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On Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management announced that it approved construction of the Northern Corridor Highway, a four-lane highway that will cut across the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George, Utah. The conservation area is critical habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise and other endangered species.
The approval overturns a previously endorsed alternative to upgrade Red Hills Parkway, an existing road along the southern border of the conservation area, in a way that would pose less environmental risk and promote better traffic flows.
The Northern Corridor was initially approved in 2021, but after a lawsuit and a supplemental environmental study, federal officials revoked the approval in 2024, citing the proposed road's threats to critical habitat and increased risk of wildfires. The Trump administration reopened the review last September, and the BLM decided the expansion of Red Hills Parkway was “not technically or economically feasible.”
“Continuing the crusade to build a highway in a congressionally-designated conservation area is not only illegal, it is—after more than a decade of failed attempts—downright foolish,” said Kya Marienfeld, wildlands attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
House votes to repeal ban on mining near Boundary Waters in Minnesota
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to repeal a Biden-era 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota. The vote reinvigorates plans by Twin Metals, a Chilean-owned company that intends to mine the Superior National Forest for copper and nickel, threatening the headwaters of the Boundary Waters.
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Some places are just too precious to mine.”
