317 miles of MOAB trails have been closed [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS]

[Sweetums]

Orange hair man is bad. We'll take this guy over here... what a loser of an election. Doesn't seem to be shaping up much better for 2024? THERE ARE BETTER CANDIDATES THAN THOSE TWO

This has very little to do with the White House, these changes are being made at the BLM level.

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[NoDoorsNoProblem]

I spend A LOT of time (headed there in the morning at 4:30am for 2 more days) in this exact area. For the last 30+ years we have worked side by side with the BLM. Closing spurs, maintaining trails, sometimes just taking them places their .gov vehicles shouldn't go. We got sh!t on in this deal. No other way to say it.

You are definitely in that population I mentioned then, that is suffering the most from these closures. The out of town pilgrims like myself don’t scratch the surface of a lot of these now closed trails.

The folks you mention that are "blazing trails" are the enemy. There is not a LOT of that going here but some. Issues are addressed. Things are fixed. Awkward conversations are had from other trail users to other trail users.

Agreed. In your opinion, is this crowd doing damage but being labelled as a scapegoat for others pushing change?

 

[FloridaMan655321]

So I guess when someone says "NO POLITICS", there is a political angle to this?
Please ignore my question, just something that seems to trigger me. I don't know why this would be political. Keep the ecosystem safe, and maybe in the future we can re-open with a bit more education as to how to treat these trails.

 

[Sweetums]

The specifics are of which acres are not going to the White House in this decision. The White House nominated the secretary and sets general policy guidelines, but are not involved in the specifics of this decision.

The flip side is the party that wants to set up oil drilling rigs around national parks.

 

[ecidiego]

came in to count banned users, left unsurprised. just dont, guys.

 

[Teqsand]

Odd, we can complain it happened, but are forbidden from discussing the larger picture of these closures....

 

[COASTAL CAJUN]

This really sucks. These types of closures are going to keep happening because visitors to Moab (not capitalized, it's not an acronym) can't seem to follow the rules and stay on the trail. Over the last 20 years I've seen more and more destruction of people driving and walking off-trail both inside and outside the national parks.

I'm for open land access, but people destroying the fragile desert ecosystem is killing our past time. If you want to drive off-trail you can go to Sand Hollow and drive literally wherever you want on rocks or dunes.

Stay on the trail or stay home.

You can't fix stupid! Just wait for a protest no

 

[Outback_Joe]

Well from someone that has worked for government for well over 30 years this is only partly true.

I have seen first hand that the new hires at BLM and the Forest Service are leaning more and more for closures, period. If you think this is going to slow down see the "FACT" below. Where I currently live it's very sparsely populated (less than .75 per sq. mile) and we have or had lots of open BLM land and roads. These so called public lands are closing at an ever increasing pace. This has also had a huge impact on how forest fires are fought. Since some of the roads have been blocked by tank traps the fire fighters have to hike miles into the forest to fight fires. Fires that have grown because of the road closures. It cuts both ways and the BLM and FS are fine with both. They hate to see people having fun! They, the new hires feel that this is not our land but it's only their land to close as they please with little or no notice. Now it's not to say that some abuse the trails and land by going off trail or off the existing roads (if you can call them that now) and are simply screwing things up for all of us. When these types of folks are caught in the act they are videoed and that is turned over to BLM and or the FS. If that makes be a RAT then so be it, but folks that screw things up for me are not helping the sport and the lifestyle.

FACT: Vote for the type of government you want. If you like how things are closing and being taken away from us then you have zero to gripe about.

End Rant!

 

[MPMB]

Are there that many people driving $100,000 trucks with $100,000 toy haulers that contain $80,000 worth of SxS that are destroying rocks and sand?

I remember cross-country skiers yelling at snowmobiles and trying to get sleds banned from the trail system. Nevermind that the CC skiers are on the ORV trail system instead of the CC-only trails.

Sure, there are a-holes out on the trails that are obnoxious, but none of them are the ones that are going to destroy a million-year-old natural bridge.

 

[Mays9185]

Isn't thos what Lite Brite was fighting last year do to a developer?

 

[RudeJeepin]

Recently Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Historic Roadways Protection Act in the United States Senate in response to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recent decision to close 317 miles of popular historic roads in Moab.

https://www.lee.senate.gov/2023/10/lee-bill-seeks-to-protect-utah-s-historic-roads




Tracy Stone-Manning, current director of the BLM is a former known member of Earth First.

 

[Sweetums]

Are there that many people driving $100,000 trucks with $100,000 toy haulers that contain $80,000 worth of SxS that are destroying rocks and sand?

Having spent more than 20 years playing in Moab: yes.

 

[Tommyd]

This really sucks. These types of closures are going to keep happening because visitors to Moab (not capitalized, it's not an acronym) can't seem to follow the rules and stay on the trail. Over the last 20 years I've seen more and more destruction of people driving and walking off-trail both inside and outside the national parks.

I'm for open land access, but people destroying the fragile desert ecosystem is killing our past time. If you want to drive off-trail you can go to Sand Hollow and drive literally wherever you want on rocks or dunes.

Stay on the trail or stay home.

Exactly. People are idiots anymore. Going to happen here where I live on forest service wheee they trash everything and tear up everything. This new generation thinks they can do whatever they want with no consequences

 

[Orange01z28]

If you look at the map of trails that are closed, and overlay that with OnX or another map, you’ll see that the majority of the classic, widely known trails and all badge trails are still intact. Most of these closures are smaller, unnamed, but lettered/numbered trails that have gotten too trafficked to reasonably maintain the environment around them. Others are trails that should not even exist and are trails that were blazed by drivers who shouldn’t have even been there.

It looks like more than anything, this affects locals, and Utahns that frequent this area often, not the majority of us who take an annual pilgrimage to hit all of the famous trails. These are mostly smaller trails probably more well known to locals and those staying away from the traditional famous full-size Jeep trails.

Is that supposed to make it any better?

Closures hurt us all. This attitude is only going to allow the BLM to take more from the true owners of the land, the public

You're working to a solution that will make the West parkified like the East

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