Bowknot Bend, Labyrinth Canyon (lease area located at upper right)/EcoFlight, Pete McBride

An aggressive move late in the Trump administration's tenure in Washington to open a wilderness area upstream of Canyonlands National Park in Utah to a company that wants to extract helium has drawn a legal challenge.

The Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness, which encompasses nearly 55,000 acres of towering spires and colorful sandstone walls along the Green River in southeastern Utah, was created by the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act back in 2019. However, two weeks before that act became law, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a lease to Twin Bridges Resources, LLC, to seek helium within the area.

According to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, "the agency rushed to close the deal knowing the area was about to be permanently closed to future leasing and development. Now the bureau is racing ahead to approve the company’s proposal to drill on its federal lease and a nearby state lease, and is poised to do so just before the Christmas holiday."

SUWA, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, and Living Rivers, filed a lawsuit a week ago to halt the project. The lawsuit claims, among other things, that BLM didn't adequately review the environmental consequences of the project before approving it. The public also was not allowed to review and comment on the proposal, the groups maintain.

The Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness is located in the San Rafael Desert region of southeastern Utah. This is one of the most sublime and least traveled areas of federal public lands in the nation. A stunning and remote redrock landscape, it lacks any sign of human development. The overwhelming silence is broken only by the wind or the call of a circling raven. There are no buildings or fixed lights to detract from the natural form of the cliffs, canyons, and plateaus.

Now, despite congressional Wilderness designation, and with time quickly running out on the Trump administration, BLM is racing to authorize development of this lease. Based upon information and belief, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior is directing BLM to expedite the so-called “Twin Bridges Bowknot Bend Helium Project” and environmental assessment, which involves the drilling of up to seven wells, road construction and widening, and installation of several pipelines. Further, based on information and belief, Twin Bridges will immediately commence surface disturbing activities once BLM authorizes the project, on or around December 23. Initial roadbuilding and well pad construction may only take a day or two, but the damage from these activities to lands and resources within or immediately adjacent to the newly designated Wilderness will be permanent. -- Portion of lawsuit against the Interior Department

Helium lease area in Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness/SUWA, Bloxham

"This proposal is the paragon of the Trump administration’s ‘going out of business’ assault on the nation’s public lands, plain and simple,” said Landon Newell, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “This project would needlessly and permanently tarnish one of the Bureau of Land Management’s crown jewels: the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness.”

This past Friday the groups sought an emergency injunction to delay the project, which could impact 43 acres inside the wilderness area, until the lawsuit could be heard.

“It’s truly stunning how brazen the Trump administration has been these past four years in serving up our pristine, iconic landscapes to industry,” said Josh Axelrod, senior advocate for the Land Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Its race to secure this project’s approval for the helium industry’s benefit is flatly illegal, and we’ll defend this special area at every turn.”