keep our cherished parks safe," said Gene Karpinksi, vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, referring to the comments filed on the question of whether the monuments should be altered by the president. "National monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante provide economic, educational, and recreational benefits to the communities surrounding them, as well as being ecological and cultural wonders. But the Trump administration is shamefully selling out our parks and monuments as a gift for their allies in the fossil fuel industry.

“If President Trump moves forward with these recommendations, he will exceed his constitutional and statutory authority. LCV will continue to fight to protect our public lands and waters every step of the way," added Mr. Karpinksi.

In the small town of Boulder, Utah, on the shoulder of Grand Staircase-Escalante, the president of the Escalante and Boulder Utah Chamber of Commerce also reacted harshly on the report from Sen. Hatch's office.

"President Trump and Ryan Zinke's attack on the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is an attack on southern Utah's entrepreneurs and the thousands of jobs that depend on the monument," said Suzanne Catlett. "The utter disregard for our thriving community and the views of local business owners like me shows that President Trump could care less about jobs in rural America."

At the Natural Resources Defense Council, President Rhea Suh said, "It is a disgrace that the president wants to undo the nation’s first national monument created to honor Native American cultural heritage. And a travesty that he’s trying to unravel a century’s worth of conservation history–all behind closed doors. The American people want these special places protected. We will fight any illegal attempt by this administration to turn our national treasures over to private interests for polluters’ profits.”