March 4, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee vote re: Steve Pearce’s Nomination to Lead the BLM – 3.4.26
Nomination now heads to the Senate floor
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Washington, DC – Today, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 11-9 to advance the nomination of former US Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) as the next director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Below is a statement from SUWA DC Director Travis Hammill and additional information.
“Today’s vote was disappointing. Anyone who cares about the future of public lands, national monuments, or the redrock knows that Steve Pearce has fundamentally disqualifying views and should not hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Land Management,” said Travis Hammill, DC Director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “We call on Senators to reject Pearce’s nomination when it is brought to the Senate floor. While the Trump Administration continues its deeply unpopular efforts to undermine public lands protections, SUWA will continue our work, undeterred, to protect Utah’s redrock country for current and future generations.”
Additional information:
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 Desolation Canyon (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.
