SALT LAKE CITY – Several motorized recreation groups announced last week they filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s final motorized vehicle travel management plan for the world-renowned Labyrinth Canyon and Gemini Bridges area near Moab in Grand County.
Vehicles navigate the Labyrinth Canyon/Gemini Bridges travel management area near Moab, Utah, April 20, 2019 | Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management, St. George News
According to a news release from Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the organizations asked the judge for an emergency injunction to block the plan from being implemented.
The government’s plan went into effect on Nov. 28 when an administrative appeals board denied an earlier attempt by these same groups and others to block the plan.
“We are disappointed but not surprised that the BLM’s balanced decision in the Labyrinth Canyon/Gemini Bridges travel plan has been challenged,” SUWA attorney Laura Peterson said. “Unfortunately, there are some who will not be satisfied unless every inch of Utah’s public lands are blanketed with off-road vehicle routes, regardless of the damage these vehicles cause.”
On Sept. 28, Utah’s BLM released the final Labyrinth Canyon and Gemini Bridges travel management plan. Several motorized recreation groups have since challenged the plan in Federal District Court in Utah.
“The BLM’s plan takes a thoughtful approach to managing recreation in this popular area; one that will protect the stunning Labyrinth Canyon river corridor and critically important riparian ecosystem while leaving thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails open to motorized use in the greater Moab area,” Peterson said in the release. “SUWA is confident the plan will withstand scrutiny and intends to intervene to defend BLM’s decision.”
The Green River flows through the Labyrinth Canyon/Gemini Bridges travel management area near Moab, Utah, Feb. 4, 2015 | Photo courtesy Utah Bureau of Land Management, St. George News
The new land management plan will guide land management decisions on a 300,000-acre landscape for many years to come and is meant to protect cultural sites, riparian habitat and the experience of non-motorized recreationists, while allowing for motorized recreation on more than 800 miles of dirt trails and routes in southeastern Utah.
According to SUWA, the Labyrinth Canyon travel plan is one of 11 travel plans the BLM is completing over the next few years as part of a court-supervised settlement agreement between the agency, conservation and off-road vehicle groups.
“Covering more than 6 million acres of BLM-managed lands in eastern and southern Utah, these plans will determine where motorized vehicles will be allowed on some of Utah’s wildest public lands,” the press release stated. “To date, the BLM has completed two of the 11 plans and is currently working on new plans for some of Utah’s most beloved landscapes, including the San Rafael Swell and the Henry Mountains.”
To read more about SUWA’s litigation and more information on federal laws to protect public lands and resources, click here to visit their website.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.