U.S. Bureau of Land Management

The lawsuit argues the approval of the highway near St. George breaks multiple federal laws, including the act that established the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.

A plan to build a highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George is back. But public lands law experts from across the country question if the Trump administration is missing Congress's original intention.

The contentious highway would run through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George, a landscape that’s home to the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.

The Biden administration issued an order in 2023 banning new oil and gas development within 10 miles of the historic site for 20 years. Tribal leaders who had celebrated the move are now concerned about the potential for protections to be rolled back.

The proposed road through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area has been a long-fought tug-of-war between administrations, courts, Congress and the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.

The rule adopted last year allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.

The Lava Ridge Wind Project drew criticism for the height of its turbines as well as for its proximity to the Minidoka National Historic Site, where thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

The potentially half-billion-dollar effort to extract rare earth metals from coal follows other fossil fuel projects in Utah and elsewhere that the Trump admin chases more domestic production.

The proposal would make 18.7 million acres of Utah public lands eligible to be sold, including parcels that overlap with popular trails like Mount Ogden, Grandeur Peak and Mount Timpanogos.

Environmental reviews of mining operations normally take months or years. But after President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency,” it took just 11 days for the Bureau of Land Management to approve the Velvet-Wood uranium mine's plan to resume operations in San Juan County.

Because a lot of water from the San Rafael River gets used upstream, more of its path through southeast Utah is drying up. That’s transforming the river’s flow patterns and leaving native fish stranded. But scientists are testing ways to give them a better chance at survival.

“We can't post policemen at every rock art or rock writing site,” said Southern Utah University's Samantha Kirkley. So the key is helping kids develop a link to the past.