Northern Corridor Highway through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area

December 19, 2024 — The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a Record of Decision to deny a right-of-way for the four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. The decision confirms the federal agencies’ rejection of the Northern Corridor Highway project, which would have torn through critical habitat for the imperiled Mojave desert tortoise, violated five bedrock environmental laws, damaged iconic scenic vistas, disrupted treasured outdoor recreation opportunities and set a dangerous precedent for developing federally protected conservation areas across the U.S.

November 16, 2023 — The U.S. District Court issued an opinion and granted in part a motion by federal defendants, remanding the 2021 approval of the Northern Corridor Highway right-of-way through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwestern Utah. The court ruling paves the way for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to reconsider their 2021 decision to approve the right-of-way for a four-lane highway through NCA near Zion National Park. As part of the litigation, the BLM and FWS acknowledged substantial and legitimate concerns with the original 2020 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). A Supplemental EIS is being prepared to supplement this 2020 analysis, further examine the effects of granting a right-of-way, and reconsider the highway right-of-way application.

February 27, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed our opening brief in support of a motion for summary judgment.

June 3, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed suit against the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land management for a plan approved under the Trump Administration to move ahead with plans to punch a four-lane highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. The planned highway would pave over a protected, sensitive, scenic desert paradise in southwest Utah, violating bedrock environmental and cultural resource protection laws. In addition, the region contains critical habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise.

March 24, 2017 – Advocates for the West filed a motion to intervene in the Washington County, Utah appeal of the Final Resource Management Plans (RMP) for the Red Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Areas (NCA). Earlier in the year, Washington County filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), contesting the final RMP for the Red Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash NCAs. At the heart of the appeal is Washington County’s claim that BLM failed to consider and approve the construction of a highway through the Red Cliffs NCA. We are intervening to ask the court to uphold the BLM’s decision to exclude the construction plan from its RMP. The Red Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash NCAs were established by legislation in 2009 after years of collaboration and input from the public and other stakeholders. Red Cliffs was designated in large part to protect habitat for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise, while allowing development in other areas of Washington County. This compromise was agreed to and signed by officials in Washington County as part of a Habitat Conservation Plan in 1996. BLM led a process for the last six years to develop an RMP for the Red Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash, which it finalized on December 20, 2016. The Red Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash NCAs when designated became part of the National Conservation Lands—a collection of places around the West recognized for their scenic, ecological, historic or cultural significance. They were established to “conserve, protect, and enhance for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generation the ecological, scenic, wildlife, recreation, cultural, historical, natural, educational, and scientific resources of the NCA; and to protect listed threatened or endangered species.”