Western Watersheds Project

09/02/2026

Nearly half of Utah’s national forest lands — from the high desert peaks of the Pine Valley Mountains to popular hiking areas in the Wasatch — could soon lose protections from new road construction and logging.

The Trump administration is one step closer to repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule and opening nearly 4 million acres of Utah’s national forest lands to road construction and logging.

09/02/2026

Turns out, it's a lot.

In a recent Newsmax interview, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was asked about the backlash to the Trump administration’s attempt to shrink the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.

09/02/2026

THIS JUST IN: Today, Western Watersheds Project, as part of a coalition of conservation organization groups represented by EarthJustice, filed suit in U.S. District Court challenging Trump’s July 2026 unlawful decimation of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Southern Utah. We are seeking to reactivate litigation against Trump’s 2017 monument rollbacks and challenge both sets of illegal proclamations together.

“The Trump and Cox administrations are cynically undermining the Antiquities Act to support their extreme anti-conservation ideology,” said Laura Welp, Southern Utah director with Western Watersheds Project. “Destroying these national monuments serves only their political and business allies, not the public. This partisan attack on some of the nation’s last best places is bad for wildlife, bad for native ecosystems, and bad for the country.”

Trump’s attack on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante is just as illegal today as it was when he attacked the monuments almost 10 years ago. The Antiquities Act authorizes a president to designate a national monument, not to dismantle it. The most recent attack on the monuments was one of the largest rollbacks of public lands protections in U.S. history, reducing both by over 90%. This attack, like all of the other attacks from the administration on our public lands, was about handing over our public lands to industry. In fact, multiple mining claims were filed on both Bears Ears and GSE after the proclamations were signed.

We’ll see the administration in court to defend these lands on behalf of public lands users across the country.

Read more: https://westernwatersheds.org/2026/09/conservation-groups-challenge-trumps-decimation-of-two-national-monuments-in-utah/

09/02/2026

Good news for now🤞

A federal judge paused construction of a Boulder City data center on public land, siding with environmentalists and city officials challenging the BLM’s approval.

09/02/2026

A 48-year old analysis cannot answer what reintroduced cattle grazing will mean for the ecological integrity of this landscape, its watersheds, or its wildlife in 2026.

Environmental nonprofit seeks reversal of decision to permit grazing pending dispute.

09/02/2026

The evidence keeps mounting. Science demonstrates that killing wolves to reduce livestock losses is pointless, even counterproductive. The livestock industry insists on killing wolves anyway.

Isn't it sad that the extreme elements of the livestock industry is setting the agenda for the entire industry, insisting on killing wolves, when nonlethal coexistence works better?

Adrian Treves, a professor of environmental studies at UW-Madison and co-author of the latest study, said his hope is the study helps guide lawmakers when the next debate over wolf populations arises.

09/01/2026

Bison belong in the West, on the prairie, on public lands.

If you agree, please consider making a donation to WWP, no matter the size to support our effort: https://tinyurl.com/protectbison

09/01/2026

Tucson is home to WWP staff, colleagues, friends and supporters. We grieve with our community and stand unequivocally with its LGBTQ+ members.

No one should fear violence because of who they are. Our thoughts are with the loved ones of Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara.

09/01/2026

An analysis from the Center for American Progress found that in his second term alone, President Donald Trump has moved to strip protections from more than 86 million acres of American public land — an area the group compared to more than 70 Grand Canyons.

The Trump administration is weakening protections for public lands, reviving rejected projects and putting national parks at risk.

09/01/2026

>> Even though rangeland management experts say overgrazing has degraded public lands, the new rules being drafted by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management - the first overhaul since 1995 - would instead expand the practice.

The proposed rules would also ratchet back public participation in agency decisions to allow grazing on federal public lands. The BLM’s proposed updates would strictly limit who has a say and when they can object, eliminating many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew permits.

“They’re clearly trying to reduce involvement of anyone other than ranchers,” said a BLM employee who works on rangeland management.

About the writers: Mark Olalde covers environmental issues in the American Southwest for ProPublica. He previously held staff posts with The Desert Sun, Arizona Republic ...