June 8, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on New Cooperative Management Agreement for the San Rafael Swell – 6.8.26
Latest effort by State of Utah to exert control over federal public lands
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Salt Lake City, UT– Today, the State of Utah announced it signed a Cooperative Management Agreement with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area in southern Utah; the Area was established as part of the 2019 Dingell Act. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.
“Today’s announcement has all the hallmarks of the fox being put in charge of the henhouse,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “Under Governor Cox’s leadership, the state has conspired to place control of American public lands into the hands of politicians who have their own agenda: prioritizing off-road vehicle use over everything else. Gov. Cox has found a willing parter in the Trump administration, who sees public lands as little more than figures on a “balance sheet” to be dismantled and monetized for short-term gain. We will be watching closely for any shenanigans that stem from this agreement.”
Additional information:
The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which was signed into law on March 12, 2019, designated 663,000 acres of BLM-managed wilderness within 17 new wilderness areas. In addition, the legislation established the 117,000-acre San Rafael Swell Recreation Area, added 63 miles of the Green River to the National Wild and Scenic River System, designated the John Wesley Powell National Conservation Area and the Jurassic National Monument, and directed a land exchange between the BLM and Utah’s Trust Lands Administration. Additional information can found here.
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.
