October 22, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on Proposed Mass Firings at Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management During Federal Government Shutdown – 10.22.25
Contact:
Steve Bloch, Legal Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (801) 428-3981 (steve@suwa.org)
Washington, DC – It has been reported that the Department of the Interior is planning mass firings of more than 1,500 public servants at the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages nearly 23 million acres of federal public land in Utah. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.
“The Trump administration’s attacks on public lands and the federal workforce that manages them have reached a new low in proposing to fire more than 1,500 Interior Department career public servants during a government shutdown. The BLM is already chronically understaffed, under-resourced, and reeling from layoffs earlier this year,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “In Utah alone, the administration is proposing to fire nearly 12% of the BLM’s workforce. Those cuts will further degrade the agency’s capacity to steward public lands, ultimately diminishing visitor experiences and harming Utah’s redrock country.”
“These are not faceless bureaucrats as the administration would like you to believe. If you live in places like Price, Moab, Richfield, or Kanab, these people are a core part of the local community. Federal employees, such as those who work for the BLM, make up a large percentage of the workforce in rural Utah. For example, government employees (including but not limited to federal employees) make up 23% of the workforce in Garfield County and 25% in Wayne County. It’s plain to see that the Trump administration couldn’t care less about the federal workforce and the benefit these public servants bring to all Americans.”
Additional information:
The Department of the Interior (DOI) is a Cabinet-level department that manages America’s vast natural and cultural resources; it has 11 Bureaus, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). 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 this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
