Conservation advocates are suing the Trump administration after the Bureau of Land Management decided to reapprove the construction of a previously canceled four-lane highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwestern Utah.
In 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Utah Department of Transportation’s highway plan. That lawsuit ended in a settlement with the Biden administration in 2023 that halted the proposed construction.
Now, under President Donald Trump, the proposal to bisect the 44,724-acre conservation zone with a 4.3-mile-long highway is back on the table.
Conservation advocates are concerned that construction will severely damage that stretch of the Mojave Desert. The desert tortoise, a threatened species, lives in the same area as the proposed highway, according to Courthouse News.
Steve Wittek, the executive director of conservation group Conserve Southwest Utah, said in a statement the second lawsuit was necessary because the Utah Department of Transportation is reportedly already conducting construction work in the area.
“Preservation of Red Cliffs National Conservation Area is inextricably linked to the quality of life and economic prosperity in Washington County,” Wittek said. “Our community has repeatedly made clear that better traffic solutions exist and that they oppose a highway through what should be protected lands.”
The new lawsuit — supported by Conserve Southwest Utah, the Conservation Lands Foundation, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society, WildEarth Guardians, and the Center for Biological Diversity — is asking a federal judge to rule that the re-approved project is illegal.
“As in the prior case, the defendants’ decisions here again violate numerous bedrock environmental laws, and defendants have now also run afoul of express commitments made in the 2023 settlement agreement and voluntary remand process from the prior related litigation,” the groups argue in the lawsuit.
The Independent has reached out to the Bureau of Land Management and the White House for comment.
The Bureau of Land Management’s stance on the highway has shifted in line with party changes at the federal level. In 2024, before Trump took office, the BLM issued an environmental impact analysis that found the highway’s construction would not only harm the desert tortoise species, but also increase the likelihood of wildfires in the region and encourage the growth of noxious weeds and invasive species.
Then, after Trump took office, the bureau issued another environmental report dated October 3 citing “new information’ showing that an alternative route through the conservation area was both possible and economically feasible.
The Center for Biological Diversity included comments from residents near the proposed construction zone. Unlike the BLM, its assessment of the region and the potential harm caused by the highway remains unchanged.
Tom Butine, a resident of St. George, said he felt that local officials left him no choice but to support measures to stop the highway.
“This lawsuit, like the last one, is necessary because our local governments have declined to engage their constituents in an open community dialogue — one that could more clearly define the problem, address its related impacts and explore alternative solutions that have been consistently ignored,” he said.
