Letter: ORV-user scare tactics

Alex Lawler

The group that organized the "Take Back Utah" rally alleges that "radical environmentalists" are "trying to close public lands to recreation." The scare tactics of the Utah Shared Access Alliance are entirely unfounded. Its Web site states that Utah has approximately 300,000 acres of wilderness-designated land. While this number is clearly inaccurate -- the High Uintas Wilderness Area alone contains 456,705 acres -- it is dwarfed by the total federal land open to off-road vehicles. ORV enthusiasts are not in danger of being shut off from public lands.

The federal government manages approximately 38.1 million acres in Utah, most of which is full of ORV-eligible trails and roads. On the 8.2 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service, there are more than 9,000 miles of routes where it is legal to drive an ORV. On Bureau of Land Management-managed property -- where regulations are more lax -- there are more than 50,000 miles. This, of course, does not include all the unauthorized, user-created trails, which are rampant.

How can ORV users complain when they almost certainly have more than 70,000 miles of open routes to ride on? Who, exactly, is being shut out of Utah's public lands? 

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13100124

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites