The move, which was quickly met with a slew of legal challenges, reduces Bears Ears to 201,876 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante to 1,003,863 acres — a collective loss of more than 2 million acres.

Additionally, both monuments will be divvied up into several smaller units. Bears Ears will consist of two disconnected areas called Indian Creek and Shash Jaa. Grand Staircase-Escalante will consist of three units: Grand Staircase, Escalante Canyons and Kaiparowitz.

Zinke said during a speech Monday that by rolling back protections, he and Trump are giving a voice back Utah and rural America.

“No one loves public land more than I,” Zinke said. “You can love it as much, but you can’t love it any more.”

But it is this push to roll back monuments that has many questioning his dedication to conservation and preserving public lands. And while Zinke considers himself “a Teddy Roosevelt guy” and an “unapologetic admirer and disciple” of the late president — who signed the Antiquities Act into law and used it to protect 18 monuments, including more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon — his critics say he is anything but.

“Teddy Roosevelt is rolling in his grave,” Jamie Rappaport Clark, president the conservation nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement following Monday’s rollback of Utah monuments.

Alex Kaufman contributed to this report.