Congressman Chris Stewart's proposal to create an Escalante Canyons National Park in southern Utah drew criticism from environmentalists/John Fowler photo via Wikipedia. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A week after President Trump declared he would shrink Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by half, and days after U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart proposed to carve a national park out of one of the pieces, protesters turned out in Salt Lake City to criticize both actions.

Rather than mollify those opposed to the shrinking of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument, both in Utah, Rep. Stewart's move to create an Escalante Canyons National Park and Preserve was met with scorn Tuesday afternoon.

"This terrible bill is a direct assault on the Grand Staircase-Escalante and seeks to replace it with three smaller monuments and a management scheme tilted towards grazing and mineral development as dictated by parochial local interests," said a release by the groups that organized the protest -- Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Utah Sierra Club, Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, and National Parks Conservation Association. "Stewart’s bill also includes a bait-and-switch proposal to distract from these disastrous results, proposing to establish a national park and preserve in a portion of the Escalante Canyons; a park and preserve that would be overrun with mandated cattle grazing, hunting, and recreation."

Along with allowing hunting, trapping, and grazing within the proposed Escalante Canyons National Park, Mr. Stewart's bill calls for a management council comprised of one Interior Department representative and five individuals appointed by the president in consultation with Utah's congressional delegation and governor. This council, according to the legislation, "shall develop and implement comprehensive management plans" for the park and the Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits, and Escalante Canyons national monuments President Trump called for.

“This bill is just a distraction from the assault taking place on our national monuments,"said David Nimkin, NPCA's Southwest Region senior director. "Our national parks are established to protect natural resources like amazing slot canyons, breathtaking plateaus, snow-topped peaks and waterways from Yellowstone to the Great Lakes to the Everglades. Instead, Rep. Stewart’s bill would weaken protections for adjacent parks in Utah, including Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Glen Canyon, and open up an area in Grand Staircase-Escalante to activities like hunting, without appropriate input or oversight from the National Park Service. This proposal is an insult to our National Park System and another attempt to dismantle protections for public lands that belong to all of us.”