Back in October, we asked you to submit preliminary “scoping” comments on an upcoming oil and gas lease sale impacting Utah’s wild Book Cliffs region. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has now moved to the next phase of this process and is proposing to sell 58 lease parcels spanning nearly 72,000 acres in eastern Utah.

Development of these leases would threaten wilderness-caliber lands as well as big game, black bear, and greater sage-grouse habitat. Some of the parcels are located in the scenic White River corridor—a remarkable landscape managed for the protection of its stunning visual and riparian values.

The BLM is accepting public comments on its First Quarter 2026 lease sale through January 2. Please tell the agency to keep oil and gas leases out of Utah’s Book Cliffs region!

This proposal marks the third time in a row the BLM has targeted the greater Book Cliffs area for leasing and development. The agency sold parcels adjacent to the White River in September, and just this week auctioned off dozens more controversial parcels at its December sale.

Marching lockstep with the Trump administration’s priorities, the BLM prepared a draft environmental analysis for this upcoming lease sale that falls far short of what the law requires. For example, the BLM is required to prioritize new leasing outside of greater sage-grouse habitat. But in this case, the agency admits to having “prioritized leasing in greater sage-grouse habitat”—the exact opposite of what the law requires.

With your help, SUWA will work to hold the BLM accountable for its failure to follow the law. Utah’s spectacular public lands deserve more than blind obedience to reckless energy agendas that will only exacerbate the climate crisis and destroy our last large-scale intact ecosystems.

Tell the BLM to follow its own land use plan and keep dirty energy development out of sage-grouse habitat and other wild places in the Book Cliffs region.