America's Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA) is an unprecedented citizen's initiative to preserve millions of acres of near-pristine landscapes in Utah. It aims to protect iconic western landscapes such as Cedar Mesa, the Kaiparowits Plateau and lands within and around both the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Bears Ears Monument. The act would add these lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System and preserve them for future generations.

The Wilderness Act, passed by congress in 1964, poetically defines the legal term 'Wilderness': "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." Areas that are not impacted by road construction, utilities, and other development may qualify for wilderness designation. Because Wilderness designation requires congressional approval, areas that possess Wilderness characteristics are often designated in the interim as Wilderness Study Areas.

The process for designating wilderness in Utah dates back decades. ARRWA was first introduced in the US House of Representatives in 1989 and in the Senate in 1997. Revised versions have been introduced to every session since then. New House and Senate Bills will be introduced early in 2021 for the 218th Congress.

The process used for designating "Wilderness Study Areas" in Utah back in the 1970's was deeply flawed, finding only 2.5 million acres (of the 23 million under consideration) to have wilderness characteristics. Utah conservation groups sued and won in court. The BLM responded by bringing the total to 3.2 million acres.

Conservation groups, knowing that this still severely underrepresented areas that qualified for wilderness protection, joined forces--under The Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC)--to conduct a more thorough inventory. Citizen activists identified an additional 2.5 million qualifying acres, and their 400 page proposal in 1989 introduced the first America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. A second inventory identified an additional 3.4 million acres that qualified for wilderness protection. Currently, the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act designates 8.4 million acres.

Nowhere else in the lower 48 can such intact wilderness-quality desert lands be found; unfortunately, these national treasures are currently threatened by rampant off road vehicle use, energy development, rollbacks of national monument protections, and management plans that degrade wilderness resources.

Washington's congressional representatives have been very supportive of the ARRWA and many of them sign on as co-sponsors every session. The most recent legislation was introduced in late 2019 and early 2020 in the House and Senate.