- Federal approval of St. George’s Northern Corridor highway has reignited a decadeslong legal battle, with conservation groups suing BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over alleged impacts to protected land and the Mojave desert tortoise.
- Environmental groups argue the road would unlawfully damage habitat in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, while city and county officials say the project is legally mandated and necessary to relieve congestion.
- The latest lawsuit underscores deep mistrust between the groups, with officials calling it a fundraising tactic and environmentalists saying they've been forced back to court after repeated reversals.
What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force? The multidecade fight over a proposed highway in southern Utah may offer insight into the age-old paradox.
After the Trump administration reapproved St. George’s request to build a short, four-lane highway, six conservation groups, two of which are headquartered in Utah, jointly sued the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The groups alleged the potential highway would threaten the Mojave desert tortoise and violate environmental laws.
With Wednesday’s lawsuit, local city officials are feeling déjà vu, as Trump’s mid-January reapproval marked the eighth time the 4.5-mile highway has been considered. The road crosses through a small portion of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, which is just north of St. George, Utah.
The city’s fight for the “Northern Corridor highway” precedes former President Barack Obama’s original approval in 2009, Gil Almquist, a Washington County commissioner, previously told the Deseret News.
St. George “always knew an east-west route across that area would be necessary,” he said.
What does the lawsuit argue?
The lawsuit alleges the highway would “destroy wildlife habitat and vegetation and diminish their use and enjoyment of the area.”
Hannah Goldblatt, a staff attorney for Advocates for the West, has been involved with the case for the last five years, and in this go-around, she serves as the conservation groups’ lead counsel.
In an interview with the Deseret News, she said, “We’re frustrated that we have to be back in court because we thought there was a sensible decision in 2024 terminating the highway. ... Now less than a year later, it’s reversed course. We don’t want to be back in court, but we firmly maintain that this highway is unlawful.”
Goldblatt said that a highway through any part of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area would violate land protection laws and the Endangered Species Act.
“I think everybody wishes they weren’t spending their resources this way,” Goldblatt said. “It’s been a decadeslong fight, and the highway’s been rejected in various ways seven times in the past, and here we are back again.”
City officials say the lawsuit is a cover for ‘fundraising’
To placate environmentalists’ concerns about desert tortoises in the proposed area, the Washington County Commission promised that if the highway was constructed, they would add 7,000 acres of nearby land to Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (Zone 6) in exchange for the 200 acres needed for the highway.
When asked about the trade, Goldblatt said, “It’s not an equal exchange.”
“They continue to cite that it’s a bigger area, and somehow that must mean it’s a better deal,” she said. But Zone 6 is isolated from the other tortoise population, and it’s subject to heavy recreation, Goldblatt said.
On the other hand, Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow told the Deseret News the 7,000 acres of offered Zone 6 land has “almost a 10 to 1 tortoise density” compared to the land needed for the highway.
Snow added that the lawsuit is “a political position. It raises an enormous amount of money.”
“The only plausible explanation is that these groups are using this issue to fundraise,” Snow said in a press release Thursday. “We hope this lawsuit exposes them for what they are and that they are subsequently disowned by our community. Over many years of obstructing our citizens, they have never proposed a viable alternative for protecting these lands.”
St. George Mayor Jimmie Hughes echoed this sentiment in his response to the lawsuit on Wednesday.
“We are disappointed to hear that special interest groups have — yet again — filed a lawsuit in opposition to the UDOT Northern Corridor route, wasting taxpayer dollars and resulting in increasing congestion and pollution and the loss of thousands of acres of prime habitat to development,” Hughes said.
He added, “Our position is simple: Congress required a northern transportation route on BLM-managed land to relieve pressure on downtown St. George, and that’s exactly what the UDOT Northern Corridor does.”