Utah

Sage-Grouse Land Use Plans

Sage-Grouse Land Use Plans

Case: Center for Biological Diversity, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Wild, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, and WildEarth Guardians vs. Bureau of Land Management

March 2, 2026 — Advocates for the West and our conservation partners sued the Bureau of Land Management to challenge its final plans governing greater sage-grouse management across 71 million acres of federal public lands in nine Western states. The lawsuit covers the dwindling species’ habitat in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, […]

Northern Corridor Highway Followup

Northern Corridor Highway Followup

Case: Conserve Southwest Utah, Conservation Lands Foundation, Center for Biological Diversity, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society, WildEarth Guardians vs. U.S. Department of the Interior, et al.

July 23, 2026 — Advocates for the West filed our opening summary judgment brief in this case. May 11, 2026 — Advocates for the West and our partners amended our February lawsuit over the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to adequately protect the threatened Mojave desert tortoise when […]

Public Lands Sale FOIA Violations

Public Lands Sale FOIA Violations

Case: The Wilderness Society v. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

January 6, 2026 — Representing The Wilderness Society, Advocates for the West filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to release records related to a joint federal initiative targeting the sale of public lands […]

State and Industry Challenges to Public Lands Rule

State and Industry Challenges to Public Lands Rule

Case: States of Utah and Wyoming v. Deb Haaland, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Conservation Lands Foundation, and The Wilderness Society

October 1, 2024 — Advocates for the West and our partners at Conservation Lands Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance filed a motion to intervene to defend BLM’s Public Lands Rule against yet another lawsuit brought this past summer by the American Farm Bureau and other industry trade associations representing the oil […]

Bureau of Land Management Rangeland Degradation

Bureau of Land Management Rangeland Degradation

Case: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Western Watersheds Project v. Debra Haaland, Tracy Stone-Manning, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management

September 13, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its failure to abide by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to determine the prioritization and timing of environmental analyses for livestock grazing allotments on public […]

Oil & Gas Leases in Sage-Grouse Habitat

Oil & Gas Leases in Sage-Grouse Habitat

Case: Western Watersheds Project and Center for Biological Diversity v. Ryan K. Zinke, David Bernhardt; and BLM

January 17, 2025 — Advocates for the West won a victory upholding our Phase One win in this case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the first Trump administration illegally approved hundreds of oil and gas leases on public lands and prohibited any further development of those leases. The leases […]

Northern Corridor Highway through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area

Northern Corridor Highway through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area

Case: Conserve Southwest Utah, Conservation Lands Foundation, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society, and WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management

January 21, 2026 — The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) re-approved a proposal from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), at the behest of Washington County, for the construction of a four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George, Utah. The decision reverses a December 2024 rejection of the same proposal by the […]

Duck Creek Livestock Grazing

Duck Creek Livestock Grazing

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Interior Board of Land Appeals & U.S. Department of the Interior

February 17, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed our opening brief with the 10th Circuit Court requesting a reversal of the district court’s erroneous dismissal for lack of Article III standing. Our brief argues that the Court should hold a 2017 decision of the Interior Board of Land Appeals as unlawful and force the defendants […]

Sage-Grouse RMP Challenge

Sage-Grouse RMP Challenge

Case: Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Center for Biological Diversity and Prairie Hills Audubon Society v. David Bernhardt, Joseph R. Balash, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service

February 11, 2021 – U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill ruled strongly in our favor on this case, overturning a Trump Administration decision to strip protections from 10 million acres, mostly in Nevada and Idaho, to allow mining in critical habitat for greater sage-grouse. The court upheld our claim that the BLM failed to provide a […]

Oil and Gas Lease Sales Near Bears Ears National Monument

Oil and Gas Lease Sales Near Bears Ears National Monument

Case: Friends of Cedar Mesa v. U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, and Kent Hoffman

August 15, 2024 — Chief Administrative Judge Silvia Riechel Idziorek granted our motion to intervene in appeals the State of Utah, San Juan County, and Kirkwood Oil & Gas. July 12, 2024 — Advocates for the West filed a motion to intervene in appeals by the State of Utah, San Juan County, and Kirkwood Oil […]