public lands

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 […]

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 […]

Case: Center For Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians v. Raymond Suazo, BLM Arizona State Office, David Bernhardt, Bureau of Land Management

February 6, 2020 — Advocates for the West reached an agreement with the Trump administration suspending 4,200 acres of oil and gas leases on public land in Arizona’s Little Colorado River Valley as part of a joint motion filed in federal court. The federal government’s suspension of the leases prohibits any oil and gas activity […]

July 13, 2026 — President Trump signed two executive orders significantly reducing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Together, the orders cut almost three million acres of monument protection, with Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument losing 1.69 million acres and Bears Ears losing 1.24 million acres. The reductions amount to about […]