50 activists to petition for controlled ORV use

About 50 conservationists, including some determined to protect Utah public land, were planning to petition the Interior Department and members of Congress today for better regulation of off-road vehicles.

One of the group said the trip was part of a broader campaign to beef up protection for public lands under the National Landscape Conservation System, which consists of more than 26 million acres of public lands. They include national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness, wilderness study areas, wild and scenic rivers and national and scenic trails, he said.

This may turn out to be the first test of the environmental stance of the newly appointed secretary of the department, former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

One of those heading to Washington is Mike Satter, Kanab, president of the board of directors of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, the support organization for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Kane and Grand counties.

Grand Staircase is the only monument in Utah under the National Landscape Conservation System.

Satter stressed that he is not an environmental activist but is interested in forging better links with members of the public. Perceptions of the monument have improved greatly in the nearly 10 years since then-President Bill Clinton established it, he said.

However, he is interested in protecting areas of the monument from ORV damage.

"I'm going to be visiting the Utah delegation," Satter said in a cell phone interview Monday afternoon while he was in the Minneapolis airport en route to Washington. While he hopes to show the delegation the kind of things that can be achieved by a non-advocacy group, he does want to bring up ORV damage.

"I do see that as one of the major issues that we deal with," he said.

"Just this last weekend, on Memorial Day weekend, a park ranger saw about 45 ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) in the Upper Paria area, on trails where they had no right being on," he said. ATVs destroy vegetation and cause other damage, he said.

"We need to consider advocate law enforcement so we can do a better job of preserving and protecting this land, and that's pretty much all I'll say" about the issue to the delegation, Satter added.

Environmentalists are charging that irresponsible off-road vehicle use, vandalism and development are harming some of these special lands, according to a briefing document.

One of the changes they are pushing for is to add rangers to enforce the laws against vandalism and "illegal cross-country off-road vehicle use," adds the document.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com