The Monticello BLM office is requesting comments on its environmental assessment, which analyzed a proposal to give San Juan County a right-of-way to construct a new ATV route across scenic public lands next to Indian Creek, directly east of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. This ATV route would irretrievably impact the Indian Creek-Lockhart Basin proposed wilderness area, and would be a significant conflict with other recreational uses of the area.

Please tell the BLM that Indian Creek has enough ATV routes and ask the agency to deny San Juan County’s request to construct a new one.

The Indian Creek area, located on the east side of Canyonlands National Park, south of Moab, Utah, is famous for its dramatic and sheer Wingate Sandstone cliffs, and is an internationally-known and treasured rock climbing destination.  Beyond the sheer walls, as Indian Creek continues its journey downstream towards Indian Creek Falls and its eventual confluence with the Colorado River, off-road vehicle users enjoy many miles of trails that allow for recreational adventures and exploration of the vast canyonlands basin.

Even though the BLM has designated more than 3,000 miles of off-road vehicle routes in San Juan County, including dozens of routes in and near the Indian Creek area, San Juan County is requesting that the BLM grant the county a right-of-way for yet another off-road vehicle trail “to provide an exclusive recreational opportunity for ATV enthusiasts . . .”  The proposed ATV trail, approximately 4 miles long, would bisect a roadless areas and could adversely affect this stretch of Indian Creek – a desert stream that supports a variety of wildlife species including desert bighorn sheep, mule deer, and golden eagles as it meanders through the redrock and high desert grasslands on its way to the Colorado River.

There are reasonable alternatives to this proposed ATV route (i.e., using existing off-road vehicle routes and roads) that would not impact wild lands, Indian Creek, and its world-famous scenery and that would minimize conflicts with other users of the Indian Creek area.  However, the BLM failed to analyze these alternatives in its environmental review.

Please tell the BLM, by December 22, 2011, that there is no need for additional ATV routes in the Indian Creek area.

With your help, we can preserve the scenic and wilderness qualities of the Indian Creek area.

Thanks for your support.

Greater Canyonlands is a stunning landscape encompassing 1.4 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed land surrounding Canyonlands National Park.  In March of this year, SUWA formally petitioned the Secretary of the Interior to ban off-road vehicle (ORV) use on 1,050 miles of ORV trails in sensitive habitats, including riparian areas and archaeological sites, in Greater Canyonlands.  SUWA’s petition requests that BLM prohibit ORV use on these 1,050 miles of identified routes pending further environmental analysis, while still allowing ORV use on 1,400 miles of routes within the area.

SUWA’s field staff have been keeping busy the last few months photo-documenting the controversial ORV trails that were designated by the BLM within Greater Canyonlands.  These routes – located in iconic areas such as Labyrinth Canyon, Indian Creek, White Canyon and Robber’s Roost – illustrate precisely why SUWA’s Greater Canyonlands petition is crucial to protecting the wilderness qualities of these awe-inspiring landscapes.  As the following photos illustrate, BLM clearly failed to do the on-the-ground assessments necessary to determine the necessity and associated environmental impacts of its vast network of ORV trails.

Please help us in urging the Obama administration to take action on the Greater Canyonlands petition by visiting www.greatercanyonlands.org.

Salt Creek in Canyonlands National Park

Last Friday, in a major victory for the Greater Canyonlands Region, a federal judge ruled against San Juan County and the State of Utah in their bid to open an off-road vehicle (ORV) route in Salt Creek Canyon in Canyonlands National Park.  The route was closed over a decade ago to stop engine oil and grease from polluting the stream and the destruction of wildlife habitat.

Salt Creek is an integral part of one of the most spectacular roadless areas on the Colorado Plateau, which includes our Butler Wash and Bridger Jack proposed BLM wilderness units (it’s all one area, but divided by jurisdictional boundaries).

We began this fight in 1989 when the National Park Service (NPS) decided jeep use could continue in Salt Creek despite the water pollution, soil erosion and damage to native stream-side plant and animal life. In 1995 we sued the NPS and won – and the agency eventually reversed its decision. Plants grew back, the water was clean, bears returned to the upper reaches of the canyon, and peace and quiet prevailed. Then San Juan County and the State of Utah sued, claiming an RS 2477 right-of-way existed up the canyon.  If the politicians had prevailed, it would have opened the door to claims by anti-wilderness forces on countless other remote and primitive ORV routes across the state.

Now two decades later we’re thinking bigger about protecting the entire Greater Canyonlands Region. This court decision is an important step towards accomplishing that.

Many thanks to Heidi McIntosh, SUWA’s associate director, who skillfully shepherded this case though the courts over the past two decades.  And thanks to you, for being a supporter of Utah’s redrock wilderness.

Protecting our public lands requires perseverance and together, we will succeed.

P.S. Help us continue to win victories for Utah’s redrock wilderness – please consider donating to SUWA today!

Yesterday, we released our new “2010 Report Card:  Assessing Utah BLM’s Management of Off-Road Vehicles.”  Off-road vehicle (ORV) use on Utah’s public lands is an enormously controversial public lands issue, and ORV-caused damage – erosion, water pollution, noise, air-borne dust, crushed and looted archaeological sites — continues to increase.  Based upon BLM’s failure to comply with federal law and protect natural and historical resources from ORVs, we had to give BLM failing and very low grades for most categories.  Those of us who love Utah’s wild country are fed up with the damage, and it’s way past time for BLM to fix this mess.

A growing body of scientific research conducted by federal agencies, universities, and independent scientists that conclude that ORV use is damaging to a variety of natural resources and Utah’s wealth of archaeological resources.  (You don’t really need scientists to tell you this – many of us have seen the damage first hand on one of our trips to the desert.)

In particular, research demonstrates that ORV use near archaeological structures, rock art and other artifacts increases the risk of vandalism and looting of Utah’s irreplaceable archaeological treasures.

Scientific research also shows that ORV use in Utah’s streams and waterways is especially harmful.  These areas (referred to as “riparian areas” by the BLM) make up just 1 % of Utah’s public lands, yet support over 80% of wildlife species.  ORV use increases sedimentation, destroys healthy stream banks and vegetation, increases water temperatures and lowers the water table, threatening fish and other stream life,  plants and valuable wildlife habitat.

In addition, federal agency research concludes that ORV use exacerbates the effects of climate change on the Colorado Plateau by eroding soils and contributing to the large dust storms that blanket Colorado’s mountains with dust resulting in earlier and faster snow melt, degrading water supplies, and spreading invasive weeds that increase the risk of wildfires.

Our 2010 Report Card assesses BLM’s ORV plans, completed in 2008, for 11 million acres in eastern and southern Utah.  These plans put an end to the free-for-all ORV management of the past decades – a step in the right direction.

However, rather than comply with federal law that requires BLM to protect the air, water, archaeological sites, scenic values, and ecology of our public lands, and to “minimize” the impacts of ORV use on these resources and the landscape, the agency designated a dense network of 20,000 miles of ORV routes – enough to drive between New York City and Los Angeles seven times!

And, unfortunately, these ORV plans allow ORV use in many of the most sensitive areas, including in streambeds and wildlife habitat, across archaeological sites, and in roadless areas.  The 2008 plans close only 15% of the lands to ORV use, even though BLM’s own survey data shows that less than 10% of visitors to public lands use ORVs while 90% of visitors enjoy recreational pursuits other than ORVing on Utah’s public lands.

BLM has the authority to fix these plans, and we propose a solution that would provide immediate protection for the most sensitive areas and resources:  BLM should close routes located in scarce desert streams, in areas known to have dense concentrations of archaeological sites, and in roadless areas.  This would entail closing around 3,000 miles of route, leaving 17,000 miles of route available for ORV use.  This easy solution would help restore a sense of balance to the public lands, and protect a few places from the long-term damages caused by ORV use.

Please see the Utah Wilderness News for press coverage on the ORV Report Card release.