The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting scoping comments on a proposal to sell 44 parcels spanning more than 74,000 acres of public land in Utah for oil and gas development. This sale is an especially bad one for redrock country as it includes a large block of parcels in the northern Dirty Devil region, parcels atop Horse Bench on the West Tavaputs Plateau, parcels scattered throughout the southern Uinta Basin, and several more in the Hatch Point region, just east of Bears Ears National Monument.

The public comment period is open through Thursday, July 16. Please tell the agency to keep oil and gas development out of Utah’s wild places.

The BLM has chosen exceptionally inappropriate places for its lease sale. The Dirty Devil parcels are located only a few miles west of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National Park, immediately north of the Dirty Devil Wilderness Study Area. This region is expansive, remote, and wild.

The parcels atop Horse Bench on the West Tavaputs Plateau overlook the Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River. To access the plateau, oil tanker trucks and other vehicles would have to pass through Utah’s famed Nine Mile Canyon—often referred to as “the world’s longest art gallery” due to its more than 10,000 unique cultural, historical, and archaeological resources.

The Hatch Point parcels are located near the mouth of Trough Springs Canyon, south of Moab, and encompass the scenic Kane Springs Canyon. This rugged landscape is home to a diversity of wildlife, including the threatened Mexican spotted owl, and provides expansive views of the nearby Bears Ears region.

In its haste to align itself with the Trump administration’s priorities, the BLM has elevated fossil fuel extraction as a primary use of our public lands, even in the face of worsening climate change. With your help, SUWA will challenge this latest proposal and hold the BLM accountable for its failure to follow the law.