Utah

Phil Taylor

If a yellow warbler calls out in the canyons of Zion National Park, and no potential mates can hear it, did it make a sound?

It does, according to National Park Service officials, who this month are crafting a soundscape management plan to make sure other warblers, park visitors and potential predators can hear it, too.

Alex Cabrero

SALT LAKE CITY -- Easter weekend is the traditional kickoff of the off-highway vehicle season, and a lot of places in Utah will be packed. Among them, Little Sahara in Juab County and the Knolls in the West Desert of Tooele County.

Nearly every year, someone gets seriously hurt -- or dies -- after an accident riding four-wheelers and dirt bikes.
This year, like in years past, park rangers want everyone to be as safe as possible. That means helmets, other protective gear and flags on their OHVs.

The Bureau of Land Management will charge the public more to visit the Little Sahara Recreation Area beginning Thursday.

The 60,000-acre sand dune complex in Juab County has long been a popular spot for off-highway vehicles.

Michael B. Farrell

In a move meant to provoke a legal challenge over limits placed on federally controlled land in Utah, lawmakers there passed a bill last week giving the state power to seize national forests and other federal lands for development.

The Utah House of Representatives overwhelming passed the bill that Republicans say will provide the cash-strapped state with much-needed tax revenues through increased oil and gas drilling.

Tom Wharton

Outdoor enthusiasts who use federal lands should be very afraid of the Utah Legislature's attempts to use eminent domain to gain control over those properties.

Forget for a minute that these legislative proposals are blatantly unconstitutional, violate the Enabling Act that allowed Utah to join the United States and will waste millions of dollars in legal fights.

It is often said, rightly enough, that America is a nation of laws. Meaning we are governed by laws -- state, local and federal -- that have been properly created and that do not violate the sovereign law, the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions of the various states.

It is not up to the Utah Legislature to decide how federal laws should be enforced on federal land.

Robert Gehrke

Clashes between federal and local law enforcement in southern Utah -- including the high-profile arrest of 16 residents accused of trafficking in American Indian artifacts -- are driving an effort to put limits on federal officers' authority.

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, said there is concern about the "gradual encroachment by federal law enforcement on what I believe are the authorities for the sheriff in the state of Utah."

Brock Vergakis

The possibility of a federal land grab throughout the West is stoking fears and generating resentment for the federal government in energy-rich states that could see millions of acres of land made off-limits to development if the president designates the sites as national monuments.b

An internal U.S. Department of the Interior document lists 17 sites in 11 states that could be designated as national monuments through the federal

Patty Henetz

A federal appeals court will revisit an earlier ruling that found Kane County illegally tore down signs restricting off-highway-vehicle use in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The case will be heard in Denver by the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.