A coalition of conservation groups is suing the Trump administration over its approval of a highway corridor that would cross the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in Utah.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday targets the Bureau of Land Management decision last month to reverse a 2024 Biden-era decision that had rejected the corridor. The Biden administration instead had advanced a plan that called for making improvements to an existing roadway outside of the Red Cliffs NCA and away from a preserve for the federally threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.
The Fish and Wildlife Service was included in the lawsuit because the agency authorized the killing, harming or disturbance of protected Mojave Desert tortoises as part of the corridor right of way that would allow construction of a four-lane highway in the Red Cliffs NCA.
The coalition of six groups that includes the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wilderness Society said the decision to approve the highway corridor violates “bedrock environmental laws” and should be tossed out, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
