Comment Period Open for Upcoming Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sale

Comments due: May 16

Hi Friend,

The scoping information for Utah Bureau of Land Management's (the Bureau's) 4th Quarter 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale is now available. According to the website and documents, the Utah Bureau is offering 46 parcels, totaling 68,263.38 acres. Comments are due May 16.

• Wildlife and plant conflicts identified:
  • General habitat for greater sage-grouse including brood and winter habitat
  • Habitat for Mexican spotted owl, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
  • Habitat for rare plants including shrubby reed-mustard (Schoenocrambe suffrutescens; ESA Endangered), clay reed-mustard (Schoenocrambe argillacea), Ute ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis; ESA threatened), and proposed critical habitat for Graham’s beardtongue (Penstemon grahamii)
  • Crucial winter habitat for elk and mule deer
  • Crucial fawning habitat forpronghorn
• Wildlands conflicts identified:
  • Lands identified by the Bureau of Land Management and conservation organizations as having wilderness characteristics (Lower Bitter Creek)
  • Lands proposed for Wilderness protection by the U.S. Congress (Lower Bitter Creek and Sunday School Canyon)
  • Land adjacent to the Winter Ridge Wilderness Study Area

​Please take a moment and send your comments to the Bureau asking them to protect the wildlife and wild lands in this region by removing affected areas from the proposed parcels list. To submit a comment click Participate Now (it may take a little while to load, but it will be in green in the navigation).

To date, we have helped defer more than 3 million acres of public land from oil and gas development! Together, we can save even more.

Additional Resources:

• Oil & Gas Toolkit - including a guide from our Senior Conservation Biologist, Megan Mueller, on how to write technical comments about impacts to plan and animal species. Check it out under "Writing comments and Protects" here
• Virtual Event Recording: Oil and Gas Lease Sale Comment Writing Workshop
• Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sales webpage
• Utah 2025 Fourth Quarter Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale eplanning page
• BLM seeks initial input for December 2025 sale of oil and gas leases in Utah press release

For the wild ones!
 

Chris Talbot (they/them) Communications Director, Leadership Team Rocky Mountain Wild P.S. RMW screens each and every oil and gas lease sale in our region. Help fund this important work with a one-time or monthly donation here. Header image: Two Mexican spotted owls in a tree, courtesy of Lincoln National Forest (public domain)

 
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