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Fwd: Legal Update - San Rafael Desert
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Begin forwarded message:

From: BlueRibbon Coalition <brmedia@sharetrails.org>
Date: April 20, 2022 at 4:32:48 PM PDT
To: jaferro@live.com
Subject: Legal Update - San Rafael Desert
Reply-To: BlueRibbon Coalition <brmedia@sharetrails.org>

 Legal Update - San Rafael Desert
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San Rafael Desert Legal Update

In the Fall of 2020, the Price Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management released their decision to open hundreds of miles of roads in the San Rafael Desert. The San Rafael Desert is South of Green River Utah, and features terrain similar to what you find in Moab without the crowds.

This decision was part of a settlement between wilderness advocates, the BLM, and included multiple defendant intervenors - including BlueRibbon Coalition. The wilderness groups weren’t happy that the BLM recognized and opened hundreds of miles of roads in this spectacular desert riding area, so they appealed the decision. Their administrative appeal was rejected, so they filed an appeal in federal court.

We joined this appeal as defendant intervenors to ensure that the interests of our members were represented in this legal challenge. We’ve spent time in this area ground-truthing the trails. We’ve reviewed the administrative record. All of this was to prepare to respond to the complaint filed by the wilderness advocates. The wilderness groups asked for numerous extensions, and months became years.

In January 2022 we learned that BLM released a categorical exclusion to close 35 miles of roads in this travel area. By closing these roads through a categorical exclusion, BLM wasn’t required to solicit public input. In short, this was a devious way to close roads that had just been analyzed through an extensive process and were the subject of active litigation. We are currently working on appealing this closure, but this closure was the first indication that things were moving in an unexpected direction.

The day after the 30 day window to appeal the 35 miles of closures in the categorical exclusion, our attorneys received notice that the BLM, the Department of Justice, and the wilderness groups had drafted a settlement and motion to dismiss the federal appeal. This was turning into a classic sue and settle case, where these environmental groups were manipulating the legal process to put themselves in a position to make a backroom deal. Surprisingly, the Defendant Intervenors were left out of the process of negotiating the terms of the settlement.

Last week BlueRibbon Coalition, the State of Utah, and Ride with Respect submitted our opposition to this sham settlement.

Support our Legal Effort to Protect Your Trails

The terms of the settlement require the BLM to analyze 12 more miles of roads for closure. The way these routes were singled out positions this settlement to violate the Dingell Act, which includes statutory language from Congress that roads like these in Emery County be left open. The settlement requires a public process to analyze the routes, but a bizarre condition of the settlement also forbids the BLM from sharing maps and data which will be necessary for the public to provide meaningful feedback.

When combined with the 35 miles of closures in the Categorical Exclusion decision, this settlement perpetuates the uncertainty that has plagued recreation users of public land in Utah for over a decade now due to never-ending litigation from the wilderness groups.

We recognize that the legal process is convoluted, but we want to keep you informed that we continue to fight these processes every step of the way. The San Rafael Desert is the first decision that was reached in a process that includes 12 other travel areas that cover over 10,000 miles of routes in Utah. Here are the takeaways we want to share from what we’ve learned as we work through this appeal in the San Rafael Desert.

  • If we weren’t involved with our intervenor partners, we can guarantee the wilderness groups would be abusing the process every chance they get.

  • Users need to get out and explore the San Rafael Desert and prepare to be involved in the next round of public feedback. We’ve highlighted some of these areas in our Lost Trails Guidebook project.

  • The appeals from the wilderness groups demanded heavy restrictions on vehicle-based dispersed camping. If you like camping on public land, we need you in the fight.

  • We need to work with elected officials to roll back the power of the courts and federal agencies to collude in sue and settle schemes.

We know that this travel planning process in Utah is going to be a long haul project. We know we will have to aggressively fight on every one of these plans to protect your rights enjoy your public land. We started the 10,000+ Project to build a community around our effort to defend these 10,000+ miles of roads. The lifeblood of this effort is the growing number of 10,000+ Project subscribing members who are donating only $5 a month to our legal fund. There is strength in numbers, and we need 1,000 members donating at least $5 a month to build the legal war chest we need to go the distance on these fights.

Support our Legal Effort to Protect Your Trails

Escaping Cabin Fever with the North Idaho Trailblazers

Wikipedia defines Cabin Fever as the distressing claustrophobic irritability or restlessness experienced when a person, or group, is stuck at an isolated location or in confined quarters for an extended time.” Cabin Fever is also the name of the annual gathering of the North Idaho Trailblazers Jeep Club that occurs during the time of year when the snow in the mountains around Coeur D’Alene, Idaho melts enough to enable the seasons first wheeling excursions. The organizers of the event know what so many of us have experienced: that getting out into the great outdoors with friends is more often than not a cure for Cabin Fever.

We know that outdoor recreation is good for our health, and we’re not surprised that the health benefits of outdoor recreation are starting to be recognized by the medical establishment. Recently news stories reported that doctors in Canada are starting to prescribe the great outdoors to patients.

As these health benefits become more thoroughly documented, the right of the public to access these health benefits from outdoor recreation on public land will become increasingly important.

We started the Operation: Accessible project to ensure that the right policy discussions are happening to ensure that those with mobility impairment disabilities aren’t cut off from the health benefits of outdoor recreation simply because they require motorized access to the great outdoors.

>>If you haven’t added your name to the Operation: Accessible support list, we invite you to join us in this important effort.<<

On April 14, 2022, the Department of Interior released its Equity Action Plan, and the plan addressed concerns raised by BRC and our members about access barriers to public lands for those with disabilities. In the plan they recognized these barriers exist, and proposed initial steps to reduce these barriers. Acknowledging a problem is a good first step for finding solutions to a problem, and we will be incorporating this acknowledgment into all of our public engagement with Dept. of Interior agencies. There is still a lot of work to do to ensure that biases towards road closures don’t lead to discriminatory loss of access to those who must access public lands with motorized assistance.

Our Executive Director, Ben Burr, was the guest speaker at their dinner banquet. Because of difficulties with the Bureau of Land Management issuing permits for the event, there were no formal guided trail rides this year. Nevertheless, he had a great time with the friends he met there and still enjoyed a snow wheeling adventure with NITB President, Darrel River, to learn about some of the local trail issues that need to be resolved.

North Idaho Trailblazers have been longtime supporters of BRC, and we appreciate their efforts to work with us to Defend Your Ground!

Snowmobile Giveaway Sweepstakes

If you haven’t contributed to the legal challenge to oppose the closure of nearly 85% of the Stanislaus National Forest to snowmobiling, you now have a good chance to support the cause and potentially win a new sled. We are partners with the Sierra Snowmobile Foundation on this challenge, and they are running a sweepstakes to give away a brand new Ski-Doo Summit SP 154 E-Tec Snowmobile. Because we’re needing to raise money quickly to fund the legal action, the short deadline on the sweepstakes means there is still a good chance to win. Of course by donating to enter the sweepstakes you are also supporting a legal effort that will potentially set precedents for other forests across the nation. This is a fight that should unite snowmobilers everywhere, and if everyone chips in we will have the resources we need to put up a good fight.

Enter the Sweepstakes
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