June 18, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on Public Lands Rule Litigation by the States of Utah & Wyoming – 6.18.24
Contacts:
Steve Bloch, Legal Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (801) 859-1552; steve@suwa.org
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Salt Lake City, UT – Today, the States of Utah and Wyoming announced they have filed litigation in federal district court in Utah over the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recently finalized Public Lands Rule. Among other things, the Rule reiterates that conservation is part of the BLM’s multiple-use mission and ensures that the agency will manage for this use on a day-in and day-out basis. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Stephen Bloch and additional information.
“This disappointing, but predictable reaction from the State of Utah only highlights how unserious its elected leaders are about addressing the challenges facing public lands in Utah. This lawsuit is out of touch with the majority of Utahns who support conservation and know climate change is a serious problem,” said Stephen Bloch, SUWA Legal Director. “SUWA appreciates the Biden administration’s commitment to conservation and looks forward to seeing the Rule’s positive impact on Utah’s redrock country. The Rule will keep conservation top of mind as BLM goes about its daily work to manage some of the most intact and ecologically significant public lands in the country.”
Additional information:
The Public Lands Rule establishes a “… framework to ensure healthy landscapes, abundant wildlife habitat, clean water, and balanced decision-making on our nation’s public lands.”
- BLM’s webpage on the Public Lands Rule.
- SUWA’s April 18, 2024 Statement when the Final Rule was announced.
- “The BLM Public Lands Rule is a common-sense solution” June 25, 2023 Editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune
- March 30, 2023 SUWA Statement on the Proposed Rule; Advocacy Action from SUWA during the public comment period
- Information regarding public comments received by BLM – 92% of which were supportive.
Utah-specific polling data from the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, which shows a clear and resounding preference for conservation when voters are given a choice over how public lands are used.
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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.
![Happy National Public Lands Day! Each September the National Environmental Education Foundation (@neefusa_org) promotes National Public Lands Day, a day for "...volunteers of all ages and abilities [to] roll up their sleeves and join forces for a common goal—stewarding America’s natural resources for future generations to enjoy."
We agree. Whether you’re a newcomer to Utah, have ardently supported SUWA for over forty years, or come from a family that has been here since time immemorial, all of us can work together to protect the wild places we love. From the plants, animals, and living soils to the vast watersheds of lakes, rivers, creeks, and canyon ecosystems—it can be easy to forget day-to-day what we can do to give back to these remarkable places. It starts with stewardship!
SUWA’s Stewardship Program is out on-the-ground year-round to ensure Utah’s wild places remain wild. For us, stewardship is so much more than the physical work of helping the natural world recover from human impacts. Stewardship is the choice to harm less and heal more—to recognize how simple choices affect the people and the living world around us—from the trailside living soils to the vibrant canyon ecosystems that bring us awe.
Every day you step outside is an opportunity to recognize your place in the wild world. You may notice dandelions pushing their way up through the cracks in the concrete. Or be bounding down a granite slope overlooking the city lights at dusk like a second sky of stars below. Possibly, somewhere way out in the middle of the desert, the Milky Way twinkles down at you in the starlit shade of a canyon cottonwood. Wherever you are and whatever you notice, your observation and experience of wildness is essential. It is up to us to remember that we are wild, too.
So we ask you: How do you connect with wild, public places? Tell us in the comments below!](https://suwa.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)