Public Lands

All but one of Utah’s Mighty Five national parks had an increase in visitors from the previous year. At the same time, concerns linger about how federal job cuts might impact park crowds.

A federal forest grant that conservationists rely on to fund monitoring and removal of the invasive and tenacious Russian olive tree has been frozen by the Trump admin.

An estimated 1,000 National Park Service employees have been fired so far. That includes at least 20 rangers, by one unofficial count, from Utah’s popular and busy national parks.

The February mass firing of National Park Service employees has hit parks in southern Utah, including Zion and Bryce Canyon. That’s spurring worries about long lines and crowds as the parks’ busy season ramps up.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered federal officials to review and consider redrawing the boundaries of national monuments created under previous presidents to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. The order is part of President Donald Trump's push to expand U.S. energy production.

“Utah remains able and willing to challenge any BLM land management decisions that harm Utah,” state leadership said in a statement.

The high court on Monday refused to let the GOP-controlled state file a lawsuit seeking to bring the land and its resources under state control. The decision came in a brief order in which the court did not explain its reasoning, as is typical.

Utah believes it should have ownership over some federally managed land, but environmentalists argue the move backpedals on the agreement that made Utah a state.

Since 1906, all but three presidents have used the Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. Biden has signed off on six monuments and either restored or enlarged boundaries for a handful of others during his term.

Grouse numbers plummeted in recent decades because of drilling, disease and other pressures.

While Utah House Republican leadership remains unchanged, GOP lawmakers opted to shuffle the deck in the Senate.

The Northern Corridor Highway alternative route chosen by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would avoid building a new road through prime Mojave Desert tortoise habitat.