ORV Travel Plan in the Works -- Help Protect Wilderness in the Glen Canyon Area

The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA) encompasses a significant portion of Utah’s redrock country in southern Utah. Authorized in 1972 and managed by the National Park Service (NPS), it covers 1.25 million acres of remote and wild canyon country. This magnificent landscape is surrounded by equally impressive lands in Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks, the Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, BLM-managed wilderness-quality lands, and the Navajo Nation. NPS is currently drafting an off-road vehicle (ORV) plan for the GCNRA. You can help preserve some of southern Utah’s most beautiful wildlands from the long-term scars and impacts of ORV use by submitting comments on the plan by November 30.

The GCNRA was designated to “. . . preserve the scenic, scientific, and historic features contributing to the pubic enjoyment of the area . . .” in addition to providing for the recreational use and enjoyment of Lake Powell and the adjacent lands. Although the primary feature of the GCNRA is Lake Powell, the remaining 87% is undeveloped lands, containing pre-historic cultural sites, wildlife habitat, and outstanding opportunities for a pure wilderness experience. NPS has recommended nearly one-half of the GCNRA for wilderness designation. These lands must be protected from ORV impacts.

Currently, NPS allows street legal ATVs  to drive on all dirt routes in the GCNRA (more than 300 miles), even though Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks prohibit the use of ATVs within the parks. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument restricts them to a few routes. In addition, some of the routes NPS proposes for ATV and other motor vehicle use in the GCNRA lead to trails closed to public and/or ATV use in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in Canyonlands National Park, and to lands proposed for wilderness.

Please urge the Superintendent of the GCNRA to comply with the Executive Order No. 11644 governing ORV use in the GCNRA, which requires NPS to protect the natural resources and public lands from ORV impacts, to promote public safety of all users of those lands, and to minimize impacts to natural resources and the conflicts among various users of those lands and to allow ATV and other ORV use on routes and in “open areas” only after NPS has determined that such use will not affect the natural, aesthetic or scenic values of the areas in which the routes or “open” areas are located. Finally, please urge the Superintendent to protect the lands recommended for wilderness designation and the irreplaceable cultural resources of the GCNRA from the impacts of off-road vehicle use.

Thank you for all you do,

Liz Thomas
Field Attorney
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance