Segment of a new proposed Jeep Safari route near Deadman Point. Copyright Neal Clark.

The Moab BLM office appears ready to sacrifice wilderness-quality lands for off-road vehicle (ORV) use instead of taking a balanced approach that protects remaining wild lands.  At issue is a 10-year permit to allow the Jeep Safari, other permitted motor vehicle events, and commercial ORV outfitters to use nearly 900 miles of routes, including 100 miles of routes in areas proposed for wilderness under America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act.

The 900 miles of routes include 150 miles of new routes the BLM is considering adding to the permit, thereby expanding heavy ORV use into new areas.  Yet the agency’s own visitor survey indicates that only 10% of the visitors to BLM lands in the Moab area are ORV recreationists, while the vast majority of visitors are interested in non-motorized types of recreational opportunities such as hiking, biking, river rafting, climbing, and visiting historic sites and natural features.  Adding new Jeep Safari routes will displace these other visitors.

The BLM’s Environmental Assessment acknowledges that the official Jeep Safari routes get publicized and promoted via the web and in commercially available books, maps and videos, and thus get the vast majority of use among Moab area trails.  In other words, once a Jeep Safari route is established, it tends to become popular among the majority of private ORV recreationists who visit the Moab area throughout the year, not just during the annual Jeep Safari.

Please urge the BLM to take a balanced approach by approving only the 800 miles of Jeep Safari routes that are NOT within proposed wilderness, rather than tilting the scales heavily in favor of one special interest group.  A balanced approach will help preserve the full range of recreational opportunities and the scenic and wild land qualities of the area that attract nearly 1 million visitors annually.

Click here to send your message to the BLM.

Posted by Liz Thomas

Strikingly Marked Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle Threatened by Off-Road Vehicles, Drought, Climate Change

For immediate release: October 1, 2012

Contact:
Taylor Jones, WildEarth Guardians: (303) 353-1490 or tjones@wildearthguardians.org
Heidi McIntosh, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance: (801) 428-3980 or heidi@suwa.org

Washington, DC – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced today that it will propose to list the Coral Pink Sand Dunes tiger beetle as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and to designate 2,276 acres of critical habitat for the species. The tiger beetle has been a candidate for listing for nearly 30 years.  The Service identified off-road vehicle (ORV) use, climate change, and drought as primary threats to the species.

Cicindela albissima—The Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle. Photo copyright Beetles in the Bush (http://beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com/).

“We commend the Service for recognizing and acting on the continuing threats to this rare insect,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “This gorgeous, fierce little creature is found in only one place on earth, and it deserves our respect and needs our protection.”

A portion of the tiger beetles’ habitat is located in a wilderness study area that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is required by law to protect, yet the agency has refused to halt damaging ORV use which puts the species at risk. Heidi McIntosh, associate director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said, “This important listing could at long last put an end to destructive ORV use in one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes in the state. BLM’s stubborn refusal to protect this remarkable species and its habitat made this listing proposal inevitable.”

The dunes the Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle inhabits cover 3,500 acres, of which 2,000 acres is within Coral Pink Sand Dunes (CPSD) State Park in Utah. The remaining 1,500 acres are on adjacent Bureau of Land Management land partly within the Moquith Mountain Wilderness Study Area. The tiger beetle occurs consistently in only two populations, which occupy a total area of only about 500 acres. The northern population may not be self-sustaining, instead relying on dispersal from the central population.

Although core areas of tiger beetle habitat have been closed to ORVs since 1997 (207 acres within CPSD State Park and 370 acres on BLM land), ORV use still occurs in 52 percent of occupied CPSD tiger beetle habitat in the central population in the State Park, as well as in the dispersal corridor between the two populations. For the small northern population, enforcement of protections on BLM land is minimal and relies mainly on voluntary compliance. ORVs, aside from crushing beetle larvae and adults, can damage vegetation, reducing the beetle’s prey base and drying out their habitats even further. During years when their population is small, the beetles concentrate in the protected area in CPSD State Park. In years when beetle numbers are exceptionally high, a greater percentage of them are found outside the conservation areas where they are vulnerable to harm from ORVs.

ORV use has a history of reducing or eliminating tiger beetle populations; victims have included Northeastern Beach tiger beetle populations in several locations, a portion of the White Beach tiger beetle population in Maryland, and the hairy-necked tiger beetle, Siuslaw hairy-necked tiger beetle, and St. Anthony Dune tiger beetle populations in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Drought is also a major threat to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes tiger beetle; rainfall is one of the primary factors controlling the beetle’s population size, which tends to fluctuate dramatically from year to year. Drought sucks the moisture from the soil, reducing the size of the beetle’s already limited habitat as well as reducing the populations of their prey insects.  Climate change may exacerbate the impacts of drought in years to come.

The Service has proposed to designate 2,276 acres of dunes in CPSD State Park (767 ac) and on BLM land (1,508 ac) as critical habitat for the beetle. Species with designated critical habitat are twice as likely to recover as those without critical habitat.

The tiger beetle was petitioned for listing by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in 1994. It is one of 252 candidate species covered in WildEarth Guardians’ settlement agreement with the Service, announced on May 10, 2011, and approved by a federal court on September 9, 2011. The agreement obligates the agency to either list or find “not warranted” for protection all 252 candidates by September 2016.

Moquith Mountain Wilderness Study Area. Photo copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA.

Posted by Heidi McIntosh

September/October 2012

Here’s what is happening this month with the redrock:
1. Urge the BLM to deny an ATV route in Indian Creek!
2. We will miss retiring redrock champ Rep. Maurice Hinchey.
3. Utah appeals Salt Creek right-of-way claim.
4. Great times at the 2012 SUWA Roundup!
5. Celebrate Cedar Mesa on November 10.

New ATV route threatens Indian Creek

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. 

Location of Indian Creek proposed ATV right-of-way. Copyright Liz Thomas/SUWA.

Last December we notified you of San Juan County’s request for a right-of-way to construct a new ATV trail in this scenic area.  You told the BLM your concerns and the agency decided to “revise” its Environmental Assessment (EA).  Unfortunately, the BLM’s revised EA is no better than its initial document. The revised EA merely adds an alternative “alignment” for the proposed right-of-way, but fails to actually analyze the impacts of the right-of-way and ATV route to the area’s natural resources and to quiet recreational users.  The new alignment for the right-of-way and ATV route is similar to the initial alignment.  Both alignments for the proposed ATV route cross undeveloped, scenic lands that are in the Upper Indian Creek proposed wilderness area.  ATV use
on a route constructed in this right-of-way would be a significant conflict with other recreational uses of the area.

There are hundreds of miles of existing off-road vehicle routes that currently provide vehicle access and recreational opportunities in the Indian Creek area; there is simply no compelling need for the construction of a new ATV route.

TAKE ACTION: Please tell BLM, by October 5, 2012, not to grant a right-of-way for an unnecessary ATV route in the Indian Creek area. 

Read more about this issue on our blog by clicking here.

Visit greatercanyonlands.org to help protect Indian Creek and the rest of the Greater Canyonlands region.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey: A tireless environmental champion

Back in January, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), the lead House sponsor of American’s Red Rock Wilderness Act for almost twenty years, announced that he would be retiring at the end of this term.  Earlier in September, SUWA and our partners in the conservation community took the opportunity to celebrate Rep. Hinchey’s tireless advocacy for Utah wilderness and other environmental causes.  In this video, Rep. Hinchey’s House colleagues, staff, and others look back on all that he has accomplished in his career for the environment:

You can thank Congressman Hinchey for his decades of work on behalf of Utah’s redrock wilderness by writing a note on his Facebook page, tweeting thanks to @mauricehinchey or writing a letter to his DC office at:

Representative Maurice Hinchey
2431 Rayburn House Office Building
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Salt Creek case goes back to court

The federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on September 19 in a case involving an alleged highway right-of-way located in Salt Creek, an ecologically critical streambed in Canyonlands National
Park.  The National Park Service had closed the stream to jeep use in 2005 due to the water pollution, crushed vegetation, degraded wildlife habitat and other impacts caused by vehicle use.  San Juan County and the State of Utah sued the Park Service, arguing that the park could not close the streambed to jeeps because it  was a county and state highway.  The trial court ruled that the few travelers who had ventured up the stream before Canyonlands became a national park in 1964 did not transform the creek into a “highway” under federal law.

The appeal is significant because the appeals court may rule on key issues that will govern how and whether states and counties can establish highway rights-of-way across all types of federal public lands under a now repealed law commonly known as “R.S. 2477.”  Congress enacted the law in 1866 as a way to facilitate the orderly settlement and development of the West and to give lasting recognition to existing highways; it repealed the law in 1976, subject to valid existing rights.  Now the State of Utah is attempting to stretch the law beyond Congress’s original intent in an effort to undermine federal ownership, management and conservation of national parks and other sensitive federal lands.

Read more by clicking here.

A glorious sunny weekend in the San Rafael Swell

It was a glorious sunny weekend in the San Rafael Swell as about 85 wilderness supporters gathered from Sept. 21-23 for this year’s SUWA Roundup.

Every year we meet interesting, passionate, committed wilderness supporters at the SUWA Roundup and this year was no exception.  We thank them for making the long journey to Hidden Splendor, for participating in our grassroots strategy discussion on Sunday, and for speaking out year after year for the protection of Utah’s magnificent wild places.  We look forward to meeting even more of our amazing members and activists at next year’s Roundup!

Read more and view photos from the weekend by clicking here.

Celebrate Cedar Mesa!

Join Friends of Cedar Mesa in celebration of Cedar Mesa, a half million acres of scenic grace and prehistoric wonder in the heart of southeast Utah.

While renowned throughout the world for its singular beauty and wealth of Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings and rock art, Cedar Mesa also holds a special place in the cultural heritage of present-day Ute, Paiute, Navajo, Pueblo and Anglo communities, the latter including the Mormon settlers of southeastern Utah. Visitors from the region and all parts of the globe are increasingly making Cedar Mesa part of their personal histories as well, thanks to an American system of public lands
that manages such venerated places for all to enjoy.

This year’s symposium presents the intriguing findings of new archaeological and historical research, and explores the landscape from a range of diverse perspectives.

The Celebrate Cedar Mesa symposium, sponsored by Friends of Cedar Mesa, takes place all day Saturday, November 10, at the Blanding Arts and Events Center on the Utah State University branch campus in Blanding, Utah. 

For more information and updates, please visit cedarmesafriends.org.

Sign the petition to protect Greater Canyonlands

Posted by admin

Location of Indian Creek proposed ATV right-of-way. Copyright Liz Thomas/SUWA

The Monticello Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office is moving towards giving a right-of-way to San Juan County to build a new, and redundant, all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trail on your public lands in the Canyonlands Basin.

The proposed right-of-way cuts through famously scenic lands east of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, along Indian Creek. The proposed ATV route and right-of-way would be located on lands that are included in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. The new ATV route would unquestionably impact the naturalness of the area as well as the quiet, wilderness experience that can be enjoyed there today. In addition, the new ATV route would be a significant conflict with other non-motorized recreational uses of the area, including its famous rock-climbing opportunities.

There are hundreds of miles of existing off-road vehicle routes that currently provide vehicle access and recreational opportunities in the Indian Creek area, and there is no compelling need for the construction of a yet another ATV route. Rights-of-way (typically granted for 30 years or in perpetuity) are supposed to be part of a “necessary” transportation system that is in the “public interest” pursuant to federal law governing rights-of-way on public lands. This proposed ATV right-of-way is neither. Please urge BLM to deny the county’s request for a right-of-way to build a new ATV trail on your public lands, by adopting the “no action” alternative.

The Indian Creek corridor is a world-class recreation destination and should be managed as such. There is absolutely no reason the BLM should relinquish its  control over these spectacular public lands by granting a right-of-way to the county to construct a new, and superfluous ATV route, especially when there are hundreds of miles of existing routes in the Canyonlands Basin already. However, the BLM is being badgered by San Juan County and appears ready to cave to anti-wilderness, pro-motorized-access county commissioners.

We are opposing this right-of-way and are working with other conservation groups to protect the impressive public lands around Indian Creek and in the greater Canyonlands Basin from the unnecessary and damaging proliferation of ATV routes.

Posted by Liz Thomas