Bob Strong / Reuters

The Interior Department’s internal watchdog issued a report Thursday concluding there is “no evidence” that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke gave retired Utah state Rep. Mike Noel preferential treatment when he redrew the boundary of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The months-long investigation by the agency’s Office of Inspector General came at the request of Montana-based environmental group Western Values Project. Investigators looked into whether Noel influenced the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the protected site. Late last year, on Zinke’s recommendation, Trump cut the 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante, the largest land national monument in the country, roughly in half. The rollback opened the door for oil and gas exploration and for other development.

ASSOCIATED PRESS President Donald Trump signs the hat of Bruce Adams, chairman of the San Juan County Commission, after signing a proclamation to shrink the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City.

Noel, a vocal opponent of the monument established during Bill Clinton’s presidency, advocated for shrinking the site and applauded President Donald Trump’s decision to do so and then tried to rename a Utah highway after the president as a thank you. He also owns a 40-acre parcel that was ultimately stripped of monument protections. Western Values Project argued that Noel’s failure to disclose his land ownership while pushing for a rollback of the monument was a conflict of interest, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. In their seven-page report, investigators said they interviewed Zinke, Noel and several Interior Department officials directly involved in the administration’s review of Grand Staircase-Escalante. A summary of the findings was obtained by The Associated Press in November. “We found no evidence that Noel influenced the [Department of Interior’s] proposed revisions to the [monument’s] boundaries, that Zinke or any other DOI employee involved in the project were aware of Noel’s financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that anyone at the DOI gave Noel preferential treatment when proposing the boundary modifications,” the report states.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Utah state Rep. Mike Noel, a Republican, owned land within the original monument boundaries.