We wanted to provide an update regarding the current scoping phase of travel management planning the BLM is doing for the Labyrinth Rims/Gemini Bridges area North West of Moab. It’s great to see so much energy and enthusiasm around this issue for an area that so many of us know and relate to.
This process is the result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) claiming the BLM failed to follow the correct process 2008 when developing its Travel Management Plan (TMP) across much of southern Utah. SUWA settled and as part of the 2017 settlement agreement the BLM is now revisiting a number of Travel Management Areas (TMA) across the state of which Labyrinth is the third of 12 total TMA’s.
The first revisited TMA was the San Rafael Desert, essentially all the land south of I-70, west of the Green River to Highway 24 and south towards Hanksville. The San Rafael Desert final TMP decision was viewed as acceptable for motorized recreationalists in that it kept two-thirds of the existing routes open, most of which SUWA set out to close. Link to decision here. The second, the San Rafael Swell, which includes trails such as the infamous 5 miles of Hell, Colored Trails, Waterfall and Devil’s Racetrack is also underway with the scoping phase that ended in early March 2021.
Together, Ride with Respect (RwR), The Trails Preservation Alliance (TPA) and the Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) have been engaged in this process from the beginning and named as interveners. We have been working diligently providing comments for the previous reviewed TMA’s and will continue to do so as this process moves forward to provide a voice for all motorized recreationalists.
Other thoughts-
The Labyrinth Rims/Gemini Bridges TMA is 330,000 acres and is one of twelve TMA’s which collectively threatens millions of acres.
There are 9 more TMA’s that will be undergoing the same process in the coming months. We hope to get the same enthusiasm for the others but know that groups such as RwR, TPA, COHVCO and others such as Colorado Off Road Enterprise (CORE) are engaged for all motorized recreationalist.
Other TMA’s are not as popular or as well known as the Labyrinth/Gemini zone; they are all valuable motorized routes to our recreation group. And as more and more people find the value in this form of recreation it’s important to protect all designated routes.
This is a scoping process which is the first step in travel management planning and is when the agency seeks to identify public concerns and issues to be analyzed.
Wilderness groups, such as SUWA, want everything closed to motorized use which is unreasonable. We have thousands of acres protected and designated as wilderness.
Less than 1% of the TMA’s are designated routes so essentially 99% of the existing TMA’s are already non-motorized.
In the upcoming TMA’s scoping processes it will be valuable to ensure that all existing routes are included. Any routes that are not on current BLM maps need to be documented in the scoping period.
Motorized groups' position is more reasonable considering we are advocating to, in this case, keep existing opportunities in an area where we continue to lose access. As motorized recreationalist it is imperative that we make our voices heard in the most reasonable and informed way possible.
This threatens Dispersed Camping which is more than just a motorized user issue.
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