OHV group: Environmentalists trodding on its proposal for trails
Vehicles banned: The BLM is 'caught in the middle' of a fight over two canyons north of Kanab
Trails closed: The BLM must referee a dispute between off-road enthusiasts, environmentalists
By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
One week after the Bureau of Land Management ordered emergency restrictions for off-highway vehicle use in the Hog Canyon and Trail Canyon area north of Kanab, fingers are pointing all the way around.
A local OHV organization claims to have initially identified the off-road problems in the canyons, alerted the BLM to them and proposed a designated trail system for the area. It blamed an environmental group for butting in and demanding immediate closures. Environmentalists, meanwhile, condemned the OHV club for creating the damage in the first place.
And the BLM? "We're caught in the middle," said Rex Smart, manager of the BLM's Kanab Field Office.
Smart said he decided to restrict OHV use to a group of existing trails in Hog Canyon and closed off Trail Canyon after he and other BLM officials assessed the damage. The areas previously had been designated open to cross country travel.
"It's meant to be temporary," he said earlier this week. "The final decisions will come with the [field office's land use] planning process. But when the resource damage is getting out of hand, we have the authority to issue emergency orders."
Richard Jessop, president of the Canyon Country 4X4 Club, said his group opposes the BLM's decision because it limits or cuts off access to favored destinations. And he blamed the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) for creating the situation.
"I feel like the emergency action was really unnecessary, but I think they were pressured by SUWA," Jessop said. "We took our proposal to the BLM because we saw a problem. But as soon as SUWA got wind of it, they did everything they could to kill the entire proposal."
SUWA attorney Liz Thomas acknowledged that her organization brought pressure to bear - but only after documenting the damage.
"We opposed the proposal because the BLM hadn't done any environmental work," said Thomas. "A bunch of trails and juniper trees had been cut right above their office in Kanab, and they had no idea it was going on. The club wasn't out to protect the place. They were up there creating trails, freshly cut trails, because they wanted to hold an event up there. It was only after we brought it to their attention that the BLM went up and looked at the situation."
Jessop flatly denied that club members created what is essentially a 30-mile trail network.
"It's bull, for lack of a better term," he said. "I've lived in this area all my life, and SUWA doesn't know what in the hell it's talking about. There are areas up there with trails that haven't been used in so long that they're overgrown. I don't know where they get their information."
Smart at least partially concurred.
"That area has been popular with four-wheelers for years," he said. "I don't know when a lot of those routes were cut in there. I'm sure some are newer than others. But we have no direct knowledge that the club went in and cut the trails."
Jessop and his organization remain steamed over the emergency order and predicted more problems ahead.
"People will start tearing down the BLM signs," he said.
SUWA's Thomas said that for reasons like those, the BLM should close off Hog Canyon altogether.
jbaird@sltrib.com
