Throw book at Kane duo

Nothing expresses more clearly the arrogance of the ATV crowd than the recent vandalism by Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw and Sheriff Lamont Smith in the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument. The motorheads are always babbling about "extreme environmentalists," but you don't see SUWA members breaking the law when it suits them. Environmental groups use the courts and political pressure to change policy. The BLM should throw the book at these scofflaws and make an example of them.

What makes their actions even more bizarre is that Kane County agreed to these rules when the monument management plan was enacted several years ago.

Southern Utah's red-rock canyons are ecological treasures that belong to the world — not just Kane County residents. People come here for the stunning vistas, the blue sky and solitude. They want wilderness, not racetracks. They want silence, not the whine of two-stroke engines. Why is that so hard to understand?

Bryan Larsen

Murray