Bears Ears was created by Presidential Proclamation of President Barack Obama, December 28, 2016 and consists of 1,351,849 acres located at geographic coordinates: 37.70°N 109.92°W. The Bears Ears National Monument is the 12th national monument managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the fifth to be managed jointly by the Forest Service (289,000 acres) and the Bureau of Land Management (1.06 million acres). Monuments generally preserve current uses of the land, including tribal access for traditional plant and firewood gathering and for ceremonial purposes, off-highway recreation on existing routes, grazing, hunting and fishing and water and utility infrastructure.

The total acreage under federal management is approximately 1.35 million acres. Over 380,000 acres of the federal lands within the boundaries are currently managed by the BLM as 11 Wilderness Study Areas, natural lands without roads which provide outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive recreation. Significant portions (totaling 29,000 acres) of the BLM-managed part of the monument are also currently managed as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, which are managed for the protection of their outstanding cultural, natural, and scenic values. The BLMmanaged part of the monument also contains nine Special Recreation Management Areas, which are managed for their recreation opportunities. The USFS administers the 46,000-acre Dark Canyon Wilderness just north of the Bears Ears formation, as well as the Cliff Dwellers Pasture Research Natural Area.

From deep sandstone canyons and desert mesas to perennial streams and mountain tops, Bears Ears National Monument has outstanding geologic features, iconic of the southwest. Within this impressive landscape lies a compelling story of human history. A visit to the National monument offers a unique opportunity to visit cultural sites, including spectacular rock art sites and the remains of prehistoric family dwellings, granaries, kivas, towers, and large villages.

The Bears Ears National Monument was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama on December 28, 2016. President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13792, issued April 26, 2017 (82 FR 20429, May 1, 2017), directs the Secretary of the Interior to review certain National Monuments designated or expanded under the Antiquities Act of 1906, 54 U.S.C. 320301-320303 (Act).

Many sites, such as Arch Canyon, are teeming with fossils, and research conducted in the Bears Ears area is revealing new insights into the transition of vertebrate life from reptiles to mammals and from sea to land. Numerous ray-finned fish fossils from the Permian Period have been discovered, along with other late Paleozoic Era fossils, including giant amphibians, synapsid reptiles, and important plant fossils. Fossilized traces of marine and aquatic creatures such as clams, crayfish, fish, and aquatic reptiles have been found in Indian Creek's Chinle Formation, dating to the Triassic Period, and phytosaur and dinosaur fossils from the same period have been found along Comb Ridge. Paleontologists have identified new species of plant-eating crocodile-like reptiles and mass graves of lumbering sauropods, along with metoposaurus, crocodiles, and other dinosaur fossils. Fossilized trackways of early tetrapods can be seen in the Valley of the Gods and in Indian Creek, where paleontologists have also discovered exceptional examples of fossilized ferns, horsetails, and cycads. The Chinle Formation and the Wingate, Kayenta, and Navajo Formations above it provide one of the best continuous rock records of the Triassic-Jurassic transition in the world, crucial to understanding how dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems and how our mammalian ancestors evolved. In Pleistocene Epoch sediments, scientists have found traces of mammoths, short-faced bears, ground sloths, primates, and camels.

The BLM and the USFS will continue to grant grazing permits and leases under the proclamation. Tribes will continue to be able to collect plants, firewood, and other traditional materials within the monument. The designation allows for public access, such as for hunting and fishing, which continue to be managed by the State of Utah.

The Bears Ears National Monument will recognize Native American traditional and historical knowledge through means of a Commission. The Bears Ears Commission will consist of one elected officer from each of the five sovereign Tribal Nations with ancestral ties to Bears Ears: the Hopi Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, and Zuni Tribe, designated by the officers’ respective tribes. The expertise of the Bears Ears Commission will help further the proclamation’s directive to provide access to members of Indian tribes to traditional and culture use of the land including the collection of plants and firewood. To allow for local guidance and input, the monument managers will establish a Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee that will include State and local governments, tribes, recreational users, local business owners, and private landowners.