A Great Old Broads volunteer records unauthorized road construction on Plute Pass in southeast Utah recently. This road had been a singletrack trail prior to the destruction, and conservationists allege similar things are happening on thousands of acres all over the biologically-senstive and artifact-rich Cedar Mesa region./Photos courtesy Broads Healthy Lands Project

by Will Sands

All-terrain vehicles are steadily taking over nearby Cedar Mesa in Utah, and they appear to be doing it under the cover of darkness. ATV advocates and public officials are reshaping the landscape around Bluff, Blanding and Monticello to suit motorized recreation, and they are doing it illegally, according to conservationists.

Last spring, Lynell Schalk, a retired Bureau of Land Management Investigator, visited Recapture Wash, a canyon just west of Blanding on BLM lands. Rather than the expected cow trail inside a primitive red rock canyon, she found an improved ATV road. The 24-mile track showed signs of possible blasting and sledge-hammering of rock and included numerous new culverts, rock cribbing and newly installed gates. The new road also crossed and destroyed an astonishing 31 archeological sites and represented “felony level destruction of public property.” Most shocking for Schalk was the fact that the BLM was already aware of the transgression.

“When I reported it, the BLM was already aware of the destruction,” she said. “But no investigation was conducted and instead the route had been abandoned and turned over to the county as a public right of way.”

A deeper look revealed that the BLM field manager had started a criminal investigation but had then terminated it. Schalk eventually pressured the agency to reopen the case and preliminary findings indicate that an ATV club and Utah’s San Juan County were responsible for the damage.

“The idea that the BLM terminated the investigation and then turned the trail system over to the county seems pretty outrageous,” Schalk said. “It’s like rewarding a bank robber with the money they had stolen.”

Recapture Wash is by no means an isolated example. According to Rose Chilcoat, program manager for the Durango-based Great Old Broads for Wilderness, much of southeast Utah is being bulldozed into a motorized mecca.

“San Juan County has gone out and mapped every path you could conceivably drive an ATV down,” Chilcoat said. “They’ve published that map and effectively told the public they can go out and drive any of these routes.”

Currently known as the “Canyon Riders Trail System,” the map contains hundreds of miles of ATV routes and trails. According to publicity for the San Juan Safari, a three-day ATV event in late September, “Folks in San Juan County are close to completing a 400-mile loop that will access all of the major trails surrounding Monticello and Blanding, Utah.”

However, the 400-mile route, mostly on public land, crosses fragile areas, has not been approved by a credible public process and is often illegal, according to Chilcoat. Among the lines on the map are trails leading into the Fish and Owl Creek Wilderness Study Area and into the designated Dark Canyon Wilderness. Chilcoat and Schalk also alleged that the BLM is complicit in the process, often approving new routes after the fact, giving verbal approvals to San Juan County and reviewing major impacts with hasty environmental assessments.

“They basically want motorized access everywhere out there, and it’s being done outside of the public process,” Chilcoat said. “The fact is that there are illegal activities occurring on Cedar Mesa, and the BLM is not doing its job.”

In response, Great Old Broads has launched “Recapture Utah!,” an effort to monitor ATV damage in San Juan County and southeast Utah. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has partnered in the effort, and a new group, the Canyon Country Heritage Association, has recently formed in Bluff in response to these and other issues.

Broads have recently hiked into Recapture Wash and other places and recorded evidence of unauthorized route construction. The effort also has documented recent construction and damage on the San Juan Hill portion of the historic Mormon Hole-In-The-Rock Trail, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Near Bluff, Schalk and the Broads found evidence of San Juan County running a bulldozer down Lime Ridge, blading sensitive desert crust and crossing into a designated nonmotorized area near the San Juan River. Courtesy of Schalk’s and the Broad’s efforts, that new route is also under investigation by the BLM, even though it took the agency two months to respond to their requests.

Speaking as a former criminal investigator, Schalk commented, “In my mind, the criminal violations are pretty clear cut at Recapture Wash and Lime Ridge. The cases aren’t that difficult to prosecute. But we’ll have to wait and see whether they’ll actually be prosecuted or not.”

Chilcoat concluded that lasting damage is continuing to be inflicted on a unique and fragile landscape. The damage being done to the rich concentrations of Puebloan artifacts is especially distressing.

“The archeological resources there are tremendous and unparalleled,” Chilcoat said. “Increased access and motorized use means increasing damage. Tire tracks are going right past closed signs and up over the tops of archeological sites.”

In addition, the natural landscape all over southeast Utah is feeling the bite of tire tread. “We’re seeing more and more erosion and loss of vegetation,” Chilcoat said. “People aren’t respecting wilderness study areas or designated nonmotorized areas. A tremendous resource in Utah is being destroyed, and it’s happening day by day and mile by mile.”

When contacted, the Monticello office of the BLM did not return phone calls. SPEAR (San Juan Public Entry and Access Rights), the San Juan County ATV organization, could not be reached for comment. •