UTAH COURT PROTECTS THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF SCENIC LAND FROM ATV, DIRT BIKE RIDERS

Read this article: UTAH COURT PROTECTS THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF SCENIC LAND FROM ATV, DIRT BIKE RIDERS

The fight to protect public lands from ORV use is wide-spread. Given our efforts to push back on the BLM re the current WEMO proposal it is great to see successful efforts elsewhere.

From the article:

“Thanks to Earthjustice litigation, the BLM must now conduct comprehensive environmental and cultural surveys before deciding whether to designate dirt roads and trails in this area for off-road vehicle use. Prior to the ruling, the BLM had set aside 4,200 miles of trails for these vehicles—almost enough for a round trip from Los Angeles to New York City—as part of their Richfield Resource Management Plan without following legal requirements to “minimize” impacts or survey for cultural sites.

“This important decision flatly rejects Utah BLM’s ‘designate trails first, think later’ approach to off-road vehicle management,” said Stephen Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “Utah’s remarkable redrock landscapes demand better.”