Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National

Dowment for the Humanities, the University of Virginia, the Joseph and Robert

Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur Vining Davis foundations.

From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, this is backstory.

Welcome to the show. I'm Brian Ballet. I'm Ed Ayers. And I'm Nathan Connolly.

This month, President Trump signed an executive order that drastically

reduced the size of two new national monuments in Utah, bears ears and grand

staircase escalante.

The families and communities of Utah know and love this land the best.

And you know the best how to take care of your land.

Your timeless bond with the outdoors should not be replaced with the whims of

regulators, thousands and thousands of miles away. They don't know your land.

And truly, they don't care for your land like you do.

The move sparked protests from environmentalists and local tribes who fear that

these lands will now be opened to coal and uranium mining.

These national monuments were created by President Obama and part to preserve

the remains of native civilizations in the American West.

But in the 20th century, public lands were often set aside because they were

thought to represent wilderness lands untouched by humans.

President Johnson said as much when he signed the Wilderness Act of 1964.

The wilderness bill preserved five pastari for all time to come.

Nine million acres of this vast continent in their original and unchanging beauty

...