Matt Stevens
Member
- Location
- Lehi, UT.
The way it works is there are only two designated areas in the west desert region that we can apply to do this right now. one is 5 mile and the other is out by Delle. the one by Delle will be easier to get races going soon because it has hosted races in the past. the one by 5 mile is a brand new venue and needs surveys and all so it will take about a year to get out there. the way I intend to keep everyone happy about the closure at 5 mile is to have a race one day for 4 wheel vehicles and the next day for bikes and quads. and yes these areas are small but its how we are going to get our foot in the door to get new land in Utah open for the public to use. we are also looking at other areas which include lake Powell area, delta and the sand dunes, and many others but all of this stuff takes time and lots of money so it is a 20 year plan not fly by night idea. some day I want to see my kids run in a point to point race from St. George to Salt lake. the reason I took all of this on is because 1. I love off-road racing and 2. because the land use acts were established 200 years ago giving the public a right to use public lands to gather and hold events on. over the years the government has pushed the public off these lands into small pockets of crappy ground and then limited the use there. we need to take our lands back people and the way we do that is to show up and be involved when these events do happen so we can show a huge interest in using our lands. If we could get 200 racers to an event I could then go to capital hill and have a leg to stand on to fight for our cause. So yes we will have a budget race class and a run what you brung class and after our Wednesday meeting I will give you updates on what those classes are and a Rule book will soon follow for all classes but Utah racing will be affordable to everyone I guarantee it.
The lands surrounding 5MP and Delle are not closed to OHV use, in fact quite the opposite they are very open and accessible. The reason they are not so open and accessible to racing is the exact facts we have already discussed, you will have to close them to hundreds of users to satisfy the desires of a smaller minority of users, aka what public land managers call 'user conflicts'. What 200 year old land use act are you referring too? There has never been a law, act, resolution or otherwise granting the implicit right to close public lands to the public in order to hold a private race? Sorry bud, it just doesn't exist. A private race hosted by a private for-profit organization is just that, a private entity. What has helped keep areas like 5MPRA open to OHV use is the year after year stewardship by groups like RME & UTMA, hosting cleanups, doing trail maintainance, etc. I'd conservatively estimate that the members of local 4x4 and OHV groups have volunteered 10,000 man-hours in the 5MPRA in the past decade, all towards keeping the area open, accessible and clean. Not trying to rain on your parade, but your approach to 'saving public land access' is not only skewed but honesty a bit insulting. I'm really not trying to rain on your parade, but I honestly don't feel like you've done any due diligence on researching all the aspects of your plans. Groups like RME sponsor trails in the 5MPRA, trails that under your plan would be closed to public use during your private races. I would have started my plans by contacting groups like RME, the UTMA, Moto-Utah, etc in a "can it be done while mitigating user conflicts" approach versus a "this is what were are going to do and this is why you will like it" approach. Head over to 5MPRA on a busy Saturday and spend a few hours chatting with users out there, see if they would be OK with a complete shutdown of the area and while your at it canvas them to see if they would be interested in attending the event. On some level I would like to think that with advance notice you could mitigate many of the issues, hard to say with out some real legwork in the planning stages.
