PUBLIC LANDS WATCH

Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management Plan

Southwest Wyoming (BLM Rock Springs Field Office), including the Red Desert, Golden Triangle, and Greater Little Mountain · BLM-managed public land under Resource Management Plan revision (not a formally designated monument/park) · managed by Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs Field Office

Status: Active — plan amendment in progress, comment period closed Threat: Resource Management Plan rollback — oil, gas, and mineral access expansion
Coordinates
41.7, -108.5
Page last verified
2026-08-12
Site maintainer of record
Alicen M.
File
/red-desert-rock-springs

01 — Historical & Cultural Record

The Red Desert, part of Wyoming's Great Divide Basin, is often described as the largest unfenced area in the Lower 48 and contains the largest living dune field in North America. The Rock Springs Field Office's management plan governs 3.6 million acres of BLM land in southwestern Wyoming; the prior plan dated to 1997. A rewrite process began in 2011, spanning over a decade of inventories, public outreach, and stakeholder meetings — including litigation over wild horse management and a separate sage-grouse habitat planning process that further slowed completion. A draft plan and EIS were released in August 2024, opening a 90-day comment period later extended by an additional 90 days at the request of Wyoming's governor. The plan was finalized in December 2024, incorporating input from a governor's task force that included local government, oil and gas, mining, and grazing representatives, and reflected nearly all of that task force's recommendations. The final plan protected areas including Greater Little Mountain, the Northern Red Desert, and the Golden Triangle via "areas of critical environmental concern" designations and blocked roughly 1.1 million acres from new industrial-scale development through rights-of-way exclusion areas, while still allowing continued mineral development across more than two-thirds of the total planning area.

02 — Current Threat

Despite the plan's recency, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, under a Trump administration directive, granted authority in February 2025 to review and revise resource management plans nationwide, specifically naming the Rock Springs plan and Greater Sage-Grouse Range-Wide Planning. In October 2025, the BLM formally announced intent to amend the finalized Rock Springs plan to expand access for fossil fuel extraction — an unusually fast reversal, described by a Wyoming Outdoor Council program director as rare for an agency to revise an approved Record of Decision meant to last 15-20 years within just nine months. A 30-day scoping comment period was announced via Federal Register notice, later extended 45 days to December 18, 2025, continuing despite a concurrent federal government shutdown. The process is still in its early "scoping" stage; the next step is a formal environmental assessment.

03 — Documented Impact: Environmental

Geology & Land: The Red Desert/Great Divide Basin includes extensive sagebrush-steppe, volcanic buttes with springs, badlands, and the continent's largest living dune field — landscape features the finalized 2024 plan specifically protected via "areas of critical environmental concern."

Climate: The region's sagebrush-steppe habitat is documented as already climate-stressed, meaning additional development pressure compounds an existing vulnerability rather than acting independently of it.

Habitat & Endangered/Sensitive Species: The area supports the greater sage-grouse (a species of conservation concern and a keystone species for the sagebrush ecosystem), along with pronghorn (including the world's largest pronghorn herd, per one conservation group's description), mule deer, and elk, whose winter range and migration corridors the 2024 plan specifically protected through development closures.

Long-Term Effects: A Wyoming Outdoor Council representative specifically noted that revising a 15-20-year land-use plan within 9 months undermines the durability that such plans are designed to provide, creating a pattern where conservation gains achieved through multi-year, multi-stakeholder processes can be reversed administratively far faster than they were built — a structural risk to any future durable land-management compromise, not just this specific plan.

03 — Documented Impact: Cultural & Archaeological

The Red Desert is documented as culturally significant and vital for sustaining Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, per the Wyoming Outdoor Council's public materials; a more specific, named-tribe consultation record was not identified in current sourcing.

03 — Documented Impact: Economic & Fiscal

Wyoming's outdoor recreation economy is valued at $1.5 billion statewide, which the finalized 2024 plan was credited with supporting alongside continued mineral development and grazing access. Even under the 2024 plan's protections, approximately 75% of the 3.6-million-acre planning area remains already leased or technically available for energy development, according to a Wilderness Society report — meaning the amendment targets a relatively small remaining protected share (roughly 25%) rather than the whole planning area. Separately, 92% of all BLM land in Wyoming statewide is already open to oil and gas leasing, a figure cited by plan supporters (WyoFile op-ed) to argue the finalized plan was not, in fact, unusually restrictive. The Petroleum Association of Wyoming has stated it welcomes the amendment process, citing the 2024 plan as having "locked away" acreage from "productive uses."

03 — Documented Impact: Legal Status

No litigation specific to the 2025-2026 plan amendment was identified as filed in current sourcing; the process remains in early administrative scoping/comment stages rather than formal agency decision stages that would typically trigger legal challenge.

03 — Documented Impact: Human Health

Not yet documented — no dedicated human-health impact study specific to this plan amendment was identified in current sourcing.

03 — Tribal / Public Consultation Status

The finalized 2024 plan followed an unusually extensive public process: begun in 2011, spanning 13 years, including a governor's task force with local government, industry, and grazing representation, and a comment period extended at the governor's own request. By contrast, the 2025-2026 amendment process began with just a 30-day scoping comment window (later extended 45 days to December 18, 2025) and proceeded through a federal government shutdown, which a Wyoming Outdoor Council program director specifically flagged as creating uncertainty about whether BLM would have adequate staff to fully review submitted public comments.

04 — Named Companies & Responsible Parties

05 — Recorded Opposition & Support

06 — Timeline of Developments

07 — Sources

Primary

Secondary

Corrections Log

None on record as of 2026-08-12 (page initial publication).

Take Action

Scoping comment period closed December 18, 2025; a formal environmental assessment is the next expected step.

Sign / comment on the public record for Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management Plan →