In September 1996, President Bill Clinton protected about 1.7 million acres of federal lands that have geologic features, dinosaur fossils, archaeological sites, and wildlife habitats in order to create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. This move was made during a debate on the future of the region. President Clinton designated the national monument through the Antiquities Act of 1906 on September 18, entrusting the management of the site to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the Department of the Interior . Initially, the designation covered about 1.7 million acres, but it was expanded by Congress to cover about 1.87 million acres.
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