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Show THE ZEPHYRNOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 22 from the sierra club The Jeep Safari Permit Mess by Lance Christie So the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), alarmed at the singular focus oh encouraging tourism without consideration of Impact on other values (plant, animal, and other human), called for letters to be written to the BLM Insisting that the potential problems be considered. Keeping the Red Rock Four Wheelers from getting a permit for a 1991 Jeep Safari was not what the SUWA Director had In mind, he Insists. His reasons were: (1) tills Is yet another episode In the effort to get the BLM to do decent EAs. (2) the members of the Utah Wilderness Coalition (of which SUWA Is a member) dont want to see BLM Issuing a events In candidate wilderness areas. (3) someone has permit which recognizes to take the responsibility for getting people to slow down and think about the consequences of what they do. Alas, SUWA's bulletin was written by a new SUWA staffer who dkbit realize that people In Grand County might Interpret It as attacking the Red Rock Four Wheelers and trying to shut down the Safari. Uke some of the earlier Red Rock Four Wheelers publications, SUWAs bulletin contained some terms which I view as overheated and Inappropriate. (Jack Campbell Jokes that SUWA hired the same guy to write the Bulletin that wrote the ads for the Red Rockers.) There Is a way out of tills mess. The Executive Director of SUWA, Brant Calkin, has suggested It to both BLM and the Red Rock Four Wheelers. He suggests that BLM consider Issuing a one-ye- ar permit for the 1991 Jeep Safari for 20 trails, withholding permits on the eight trails with significant environmental questions. This would give the BLM time to do a proper Environmental Impact Statement on the 28 trails for a five-ye- ar permit, complete with public hearings and opportunity for serious discussion among concerned off-ro- ad The Red Rock Four Wheelers submitted an application to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for a new five-ye- ar permit for their annual Jeep Safari events out of Moab. What has happened since Is a case study of mistaken perceptions, bungling, and how overheated rhetoric Isnt constructive. The story started last year, when the Red Rock Four Wheelers were Invited by BLM staff to submit their application for renewal of their 1985-19- 90 Jeep Safari permit early. more a 28 for of with did, trails, through the five-ye- ar They option adding requesting permit permit period. The Red Rock Four Wheelers have been responsible land users. They take pains to advocate land use ethics to Jeepers, enforce strict rules to limit land Impacts during their during the year. They received a Take Pride In Jeep Safari, and run trad clean-u- ps America award from BLM two years ago and they deserved It The question underlying the permit process, therefore, Is not whether the Red Rock Four Wheelers mean welL The questions are whether the 40 or so leaders Involved can maintain control of this event which has grown from 400 participants In 1979 to 1,300 registrants In 1990 and an expected 1,600 In 1991, and how to contain unintended effects of such a large event on the land and Its native Inhabitants. Unfortunately, BLM dkl not proceed to review the permit application In a sensible manner. Part of the problem appears to me to be the fatal Illness of Dave Minor, the BLMs recreational planner. We mourn Dave. He was a good and competent man. Because he was fighting his bout with cancer, he wasnt pushing the bureaucracy Into processing the permit, figuring out what the Issues were and seeing they were addressed. Grand County and the BLM may be suffering conflict and confusion due to our losing Dave. Part of the problem seems to have been the procrastination that happens when bureaucrats confront a decision which will peeve somebody no matter which way It goes. The New Grand Area Manager, Brad Palmer, made a rational decision: the Jeep Safari had grown so much since 1985 that the character of the event had substantially changed, eliminating the possibility of a simple renewal of the existing permit Instead, an Environmental Assessment was necessary to assess what environmental Impacts the Jeep Safari event has now. The point of doing an Environmental Assessment (EA) Is to Identify environmental which Impacts might occur. This leads to prescribing measures to avoid or reduce these problems. By the time the decision to do an EA was made by the BLM, some of the members of the Red Rockers Interpreted the bureaucratic delay as Indicating the BLM was out to shut down the Jeep Safari. These members heatedly published advertisements and letters which put pressure on the BLM to approve the permit application posthaste. Perhaps this was done for effect, since I dont know anybody In the BLM, Sierra Club, or SUWA who Is out to stop the Jeep Safari. Unfortunately, they got an effect The BLM hastily put out an "EA" which was only about two paragraphs longer than this article. The EA didnt deal substantially with such Issues as route Intrusions Into proposed wilderness units, bighorn sheep Category I and II areas during lambing season, and Impacts on archeological resources, riparian areas, and endangered species. Thus, the BLM created a situation: they either give the Red Rock Four Wheelers an unconditional permit for everything asked for, or they dont give out a permit black-or-wh- Incflvfduals and groups. ar Another possibility Is for BLM to permit the Jeep Safari on a basis until a Utah BLM wilderness Mil Is passed, whereupon It would be dear which vehicular routes were and were not Intruding on wilderness, and an appropriate five-ye- ar permit could be Issued. I presume that bighorn sheep, riparian, archeological and other Issues would be resolved meanwhile through an EIS process. If such a compromise solution Is not adopted, we could end up with a situation nobody wants: having Easter 1991 arrive without a Red Rock Four Wheelers Jeep Safari permit The environmental groups are obliged to challenge BLMs Issuing sn ORV event permit which Is sure to be environmentally Impactful yet contains no provisions to mitigate harm. Look at the difficulty our own Blue Ribbon Committee Is having trying to deal with camping Impacts on public land, which were Ignored until they became severe. If the sanitation problems are not dealt with, government will close the affected lands to camping. Nor can Grand County resolve the situation simply by declaring the 28 trails "Class D county roads In an effort to put BLM out of the picture. The County can easily establish ay on trails In use as of 1970 with appropriate paperwork. For the most part, these older trails are not at Issue. For later trails, the process of establishing Is complex and probably expensive, particularly In the face of challenge. Hopefully, this mess will be worked out sensibly. But there are sensible solutions available to those who wish to preserve the resources that will preserve our economy In the long run. Lets make sure we control the situation, rather than having the tourists or the government control us. year-to-ye- right-of-w- right-of-w- ay Lance Christie Is the Chairman of the Canyonlands Group of the Sierra Club, and President of the Association for the Tree of Ufe, a Utah fit corporation based In Moab and pursuing sustainable economic development compatible with ecological values. ATL can be contacted at P. O. Box 86, Moab, 5; donations are non-pro- 259-509- ble. lte at all. Under these conditions, one can sympathize with Red Rockers who think the BLM the Jeep Safari. With a defective EA like this, If BLM Issues a permit, It Is a lead pipe cinch that some environmental group will protest the lack of due process, appeal the permit, and get a stay. Result: no permit for a 1991 Jeep Safari. When the Utah Wilderness Coalition put together the 5.1 million acre BLM wilderness proposal, since Introduced In Congress as H.R. 1 500 by Wayne Owens, Jeep trails actively used by organizations like the Red Rock Four Wheelers were carefully excluded from proposed wilderness unit boundaries when It was known where the trails were. Jeep trails didnt have to be excluded: Congress defines a "road" as mechanically built or maintained. However, when preparing the proposal environmentalists took the position that a vehicular way that went somewhere, was passable, and was used on an ongoing by people basis was a "road." When you overlay the Jeep Safari 28 trails on the H.R. 1500 proposed units and the bighorn sheep habitat maps, you find that there Is no contest on 12 trails. About eight more have no conflict on the main trail; only optional spur trails appear to Intrude on proposed wilderness unit boundaries. The remaining eight appear to Invade lambing areas or have other substantial conflicts. These apparent conflicts are what needs sober study. Is out to do In w M SUPERIOR ENERGY SYSTEMS ROBERT SOLDAT MOAB PUBLIC RADIO 89.7 FM Would you like to help? Send your donation to: MOAB PUBLIC RADIO 895 OAK STREET MOAB, UT 84532 RV Solar Electric o camp anywhere easy to live with e quiet automatice operation o 12 volt or regular house current o durable, reliable installations CATALOG AND DESIGN GUIDE, 100 PAGES $3 CVSR 2510 Moab, Utah 84532 (801) 259-763- 8 00 |
