A few words, shared with permission from the very well spoken, well versed, well educated and very active man who wrote it.
"As the dust settles on this land use debacle I would hope we can all catalog a few take-aways from what has turned into a major social media frenzy. Sadly, these situations often just briefly highlight the issues at hand rather than educate and we find ourselves taking sides rather than taking a stance together. While I don’t condone, appreciate or respect what was done in Moab this last week… I do understand that there are far bigger land access issues that the motorized community as a whole faces. We just lost 70+ miles of OHV routes in the San Rafael Swell. Did you submit a comment? Many of Utah’s BLM districts underwent Resource Management Plan overhauls in the last decade, deciding the fate of thousands of miles of OHV routes. Did you participate in those plans? Each year National Public Lands Day has motorized user groups working with federal land managers to proactively address issues on OHV trails throughout the state. Were you there? I do not want an answer from each and every one of you, rather I’d love for at least some of you to take your visible passion (as shown by the heat of these threads) and work on something bigger picture. Peer enforcement has its place and while not all enjoy these threads, I think many in fact learn from them. But let’s dig deeper, let’s all take a look at our travel on public lands.
Is your travel/impact legal? Have you spent time doing your due diligence? Is the route you plan to take on a legal motorized vehicle use map (Forest Service ands) or Travel Management Plan (BLM lands)? Is the route in an open cross-country travel area? While there is much debate on state vs federal levels about what is open and closed, there are still resolute answers available from the current land manager. The Forest Service, BLM and National Park Service maintain quite decent maps of all legal routes in the state of Utah, have you looked at them? Do you need a permit to film or host a large group event? Do you need to engage the BLM or FS on your planned activity? Can you work a service project or trail cleanup into your planned trail ride?
Is your travel/impact ethical? It can be completely legal to drive a route but perhaps not ethical. This would be the case of doing irreparable damage to a wet road or perhaps tearing up a groomed snow trail used by the snowmobile community. Will your travel disturb wild life? Furthermore will your travel put yourself or someone else at risk?
Will your impact be appreciated by others? This could be trash left in a fire pit, names on rocks, human waste near popular recreation areas or even loud music in a camping area. Put yourself in the shoes of other recreationalists whom can also lay claim to our “public lands”, do your actions deter from their enjoyment? Can common ground be found? User conflicts are a common back country occurrence and it’s naïve at best to assume all users will appreciate the travel of others. If you’re following the law, being respectful and working to respect the use of other user groups, it’s my experience that most of these conflicts can be avoided or deescalated.
So how can you get involved? Great question, I was hoping you would ask. First and foremost, join a 4x4 club or Association with a track record of involvement in these issues. Does your club do service projects on public lands? Do they host training? Become a Utah State Trail Host. This program enables OHV users to be positive peer role models and educators amongst our fellow users and offers you the tools to solve complex issues. Join and support Tread Lightly!, not just through your $$$ but also through your actions, many of which I’ve touched on above. Most importantly, listen for the call and need when important land use issues need your voice. For example just recently the Emery County Land Use Bill was working its way through the political process; post after post was made all over social media asking that OHV enthusiasts make an official comment to the involved politicians. I was impressed by the many letters and comments I saw and can only imagine how much more impact we could have had if twice as many had become involved. If you have a specific recreation area you love to spend time in, join a Trail Working Group (or similar) with the land manager of that area. For example we meet each summer month with the Pleasant Grove District Forest Service staff to discuss access and user issues in the American Fork Canyon area. Working together we have made some great impact and education improvements. I'd love to see that happening at Knolls, Bountiful B, 5MP, Uinta trails, Little Moab (state land fwiw) etc.
About me for those still reading or just questioning “who the hell is this guy”, I’m happy to offer some background on my involvement and passion for Utah’s public lands. For nearly 20 years now I’ve been involved in the Utah land use scene advocating for motorized access to our public lands on local, state and federal level. I’ve served as a land-use officer for several Utah groups, the President of the Utah 4 Wheel Drive Association, a certified Trail Host and a Tread Lightly! Master Trainer. On behalf of the U4WDA I personally worked on 6 of the 11 BLM Resource Management Plans, plans that could have led to thousands of miles of closures on Utah public lands. Through many shoulders, letter writing parties and meaningful research by many, the losses on those RMP’s were minimal enough that anti-motorized groups have taken them to court, we can consider that a win. Let me be clear that certainly don’t know everything and I’m still learning how the system works, how we can best work with users and government agencies to keep public lands accessible to motorized users."
Relevant links:
www.treadlightly.org
u4wda.org
BlueRibbon Coalition - Defend Your Ground
sharetrails.org
www.instagram.com
kutv.com
