ST. GEORGE — House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Arizona) sent a letter Thursday with eight other committee members to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland urging a reversal of the Trump administration’s decision to approve the Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southern Utah.
Just days before President Biden took office, former Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued a last-minute decision to approve construction of the four-lane highway on Jan. 15, 2021, according to a news release from the committee. The decision was met with strong public opposition.
In June 2021, seven environmental organizations belonging to the Red Cliffs Conservation Coalition filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal court challenging the Northern Corridor Highway.
National Conservation Areas such as Red Cliffs are specifically protected by Congress to conserve, protect and enhance natural, historical and recreational resources in the region, the news release says
And in the letter, the lawmakers point out that the highway endangers both Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and the National Conservation Lands program at large:
The Northern Corridor Highway violates the explicit intent of multiple environmental laws, most notably [the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the National Conservation Lands program], and sets a dangerous precedent for all National Conservation Lands. Congress set out clear guidelines for how these lands ought to be managed; the Northern Corridor Highway would adversely impact the conservation, cultural, and recreational resources within [the Red Cliffs] National Conservation Area and would make any lands protected under the system of National Conservation Lands vulnerable to similar development.
The authors also point out that allowing the Northern Corridor Highway to go forward would undermine the Biden administration’s historic and ambitious “30×30 conservation” initiative.
Committee members first expressed opposition to the Northern Corridor Highway in a Sept. 24, 2020 letter to Secretary Bernhardt in which they criticized the administration’s failure to adequately examine effects on wildlife habitat and the Mojave desert tortoise population. The Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands also held a forum on Sept. 9, 2020 at which one of the participants highlighted the risks posed by the Northern Corridor Highway.
Since 1997, more than $20 million in taxpayer dollars from the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been used to purchase lands for the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, according to the news release.
The House Committee on Natural Resources “advances the interests of the indigenous peoples and residents of the territories of the United States, and considers legislation and oversees federal conservation and species protection programs under the leadership of Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva.”