The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public comments on a proposal to auction off 39 lease parcels spanning more than 54,000 acres at its June oil and gas lease sale. Most parcels are in the scenic Ten Mile Canyon region of southeastern Utah, east of the Green River.
The narrow, rugged Ten Mile Canyon, which winds its way down to the Green River, is home to a diversity of wildlife including desert bighorn sheep and pronghorn. Development of these leases would destroy wildlife habitat, threaten the region’s remote and scenic character, and impact lands proposed for wilderness designation in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. The sale includes parcels near the rim of the canyon, above the scenic Labyrinth Canyon stretch of the Green River.
In its haste to align itself with the Trump administration’s priorities, the agency prepared a draft environmental analysis for the current proposal that falls short of what the law requires. For example, the BLM is required to prioritize the leasing of parcels with “high” development potential while deferring parcels with “low” development potential, or parcels that threaten important resource values (such as wildlife and wilderness-quality lands). In this case, the agency openly admits that the parcels in the Ten Mile Canyon region have low potential for development and contain important resource values yet it still plans to offer them for sale.
Utah’s spectacular public lands deserve more than blind obedience to a reckless agenda that will only exacerbate the climate crisis and destroy our last large-scale intact ecosystems. Please join us in opposing this sale by submitting your comments by March 30.
