Keep Labyrinth Canyon Wild: Submit Your Comments by This Friday!
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Right now, the Trump administration is proposing to greenlight more dirt bikes, side-by-sides, and off-road vehicles in Labyrinth Canyon—at the urging of the State of Utah and certain motorized groups that want to see wild places transformed into motorized playgrounds. This is happening despite the fact that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized a Labyrinth Canyon Travel Management Plan in 2023 that struck a thoughtful and long overdue balance between motorized and non-motorized recreation. Comments are due this Friday, Oct. 24! Please take action below if you haven’t already.
SUWA worked with Cody Perry and Ben Kraushaar of Rig to Flip to create a short film—Keep Labyrinth Canyon Wild—about this remarkable landscape. At just under 10 minutes, it’s well worth the watch. You can watch the full-length film, along with four 1-minute shorts, on our website here (a version with captions is available on our YouTube page). Please share these on social media (and be sure to tag us on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky), along with our advocacy action.
>> Click here to take action now
Need more information? We’ve got a Frequently Asked Questions page as well as a helpful Story Map.
Take Action on Two BLM Oil & Gas Lease Sale Proposals
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The Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda has definitely arrived in Utah as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moves forward with two oil and gas proposals. The agency is accepting comments on both proposals through Monday, October 27—please take action at both links below.
First, the BLM is accepting scoping comments on its First Quarter 2026 oil and gas lease sale, which includes 59 parcels spanning nearly 72,000 acres in eastern Utah. The majority of parcels are in Utah’s wild Book Cliffs where development would threaten big game and black bear habitat, greater sage-grouse, and wilderness-caliber lands. There are several other lease parcels in the scenic White River corridor—a remarkable stretch of river that is managed for the protection of its stunning visual and riparian values.
>> Take Action: Tell the BLM to keep oil and gas leases out of Utah’s Book Cliffs
Second, the BLM has prepared a draft environmental assessment to “re-examine” prior leasing decisions made from 2015-2019 for 195 leases across nearly 240,000 acres of public lands throughout Utah. The vast majority of these leases have not been developed, in part thanks to successful lawsuits brought by SUWA and our partners. But the BLM is now poised to rubberstamp its prior leasing decisions and keep the leases—and the threat of development—alive for years to come.
>> Take Action: Tell the BLM to cancel the 195 leases
Please take action at both links above before Monday, Oct. 27. Read more on our blog and share widely!
Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA
BLM Again Considering Four-Lane Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
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In early October, the Trump administration directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reassess a right-of-way application from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) for the four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George. The proposal has been rejected seven times, mostly recently in December 2024 by the BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
Building a highway through a congressionally protected landscape would permanently destroy critical habitat for the imperiled Mojave desert tortoise, violate bedrock environmental laws, and mar iconic redrock vistas—all while fueling sprawl and making traffic worse for local residents. It would also set a dangerous precedent for protected landscapes across the U.S. The most effective traffic solutions involve smarter planning and coordinated land-use decisions, not bulldozing protected habitat.
Read more in SUWA’s press release as well as the St. George News, Salt Lake Tribune, and KUER.
>> Click here to submit comments by Monday, November 3rd
Photo © Bob Wick
Trump Admin Pushes Coal Leasing Outside National Parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante
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In early October, the Trump administration announced it is making previously off-limits public land available for coal leasing under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), including 48,000 acres in Utah administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This announcement signals the administration’s intent to push speculative coal development on public lands next to national parks and monuments. Analysis from SUWA’s GIS team shows parcels available for leasing directly adjacent to or near Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef National Parks and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
“The Trump administration views Southern Utah’s remarkable redrock country as just another place to exploit and plunder as they promote new coal mining. Nothing could be further from the truth. America’s national parks, national monuments, and wild public lands don’t deserve this fate and we’ll work tirelessly to stop it from happening,” said SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch.
>> See maps of the potential leasing in our press release. You can also read news coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, and KSL.
Photo © James Kay
New Bad Bills from Senators Lee & Curtis
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The government may be shut down, but that hasn’t stopped Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis from introducing a slew of new bad bills for wilderness and public lands.
First up is an intentionally deceptively-named piece of legislation, the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act, which prioritizes motorized recreation at the expense of natural and cultural resources. This appears to be another case of elected officials introducing legislation in the name of disability access but really using that argument as a Trojan horse to open more public lands to motorized vehicles. There are already provisions in federal law that enable people with mobility disabilities to access public lands with power-driven mobility devices. Read our joint press release with Disabled Hikers, Wilderness Inquiry, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Winter Wildlands Alliance.
Next are two new bills that would open national parks to off-road vehicles (ORVs), fundamentally altering the visitor experience and damaging landscapes that draw millions of visitors each year: the State Motor Vehicle Laws in National Park System Units Act and the OHVs in Capitol Reef National Park Act. We issued a joint press release with the National Parks Conservation Association about the impact of these bills.
Senator Lee went it alone on the final bill, the Border Lands Conservation Act, which would undermine the 1964 Wilderness Act and impact millions of acres of public lands along the northern and southern United States border. It also removes any and all ability for land management agencies to limit U.S. Border Patrol activities on public lands within 100 miles of the border. Read more in our press release.
We’ll be closely tracking these bills and will provide updates in the future.
Photo: Adobe Stock (Serhii)
