Crowdog
04-21-2005, 06:58 AM
OHVs banned in southeastern Utah
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - The Bureau of Land Management has banned off-road recreational vehicles from two square miles of sand dunes and red rock cliffs northwest of Bluff in southeastern Utah over fears that riders were damaging historic cultural resources.
Bluff residents petitioned the BLM to address the problem, BLM spokesman Scott Berkenfield said.
BLM archaeologists were also concerned that the vehicles had damaged native vegetation in addition to the plentiful rock art sites, said Berkenfield, who works in the Monticello field office.
The Bluff area rock art is more than 2,000 years old and the sites are more difficult to identify than some other Utah sites, archaeologist Jim Carter said.
Use restrictions for the area, which borders privately owned land, will remain in place until the BLM can assess the wider issue of off-road vehicle use throughout San Juan County. The agency is in the midst of reconsidering land-use plans across the state.
Lynell Schalk, president of the Bluff Landowners Coalition said she hopes new land management plans will permanently close the area to off-road riders. Over the past three years, residents have seen an increase in the number of riders and site damage, she said.
"If (the closure) is really going through, it's long overdue," said Schalk, a former BLM law enforcement officer who investigated vehicle damage at historic sites in California, Washington and Oregon. "Citizens have been trying for almost five years to get them to do something about it."
All-terrain vehicle enthusiasts did not return telephone messages from The Associated Press on Monday.
Presently, hikers tend to outnumber all-terrain vehicle drivers on the 1,835 acres closed, Berkenfield
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=2&display=rednews/2005/04/21/build/outdoors/75-ohvs.inc
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - The Bureau of Land Management has banned off-road recreational vehicles from two square miles of sand dunes and red rock cliffs northwest of Bluff in southeastern Utah over fears that riders were damaging historic cultural resources.
Bluff residents petitioned the BLM to address the problem, BLM spokesman Scott Berkenfield said.
BLM archaeologists were also concerned that the vehicles had damaged native vegetation in addition to the plentiful rock art sites, said Berkenfield, who works in the Monticello field office.
The Bluff area rock art is more than 2,000 years old and the sites are more difficult to identify than some other Utah sites, archaeologist Jim Carter said.
Use restrictions for the area, which borders privately owned land, will remain in place until the BLM can assess the wider issue of off-road vehicle use throughout San Juan County. The agency is in the midst of reconsidering land-use plans across the state.
Lynell Schalk, president of the Bluff Landowners Coalition said she hopes new land management plans will permanently close the area to off-road riders. Over the past three years, residents have seen an increase in the number of riders and site damage, she said.
"If (the closure) is really going through, it's long overdue," said Schalk, a former BLM law enforcement officer who investigated vehicle damage at historic sites in California, Washington and Oregon. "Citizens have been trying for almost five years to get them to do something about it."
All-terrain vehicle enthusiasts did not return telephone messages from The Associated Press on Monday.
Presently, hikers tend to outnumber all-terrain vehicle drivers on the 1,835 acres closed, Berkenfield
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=2&display=rednews/2005/04/21/build/outdoors/75-ohvs.inc