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BLM-Utah Reevaluates Off-Highway Vehicle Use For 6 Million Acres Of Public Land

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

The Bureau of Land Management is reconsidering travel routes for off-road vehicles on more than  6 million acres of Utah land.  BLM-Utah will revisit plans for lands surrounding Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Dinosaur National Monument

In 2008, a coalition of conservation groups challenged six federal land use plans because they were considered unbalanced in their management of multiple use designations. For example, hardly any of the millions of acres were closed to energy development and off-road vehicles.  The BLM has a stated mission to manage public land for multiple uses, such as energy development, livestock grazing, recreation and timber harvesting.  Wilderness Society attorney Nada Culver describes what conservationists were looking to achieve from the settlement.

“We want to go back and actually look at where motorized vehicles should be going on these landscapes. To do it right, to actually take into account other resources, water, wildlife, wilderness, recreation which were really not considered adequately the first time. And similarly to look at whether there is fragile cultural resources present and how to protect those resources.”

Originally off-highway vehicle groups were against the litigation but eventually motorists recognized their overlapping interest with preservationists in understanding why and how decisions were made to keep areas open or closed to vehicle use.  

“They ended up being parties to and supporting the settlement because it is setting out a path forward. It’s setting out a way to not continue to have these plans in limbo and wondering if an area will be closed or if an area will stay open, so that we can all enjoy public lands” Culver said.

The BLM and state of Utah will also consider the designation of three new areas of critical environmental concern and prepare air quality-related reports that will inform future BLM decisions regarding oil and gas development.