A pair of national monuments in Utah have shrunk again, the U.S. Forest Service’s roadless rule is on its way to being rolled back and more acres could be opened to grazing as federal policy on public lands shifts. 

The suite of changes are part of a new approach to land management under President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump already moved to open up new coal leases and drilling rights in parts of Alaska, to limited industry interest. 

Durango-based author Jonathan Thompson writes The Land Desk newsletter and has published multiple books on public lands. He was surprised some of the recent moves, like the shrinking of the national monuments, didn’t happen earlier in Trump’s second term. 

“We were all waiting for this to happen, for these monuments to be shrunk. It didn’t happen. And so I think a lot of us thought, well, Trump has moved on,” Thompson told Colorado Matters. “But then not only did they shrink them again, but they shrunk them more dramatically than last time.” 

Thompson spoke with Colorado Matters ahead of National Public Lands Day, which is Saturday, September 26, 2026. He shared what he’s watching in terms of federal land policies and how it might reshape the status quo. Here are three takeaways from that conversation.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR NewsArapaho National Forest, west of Denver, on public land, has numerous Colorado Roadless Area parcels, including around Mt. Sniktau, a portion of which is in this photo taken from Loveland Pass.

Roadless rule rollback and what it means for Colorado

The roadless rule, which took effect in 2001, was proposed by the Clinton Administration and the latest effort to roll it back is not the first, Thompson said. 

“It’s an administrative rule. It is not a congressionally passed rule. So that kind of makes it subject to being rolled back by future administrations. It was challenged in court. It withstood those court challenges. Then the Bush administration rolled it back temporarily,” Thompson said. 

During that period, the federal government gave states the chance to create their own roadless rule. Colorado and Idaho took on that effort, creating its own roadless protections. Because of that, Thompson said, the federal rollback actually would not apply. 

“So Colorado and Idaho will not feel any effects necessarily,” Thompson said. 

For the areas that are likely to see impacts, Thompson said, it will largely come from timber production. 

“What that would do is then allow new road building and commercial timber harvesting in those areas. And that’s really the only thing that it allows,” Thompson said. 

Hart Van Denburg/CPR NewsHiking and mountain biking trails on public managed by BLM in McInnis Canyons south of Fruita on the Western Slope, February 6, 2025.

More motors in the forest

While the roadless rule may not impact Colorado, a Forest Service plan to revamp its travel management rule can. 

Thompson said the change, which is still in the works, is considering some fairly sizable changes that would mean more motorized travel in more places. 

“Basically, the policy right now is that if a road is not designated open to motorized vehicles, it is closed,” Thompson said. “Their plan really is to shift that to make it so that a road, if it is not designated closed, then it is open, which sounds subtle, but it actually can be a pretty dramatic change.” 

One provision would allow individual forests to consider conditions to limit off-route vehicle travel in circumstances like dispersed camping and collecting firewood, in addition to expanding allowable use for snowmobiles.

Courtesy of Alessandro FranchinA group of canyoneers hikes across buttes and mesas to a slot canyon in Utah’s Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, near the edge of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Shrinking monuments

Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, both in Utah, have become one of the more notable political footballs, Thompson said. 

Trump shrank both monuments in 2017, leading to lawsuits over the use of the Antiquities Act. President Joe Biden restored the monuments in 2021, only for them to be shrunk again this summer by Trump.

Thompson said that means the lawsuits from 2017 are back on, along with new ones. That will lead to a two-track push to create some kind of resolution. 

“I think the shrinkage will hold until the next administration and then we’ll see. I think everybody’s tired of this being a back-and-forth political football and so there is also kind of a separate movement to hopefully push Congress to maybe just designate these things as national monuments or national parks, which would then make them permanent,” Thompson said. 

The legal issue, Thompson said, is likely to eventually make it to the Supreme Court for an interpretation on the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the authority to grant legal protections. 

In the meantime, mining and energy companies can begin readying their bids for leases on the newly-opened land, though Thompson said that is a fraught proposition. That means smaller outfits are more likely to take a chance. 

“They stake claims, then they maybe do a little bit of exploration on them and then they try to sell them to a bigger company. I don’t expect any big companies to be doing that because it’s a political hot potato and it’s also the uncertainty,” Thompson said. 

He said a claim made in an area now that might get protected later would be able to hold onto it, but developing it would be much harder.