Utah officials want a federal court to throw out a Bureau of Land Management plan approved in the final days of the Biden administration that the state says illegally restricts off-highway vehicle use.
The federal lawsuit filed by Utah Republican Attorney General Derek Brown on behalf of the state and its School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, as well as Wayne and Garfield counties, is the latest in a yearslong legal battle over BLM travel management plans.
The legal complaint the state filed last week targets BLM’s Jan. 17, 2025, approval of the Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge travel management plan covering about 2,200 miles in parts of the two remote southern Utah counties.
The plan closed off-highway vehicle use on 612 miles of road, and “restricted use on another 28 miles of road,” said the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. The lawsuit asserted the BLM’s move violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and other federal laws.
