May 18, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on Senate Vote Confirming Steve Pearce as Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – 5.18.26
Anti-public lands politician will oversee nation’s largest land management agency
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Washington, DC – Today, by a vote of 46 – 43 the U.S. Senate confirmed anti-public lands politician and former US Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) as the next director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM); the vote was part of an en bloc (multiple) nomination vote. Below is a statement from SUWA DC Director Travis Hammill and additional information.
“Today’s vote is disappointing. Anyone who cares about the future of public lands, national monuments, or the redrock knows that Steve Pearce has fundamentally disqualifying views – such as opposing the very existence of public lands – and should not hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Land Management,” said Travis Hammill, DC Director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “While the Trump Administration continues its deeply unpopular efforts to undermine public lands protections, SUWA’s work continues to protect Utah’s redrock country for current and future generations.”
Additional information:
- SUWA’s Advocacy Action to members
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a federal agency, is part of the Department of the Interior, a Cabinet-level department headed by Secretary Doug Burgum. In Utah, the BLM manages 22.8 million acres of public land, ranging from “spectacular red-rock canyons and roaring rivers to high mountain peaks and expansive salt flats,” including Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (designated in 1996 and the first monument managed by the BLM) and Bears Ears National Monument (designated in 2017 and jointly managed with the US Forest Service).
The BLM manages several congressionally-designated wilderness areas in Utah, including remarkable places such as Muddy Creek (Emery County), Canaan Mountain (Washington County), and the Cedar Mountains (Tooele County). BLM-Utah also manages more than 80 Wilderness Study Areas and other significant public landscapes including Nine Mile Canyon, Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, and the Desolation Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon stretches of the Green River (designated Wild and Scenic Rivers). SUWA’s signature bill, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, would designate more than 8 million acres of BLM land in Utah as wilderness.
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
