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Utah's largest national park office is currently being targeted as part of Trump and Musk's DOGE cuts. In March, DOGE announced it would terminate the lease for the Moab office that houses operations for four of Utah’s largest and most visited national parks and monuments. While some targeted facilities have been removed from the list since the announcement, the Moab office remains on the public DOGE list of lease cancellation targets. The building is the headquarters for the Southeast Utah Group, a National Park Service region that includes Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments. Over 2.5 million people visit the area annually.
“The Southeast Utah Group is operating with a whole lot of administrative efficiency by grouping all of these things together,” said Cassidy Jones, a former NPS park ranger in Utah and a program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association. “The concept that eliminating this building would contribute to government efficiency just doesn’t really ring very true in this case.”
The 35,000-square-foot facility houses office space and equipment for engineers, resource crews, search and rescue teams, wildfire response teams, archaeological surveyors, and more. If the lease is terminated, employees and equipment will be displaced, and archaeological artifacts—which require temperature and humidity-controlled spaces—will have nowhere to be stored.
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I believe public lands in America are part of the strength of America. It’s a uniquely American ideal.”
