New Deal for Factory Butte

[stefan]

BLM limits travel at Factory Butte

Harm to rare cactus species prompts restrictions on ORVs

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Damage to a pair of rare cactus species has prompted the
Bureau of Land Management to ban travel outside designated routes in
most of the 148,500-acre Factory Butte region of southern Utah.
Ravell Call, Deseret Morning NewsThe BLM has announced that off-road
vehicle traffic will be restricted around Factory Butte near
Hanksville to protect cactus. The decision seems certain to
pour oil on the fiery controversy over Factory Butte. The debate
pits environmentalists against off-road-vehicle riders:
In 2005, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Friends of
Factory Butte filed a formal petition with the Interior Department
seeking to have the area closed to "unregulated, intensive and
resource damaging" use by off-highway vehicles.
A letter accompanying the petition said "this beautiful
landscape is also the target of a comparably small group of ORV (off-
road vehicle) users that have crushed threatened cactus plants,
damaged the soil, accelerated erosion that releases salt and toxic
selenium, created dust storms, and destroyed the scenery with their
tracks that mar and pervade the landscape."


The Utah Shared Access Alliance, representing OHV users, had
petitioned the BLM and others to designate Factory Butte as a
special recreation management area for motorized recreation. The
area should be "open to cross-country travel with only a few
exceptions," the group added.

"A large managed open area will provide a high quality
recreational experience for people from all over the United States
and will be of great value to local economies," says the Utah Shared
Access Alliance petition.
The BLM says its decision strikes a balance between the
competing interests.
Off-highway vehicles still will be able to travel what the BLM
terms an "extensive network of designated routes" amounting to 220
miles. The agency says trails that are open include routes where
driving varies from easy to challenging.
The BLM promises easy access to the region, which is near the
Emery-Garfield county border and close to Capitol Reef National Park.

The BLM is setting up a 2,600-acre "open play area" at a site
called Swing Arm City, where off-highway vehicles can travel cross-
country.
Also, restrictions don't forbid camping near designated roads
through areas where OHV travel is forbidden, as long as the camping
doesn't harm the threatened cacti. Adrienne Babbitt, spokeswoman for
the BLM's Utah headquarters in Salt Lake City, said campers will be
able to pull off adjacent to the routes.
"We aren't closing the area," Babbitt said. "We're just
managing where people can go."
Coal Mine Wash and other popular camping areas will be
available for camping, says a BLM press release. But OHV users won't
be allowed to ride their vehicles in the surrounding hills.
For the past seven years federal experts have been monitoring
the threatened cacti. The Winkler cactus and the Wright Fishhook
cactus have been damaged by off-highway vehicles, she said.
"We've found that 57 percent of the known cactus sites in this
area have declined in population," she said. The field studies
showed that off-highway vehicles clearly caused damage to the plants.
A resource advisory group helping the BLM, including
environmentalists, OHV enthusiasts and others, studied the issue,
Babbitt said. They could not come up with a consensus but gave their
perspectives.
Signs and fences are going up to inform the public which areas
are open, she said. Kiosks in the Factory Butte region will hold
maps showing designated routes, and a Web site through
www.ut.blm.gov is to show the information.
When a huge area of Factory Butte was open to cross-country
travel, Babbitt said, "what we've found is that ... ecologically it
just can't handle that kind of use."

[stefan]

interestingly, i just learned from a friend of mine, that this off-road damage is becoming a fairly large problem in israel as well.
they are also interested in protecting the desert plant life.

[scoutabout]

It's interesting that the rare cactus was found ONLY near the primary road. Either it's EVERYWHERE and they only looked near the road (which means that it can't be that rare), or OHV use is actually good for this cactus.

[stefan]

more follow up on this thread

http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3520