Off-roaders plan Grand Staircase protest ride

It's just a 30-mile stretch of "road" in a wilderness study area that locals have been using for years and environmentalists want to protect, but it will be the center of attention Saturday as more battles heat up over access to public land.

Fearing the Bureau of Land Management will begin to enforce a ban on off-road vehicles at the Paria River corridor in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, hundreds of off-road enthusiasts are planning a Saturday-morning protest ride.

"The issue for me is that it seems that the environmentalist community has far more control of what is going on on disputed lands than the average citizen," said Christopher Brimhall, a Riverton resident who is participating in the ride.

Kanab resident and organizer Shawna Cox said she has been astounded at the amount of support, with riders coming from across several Western states to participate. An estimated 500 to 1,000 people are planning to ride.

"It just goes to show that a lot of people are bent out of shape," she said. "If we lose that road, then they will take all the other roads."

It was a mid-April decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals slamming Kane and Garfield counties' ownership claims to so-called RS2477 roads that set the stage for the motorized demonstration.

The court ruled that such claims to roads in the area were overly vague and failed to prove actual harm, solidifying fears that access to traditionally used roads and water rights will be hampered.

"This is the way to protest. You write letters to people, but do you know if they actually see them, do they actually read them, or do they get filed in a pile? If you are in a protest rally, at least your nose is counted," Brimhall said.

He added that he decided to get involved in the growing movement to demand access because he has seen it whittled away year after year.

"Anymore, you step 50 feet off of the highway and you are in a wilderness area. We can't all hike. The West is too big. It is ludicrous, really."

Brimhall spends his spare time seeking out old ghost towns in Utah and documenting their stories.

"I'm trying to keep the old West alive, what is left of it," he said.

But he said that more and more, he's finding government signs that tell him to keep out of such places. "I can't get there," Brimhall said.

The BLM has not publicly said if it will intervene in Saturday's protest, but Cox said she was assured by the agency that it won't stop them.

"This is a peaceful thing," she said.

Another group that is planning to demonstrate against the protesters is gathering Saturday for a "Paria River Protection Event" and a breakfast.

"Your presence would lend support to this peaceful cause," said a statement from that group. "We will not be confrontational, inflammatory, aggressive or hostile, thus the proactive picnic theme. It is hard to yell at someone who is calmly sitting in a lawn chair, munching a muffin and sipping tea."

E-MAIL: amyjoi@desnews.com