- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3267589
Good work and decent press!
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Groups join to close damaged side roads
By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
KANAB - Off-highway-vehicle drivers are bullish on Hog Canyon.
Three miles north of Kanab, the scenic, redrock canyon's 25-mile-long lumpy road offers a challenge for drivers of every ability.
It also challenges the Bureau of Land Management, which for several years has been in a political brawl with environmentalists and Kane County officials over control of the roads etched across the sandy public land.
Sky Chanay says it need not descend into vitriolic exchanges or court battles, but can instead be solved with a spirit of cooperation.
Chanay is founder of Land Use Volunteers of Kane County. His group on Wednesday joined forces with the BLM to close side routes off the main Hog Canyon route damaged by illegal OHV use and to develop techniques that might be used to manage other roads across public lands.
Chanay, who started his volunteer group nine months ago, says, "There are about 20 miles of road here that could be designed as a prototype for how the BLM manages roads."
By working together with area four-wheel drive clubs, he said, a monitoring system may eventually be put in place to track incursions into restricted areas by off-highway drivers.
Efforts Wednesday were coordinated by BLM ranger Robert Leaver, who regularly puts up new barriers - or repairs damaged barricades - on tracks designated to be closed.
Building a barricade Wednesday was as simple as sinking a post on both sides of the track and connecting them with a horizontal rail. Volunteers then gathered old branches that were planted like leafless trees in front of the barricade. Tire marks on the closed road were raked over.
Rich Csenge, who divides his time between living in Kanab and in Maine, contributed elbow grease to Wednesday's volunteer effort by digging postholes.
Csenge says he can see the need for a large agency such as the BLM to bring all interested parties to the table and include their concerns in their land-management plans.
"It makes me sad to see people fighting over use of the land that belongs to all of us," said Csenge. "There is enough room for everybody if [BLM] management objectives are obtained."
Bob Wallen, land-use representative for the Kanab-based Canyon Country Four-Wheelers, supported Wednesday's project. He showed up with a pile of barricade poles heaped in the back of his red Jeep Wrangler.
Wallen says a $12,000 grant the four-wheeler group received two years ago from the state Division of Parks and Recreation is being used to support education programs on OHV use, mitigate environmental concerns on trails, help with construction projects and report violations to the BLM.
"This area all used to be open travel country, which means you could go anywhere. But there have been a lot of changes in the last 20 years," said Wallen. "With the changes - like more traffic, novice riders and equipment - have come more rules."
BLM spokesman Larry Crutchfield says the volunteers make possible projects like the one Wednesday.
"Not only do they put boots on the ground," he said, "they open their wallets, too. All sides give up something here, to get more of something there."
mhavnes@sltrib.com
>>>>>>>>>>>
Good work and decent press!
<<<<<<<<<<
Groups join to close damaged side roads
By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
KANAB - Off-highway-vehicle drivers are bullish on Hog Canyon.
Three miles north of Kanab, the scenic, redrock canyon's 25-mile-long lumpy road offers a challenge for drivers of every ability.
It also challenges the Bureau of Land Management, which for several years has been in a political brawl with environmentalists and Kane County officials over control of the roads etched across the sandy public land.
Sky Chanay says it need not descend into vitriolic exchanges or court battles, but can instead be solved with a spirit of cooperation.
Chanay is founder of Land Use Volunteers of Kane County. His group on Wednesday joined forces with the BLM to close side routes off the main Hog Canyon route damaged by illegal OHV use and to develop techniques that might be used to manage other roads across public lands.
Chanay, who started his volunteer group nine months ago, says, "There are about 20 miles of road here that could be designed as a prototype for how the BLM manages roads."
By working together with area four-wheel drive clubs, he said, a monitoring system may eventually be put in place to track incursions into restricted areas by off-highway drivers.
Efforts Wednesday were coordinated by BLM ranger Robert Leaver, who regularly puts up new barriers - or repairs damaged barricades - on tracks designated to be closed.
Building a barricade Wednesday was as simple as sinking a post on both sides of the track and connecting them with a horizontal rail. Volunteers then gathered old branches that were planted like leafless trees in front of the barricade. Tire marks on the closed road were raked over.
Rich Csenge, who divides his time between living in Kanab and in Maine, contributed elbow grease to Wednesday's volunteer effort by digging postholes.
Csenge says he can see the need for a large agency such as the BLM to bring all interested parties to the table and include their concerns in their land-management plans.
"It makes me sad to see people fighting over use of the land that belongs to all of us," said Csenge. "There is enough room for everybody if [BLM] management objectives are obtained."
Bob Wallen, land-use representative for the Kanab-based Canyon Country Four-Wheelers, supported Wednesday's project. He showed up with a pile of barricade poles heaped in the back of his red Jeep Wrangler.
Wallen says a $12,000 grant the four-wheeler group received two years ago from the state Division of Parks and Recreation is being used to support education programs on OHV use, mitigate environmental concerns on trails, help with construction projects and report violations to the BLM.
"This area all used to be open travel country, which means you could go anywhere. But there have been a lot of changes in the last 20 years," said Wallen. "With the changes - like more traffic, novice riders and equipment - have come more rules."
BLM spokesman Larry Crutchfield says the volunteers make possible projects like the one Wednesday.
"Not only do they put boots on the ground," he said, "they open their wallets, too. All sides give up something here, to get more of something there."
mhavnes@sltrib.com
>>>>>>>>>>>
