Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

08/24/2026

🎭 Come find SUWA tabling at Footpath Theatre Company’s production of Western Minerals & Their Origins, running its final Utah engagement THIS WEEKEND from August 27-29 at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City. 🏜

While clearing out her canyoneer brother’s garage, a young woman is pulled deep into memory and the redrock landscape that shaped her. Rhetorical Review calls it “a love letter to the canyons, to the outdoors, to Utah itself.” We hope to see you there!

More info/link to tickets at: https://utahpresents.org/event/utahpresents/western-minerals

08/23/2026

From The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board: "Utah’s ruling class, of course, is totally on board with Trump’s monument reduction, and presumably with the destructive activities that will follow. If they have any issues with any other administration moves to degrade public lands for private benefit, we haven’t heard about it.

So Utah voters will have to pick up the cause themselves." https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2026/08/22/tribune-editorial-how-ruling-class/?

“Nearly every day, we learn more about what our political leaders, in Washington and Utah, think is wrong with America’s public lands,” the editorial board writes. “It’s that they are just too, well, public.”

08/20/2026

🚨 ACTION ALERT! 🚨

Surprise, surprise—Senator Mike Lee wants to fast track the destruction of Bears Ears National Monument. He is scheming to use the Congressional Review Act to get rid of the existing management plan for this incredible living landscape.

Sound familiar? Earlier this year, Senator Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy used this same mechanism in an attempt to overturn the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan. Their plan ultimately failed because people like YOU spoke up!

TAKE ACTION NOW! And Urge your members of Congress to speak out against Lee's attack on Bears Ears: https://suwa.quorum.us/campaign/168097/

08/20/2026

This week, at the behest of Senator Mike Lee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an opinion that the Bears Ears National Monument land-use plan is subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

The plan, finalized in 2025 was historic in that it was developed through a collaborative process involving the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bears Ears Commission.

This path paves the way for Lee and the rest of the Utah delegation to introduce fast-track legislation that could topple Tribal collaborative management and speed up the destruction of the landscape.

Read more here: https://suwa.org/utah-senator-mike-lee-wants-to-speed-up-the-destruction-of-bears-ears-national-monument-8-20-26/

08/19/2026

Insightful piece from Stephen Trimble in the Los Angeles Times on the shrinkage of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. See excerpt below.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-08-19/utah-bears-ears-grand-staircase-escalante-public-lands-protected-monuments

"Trump expounded on this lie: “For nobody to use. You can’t do anything. You can’t go hunting. You can’t go fishing. You can’t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it.” The deputy secretary nodded and said, “That’s exactly right, sir.”

But it’s exactly wrong. The proclamations creating these monuments clearly stated that grazing, hunting and fishing would continue. No existing rights were withdrawn. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come every year to walk in both monuments. The smiling line of federal officials and Utah politicians knew this. But no one corrected the president’s outrageous ignorance."

Revoking monument status for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, the Trump administration bowed to Utah officials who are in the pocket of mining interests.

08/19/2026

Good news on a decision regarding 10 backcountry airstrips in southeastern Utah!

“This is a case of ‘better late than never.’ We’re glad to see the agency pull back its decision, which would have authorized more motorized use in remote, wilderness-quality landscapes,” SUWA Wildlands Director Neal Clark said.

Clark said SUWA would continue working to prevent the airstrips from being authorized in the future.

Read more:

The Bureau of Land Management has withdrawn its June decision approving formal aircraft use at 10 backcountry airstrips in southeastern Utah, leaving the proposal under agency review.

08/18/2026

August's Redrock Report is here! This month features:
🏜 Latest Updates on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears
⛔ BLM Withdraws 10 New Backcountry Airstrip Designations
🦉 New Staff-Designed Sticker Packs!
📣 Opportunities to Get Involved (in Salt Lake City) this Fall
🎭Support SUWA and Live Local Theater at the Same Time!

Read it now: https://suwa.org/august-2026-redrock-report/

08/17/2026

After Trump stripped 3 million acres of land from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, it took less than 24 hours for private companies to file mining claims on the newly unprotected land.
Read more from SFGATE:

Claims have been filed in former parts of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

08/14/2026

The New York Times covering the mining claims already filed in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Steve Bloch, SUWA Legal Director is quoted in the piece:

“The fact that companies and individuals are already trying to locate mining claims — weeks before even the Trump proclamations allow it — only underscores our concern about what might be coming while we work to see the monuments fully restored and protected,” Mr. Bloch said.

Read it:

Prospectors are eyeing mineral deposits within the former boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.

08/14/2026

Within one day of President Trump illegally reducing Bears Ears National Monument by over 90%, Kimmerle Mining filed 7 mining claims (see map 1) with the San Juan County (Utah) Recorder’s Office.

Less than one month after Trump’s attack, two mining claims were also filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante by Craig Rosequist (see map 2) with the Kane County (Utah) Recorder’s Office. Both located in areas just cut out of the monument by Trump.

For more details, visit: https://suwa.org/mining-claims-filed-immediately-after-trump-decimates-national-monuments-in-utah-8-14-26/

Photo Credit: Tim Peterson