Action Needed!! Emery County Bill

[DaveInDenver]

BTW, @Inukshuk, a significant amount of what we drove last month (for example access to Black Dragon Canyon, Red Canyon, Hidden Splendor, Calf Mesa, Tomsich Butte, Segers Hole, Horse Valley) may be threatened and lost.

 

[Mendocino]

Thanks for the follow up @DaveInDenver , I was wondering what happened.

 

[DaveInDenver]

It's unlikely anything can be changed or stopped at this point since the lumped bill hinges on individual parts. Rich people (read: influential donors to Jared Polis who originally introduced the Bolts Ditch Access and Use Act in 2017) in Minturn get access to their water that was lost in 1980 due to their own negligence not noticing it was encompassed in the Holy Cross Wilderness maps by kowtowing to SUWA on the San Rafael Swell and screwing Utah.

 

[jps8460]

I guess now we fight to prevent closures. This really sucks!

 

[DaveInDenver]

I guess now we fight to prevent closures. This really sucks!

That it does, the Swell is so cool. I'm just glad I've had the chance to see a little bit of it. Count yourself luck if you ever went on a Robber's Roost run, too. I'm glad I got to work through some of this and am going to really focus on doing as much more as I can this spring now. It's ironic because this book relies on being able to drive quite a lot.

 

[DaveInDenver]

BTW, @Inukshuk, a significant amount of what we drove last month (for example access to Black Dragon Canyon, Red Canyon, Hidden Splendor, Calf Mesa, Tomsich Butte, Segers Hole, Horse Valley) may be threatened and lost.

 

[DaveInDenver]

From Facebook.

This may be your last chance to save 74 miles of county roads from being closed by the Emery County bill.

Yesterday evening, Emery County hosted a public-information meeting attended by about a hundred people, almost all of them residents of Castle Country.

First I need to sincerely commend the Emery County commissioners, state officials, and congressional staff for providing me with a forum to express OHV rider concerns with the Emery County bill (part of S. 47). They let me speak for an hour, then invited me on a panel discussion, then gave me the last word despite my criticism of their bill. They certainly made their case, but they tried to give straight answers, and I could not have asked for more on that evening.

Second I'd like to discourage any grumbles of boycotting businesses in Emery County. Some of the greatest champions of public access run stores like Ward's 4x4 and CarQuest, plus Eastern Utah Self-Storage / Peterson Chemical / KOAL Radio in neighboring Carbon County. Even boycotting a specific business seems counterproductive when the goal is to get a community functioning well... maybe unless that business starts with P and ends with 'atagonia. (I actually appreciate and have benefited from some environmental activism, but not from dishonesty, by any side.)

Third, my point was to provide details, thus people could form informed opinions. Personally I still believe strongly that the current bill is worse than a national monument. When developing the 2018 bill, they dropped OHV gains like codifying the Swell travel plan such that BLM would have to compensate for any necessary closures within that area. Therefore the county and congressmen hung their hats on the fact that, despite a lack of OHV gains, there would be no OHV losses in terms of immediate closures. Yet what they amended in December, and disclosed in January, was wilderness expansion that would permanently close 74 miles of county Class D primitive roads (in addition to some trails that I'm willing to overlook). Most if not all of these roads are currently not prohibited by BLM or SITLA for motorized travel, as I explained at the public-info meeting. (See Holly Jorgensen's videos, particularly the first one that's 49:48 minutes, and the last one that's 44:18 minutes.)

This pending tragedy may stem from keeping the bill's development away from OHV representatives last year but, the fact is, no one can change the past. All I expect of elected officials is to do whatever possible from this day forward. In a matter of hours, the Senate could vote for this bill (actually the package of bills that includes Emery County). But there are several more steps to the legislative process. The commissioners and all congressmen from Utah have a chance to either pull the Emery County bill from the package, or else trim back the wilderness boundaries to avoid those 74 miles of county Class D primitive roads, which is commonly known as "cherry stemming." Even though that still wouldn't be any better than a monument, in my opinion, it would make things right.

You may feel like hope is lost, but you'll regret not charging through the finish, and here are a few inspiring photo's of what's at stake. All three roads are in the San Rafael Desert above Labyrinth Canyon, and all three roads would be permanently closed to all mechanized use by the Emery County bill:
1&2. SW of Bull Hollow (road and nearby stock pond) N 38° 39.162' W 110° 07.120'
3&4. spur N of Lookout Point Road (views from end of road) N 38° 39.620' W 110° 04.955'
5&6. spur S of Colonnade Arch TH (road and drill hole at end) N 38° 32.689' W 110° 05.098'
To contact the county commissioners and congressmen, go to...
www.sageridersmc.com/land-use-issues.html
...and click on File #0. Please keep the passion and the civility that everyone displayed yesterday.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Kurt (@cruiseroutfit) - do you have any advise on what the Rising Sun can to do now to help?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Some more details about what has transpired. Sounds like SUWA lied to the commissioners and media that the land proposed for Wilderness was already closed and no access was threatened.

http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum...-use-bill-meeting-in-castle-dale-on-2-5.6472/

 

[RayRay27]

Some more details about what has transpired. Sounds like SUWA lied to the commissioners and media that the land proposed for Wilderness was already closed and no access was threatened.

http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum...-use-bill-meeting-in-castle-dale-on-2-5.6472/[/QUO

Unfortunately from reading the above forum, the closing of the Swell and the surrounding areas is a done deal.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Unfortunately from reading the above forum, the closing of the Swell and the surrounding areas is a done deal.

It's not done, it still has to pass through Congress and be signed by the president. What happened this week is Emery County OK'ing some of their parts the were required for the land swaps to let the bill progress. The commissioners could have monkey-wrenched the bill and chosen to protect their constituents, but that didn't happen. It also may harm Hanksville in Wayne County south of San Rafael but I'm not sure just how at the moment. I think there was mention of water shed access.

It's a section within S.47 in the U.S. Senate.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/47

So make sure to let our Senators and the Representative from our district know what you think. I personally didn't bother asking Bennet to oppose it but I did tell Sen. Gardner and Rep. Tipton that is what I wanted and told each it's based on the San Rafael Swell stuff supposing it might still be amended or changed. It could be vetoed as well. Don't give up, that's exactly what the SUWA wants.

 

[Mendocino]

Needless to say, SUWA does not like us: https://suwa.org/issues/off-road-vehicles/

 

[RayRay27]

Sounds like SUWAs beef is with the BLM for not enforcing several travel plans that were enacted from 2008 so now they're going ballz deep on all off road vehicles.

 

[DaveInDenver]

No, they're didn't like that the BLM failed to prohibit OHVs completely in 2008. That's what their goal is - no motorized vehicles off pavement.

The proposed wildernesses are what they wanted all along and the current travel plan just left existing mine roads from the 50s & 60s in place. They sued the government when Congress didn't give them what they wanted.

I doubt any of them bother going in there. All I've seen mostly are trucks, dirt bikes and mountain bikes. It's a long f'n walk to get in there.

 

[DaveInDenver]

This has poked the beehive (pun intended) in Salt Lake City.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46486994/federal-designations-bill-stirs-controversy-in-utah

 

[Mendocino]

This has poked the beehive (pun intended) in Salt Lake City.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46486994/federal-designations-bill-stirs-controversy-in-utah

Awesome!

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

That’s great

 

[DaveInDenver]

One of the roads in need of closure on the east side the Swell? This one appears to not be in an area destined to become Wilderness, though. It had clear indication of heavy use by cattlemen. But, I mean, just look at the hooliganism and destruction brought down upon the land.

Old homesteader or miner cabin ruins. I might note that perhaps we should be suing the BLM such as do the groups pushing for all the Wilderness. In this case if you look at the antiquity and archeological laws a structure must be 50 years old to be considered significant and at 100 years artifacts may be culturally important. How are to ever know that these now potentially historic pieces of the West are being protected or studied?

 

[Inukshuk]

 

[nuclearlemon]

I guess now we fight to prevent closures. This really sucks!

some of us have been doing that for years. this is a big part of why we need more ohv'ers involved in clubs and reading the land use sections and responding.