BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Utah — Parts of this sprawling region of red-rock canyons and at least three other national monuments would lose their strict protection and could be reopened for new mining or drilling under proposals submitted to President Trump by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday, according to congressional aides and others who have been briefed on the report. 
 
 Environmentalists, ranchers, tribal governments and Western lawmakers had been watching closely to see if Mr. Zinke would propose changing the borders of the Bears Ears National Monument, which President Barack Obama established at the end of his term, and other scenic and historic areas under federal protection. 
 
 In recent days, Mr. Zinke had been considering a dramatic reduction to Bears Ears, to approximately 160,000 acres from 1.35 million, according to multiple people familiar with the process. 
 
 No president has ever reduced a monument by such a large amount. 
 
 Shrinking the monuments would be widely seen as a direct blow to Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy, and would probably prompt the first major legal test of a century-old conservation law. ||||| This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records ||||| FILE - In this May 26, 2017, file photo, Susie Gelbart walks near petroglyphs at the Gold Butte National Monument near Bunkerville, Nev. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he's recommending that none... (Associated Press) 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Tribes, ranchers and conservationists know that none of the national monuments ordered reviewed by President Donald Trump will be eliminated, but the changes in store for the sprawling land and sea areas remain a mystery after the administration kept a list of recommendations under wraps. 
 
 That left people on all sides of the contentious debate clinging to only shreds of information and anxiously waiting for more details. 
 
 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told The Associated Press that none of the 27 monuments will be rescinded, but he said he would push for boundary changes on a "handful" and left open the possibility of allowing drilling, mining or other industries on the sites. 
 
 The White House said only that it received Zinke's recommendations Thursday, a deadline set months ago. But it declined to make them public or offer a timetable for when it would take action. 
 
 Zinke previously said in a trickle of announcements this summer that no changes would be made at six monuments under review — in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, California, Arizona and Washington — and that Bears Ears on tribal lands in Utah would be downsized. 
 
 Conservationists and tribal leaders responded with alarm and distrust, demanding the full release of Zinke's recommendations and vowing to challenge attempts to shrink any monuments. 
 
 Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Oceana, which has been pushing for preservation of five marine monuments included in the review, said that simply saying "changes" are coming doesn't reveal any real information. 
 
 "A change can be a small tweak or near annihilation," Savitz said. "The public has a right to know." 
 
 Groups that consider the millions of acres designated for protection by President Barack Obama and other past presidents part of a massive federal land grab voiced optimism that Zinke wants to reign in some areas. But they also expressed disappointment that the full report wasn't available. 
 
 "It was kind of the unmonumental monument announcement," said Kathleen Sgamma, of the oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance. 
 
 Sgamma's group is among the organizations that hope the review spurs reform of the 1906 Antiquities Act, the law that gives presidents power to unilaterally create national monuments. Zinke said in a short summary report that he found that that the creation of some of the monuments was arbitrary or politically motivated. 
 
 If Trump adopts Zinke's recommendations, it could ease some of the worst fears of the president's opponents, who warned that vast public lands and marine areas could be stripped of federal protection. 
 
 But significant reductions in the size of the monuments or changes in what activities are allowed on them could trigger fierce resistance, too, including lawsuits. 
 
 A tribal coalition that pushed for the creation of the 2,100-square-mile (5,400-sqaure kilometer) Bears Ears monument on sacred tribal land said it is prepared to launch a legal fight against even a slight reduction in its size. 
 
 "Our tribes stand together and are willing to go into battle in terms of litigation," said Davis Filfred, a council delegate for the Navajo Nation council. 
 
 New England commercial fishing groups say they're hopeful they'll get back rights to fish in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, an area off the coast of New England designated last year for protection by President Obama. 
 
 Republican Utah state Rep. Mike Noel, who has pushed to rescind the designation of Bears Ears as a monument, said he could live with a rollback of its boundaries. He called that a good compromise that would enable continued tourism while still allowing activities that locals have pursued for generations — logging, livestock grazing and oil and gas drilling. 
 
 Other sites that might see changes include the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in the Utah desert, consisting of cliffs, canyons, natural arches and archaeological sites, including rock paintings; Katahdin Woods and Waters, 136 square miles (352 square kilometers) of forest of northern Maine; and Cascade Siskiyou, a 156-square-mile (404-square kilometer) region where three mountain ranges converge in Oregon. 
 
 The marine monuments encompass more than 340,000 square miles (880,000 square kilometers) and include four sites in the Pacific Ocean and an array of underwater canyons and mountains off New England. 
 
 Zinke suggested that the same presidential proclamation process used by four presidents over two decades to create the monuments could be used to enact changes. 
 
 Environmental groups contend the Antiquities Act allows presidents to create national monuments but gives only Congress the power to modify them. Mark Squillace, a law professor at the University of Colorado, said he agrees with that view but noted the dispute has never gone before the courts. 
 
 Conservative legal scholars have come down on the side of the administration. 
 
 No president has tried to eliminate a monument, but some have reduced or redrawn the boundaries on 18 occasions, according to the National Park Service. 
 
 Zinke did not directly answer whether any monuments would be newly opened to energy development, mining and other industries Trump has championed. 
 
 Zinke, a former Montana congressman, insisted that public access for uses such as hunting, fishing or grazing would be maintained or restored. He also spoke of protecting tribal interests. In the interview, Zinke struck back against conservationists who had warned of impending mass sell-offs of public lands by the Trump administration. 
 
 "I've heard this narrative that somehow the land is going to be sold or transferred," he said. "That narrative is patently false and shameful. The land was public before and it will be public after." 
 
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 Brown reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker contributed from Washington, Felicia Fonseca from Flagstaff, Arizona; and Patrick Whittle from Portland, Maine. 
 
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 Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap
– Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has completed his President Trump-ordered review of 27 national monuments declared by Trump's three predecessors—and while he hasn't recommended abolishing any of them, he tells the AP he has proposed shrinking a "handful" of them. Insiders tell the New York Times that Zinke's report recommends Trump shrink at least four monuments, including the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Ranchers, loggers, fishing groups, and others opposed to the designations welcomed the proposals in a summary of the report released Thursday, though details of what monuments might be affected are being kept under wraps for now. Tribal groups and environmentalists have vowed to fight attempts to shrink the monuments, the Washington Post reports. It will be the first time such a move has been contested in court, and experts say the legal battles are likely to be the toughest test the Antiquities Act has faced in its 111-year history. Democrats have spoken out against the proposals, which are supported by many Republicans in Western states. Utah state Rep. Mike Noel says shrinking Bears Ears will be "a victory for our state" against federal attempts to restrict grazing, drilling, and mining. "When you turn the management over to the tree-huggers, the bird and bunny lovers, and the rock lickers, you turn your heritage over," he says.