Craig Sorenson, former Bureau of Land Management employee, Escalante, UT

“I’ll call it like it is: (Trump)’s a psychopath, he doesn’t know these lands.”

Craig Sorenson moved to the tiny town of Escalante, Utah, in 1990, when he worked for the Bureau of Land Management. He remained after retirement because he so loves the landscape that was preserved in 1996 when Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established.

“I helped with the management plan for the monument and it was done right,” said Sorenson, 68, who goes by the nickname “Sage.” “We had local officials and federal officials working together and we had one of the best management plans that I think has ever been produced.”

On Monday, Dec. 4, when President Donald Trump touched down in Salt Lake City just long enough to sign a proclamation dismantling Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Sorenson tried to occupy himself with yard work. But, eventually, he glanced at the news.

“It was sickening, it was painful,” he said in town hours later. “It’s a dark day for us here.”

The national monument was into its third decade of serving both tourists and locals. It was a figurative rock — and an expanse of actual rocks — for the town of Escalante. The town had seen its economic fortunes grow since the national monument was established.

On the morning of Monday, Dec. 4, the borders of the national monument closely buffeted the town. By that afternoon, according to Trump, those borders had receded and now lie many miles away.

“I’ll call it like it is: he’s a psychopath, he doesn’t know these lands, he doesn’t know what’s going on here, he’s being fed a line,” Sorenson said. “It’s disheartening they’re trying to undo something that’s been working for 21 years, it makes it hard to have stability with this kind of nonsense.”

Just as the town had changed for the better since the national monument was established, so had the land itself, he said. There was less trash, less off-road vehicle damage, and people had stopped “pillaging and pilfering” the archaeological artifacts and cultural sites. The very things the Antiquities Act was written to protect.

Sorenson blames leaders of the fringe movement to transfer federal public lands to the State of Utah, which could then sell them off. Those leaders made sure President Trump was “being fed a line.” Sorenson feels queasy now that Trump will take that movement beyond Southern Utah.

“Every monument in our country is at risk, it’s shameful, it’s a travesty,” he said. “It shows they’re not listening to the people.”