November 5, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on Steve Pearce’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management – 11.5.25
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Washington, DC – Today, President Donald Trump announced he has nominated former US Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) as the next director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Below is a statement from SUWA Executive Director Scott Braden and additional information.
“A longtime player in unsuccessful efforts to prioritize resource extraction and privatize or sell off public lands, Steve Pearce is uniquely unqualified to hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Land Management,” said Scott Braden, Executive Director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “At a moment when our nation’s public lands face ever-increasing threats from climate change, drought, and wildfire, he is not the right person for the job. As 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 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.
