Congressmen Would Keep Off-Roaders Off Roadless Areas

WASHINGTON, DC, November 2, 2007 (ENS) - On Oct. 30, members of the House of Representatives sent an urgent letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne requesting that he protect Utah's archaeological artifacts and roadless areas from the damage caused by off-road vehicles.

The congressional appeal comes as the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, BLM, is finalizing its proposed off-road vehicle travel plan, covering 11 million acres of Utah's public land. The new plan is due by mid-2008.

"The Utah BLM should not have to change its name to the Bureau of Land Mismanagement, which it may have to if it goes full-speed ahead with this off-road vehicle plan," said Congressman Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat. "These acres are some of the most precious, untouched and prehistorically significant parcels of land in our country."

"This vast treasure of archeological resources must be given the strongest protections we can provide," said Congressman Timothy Johnson, an Illinois Republic;an. "This land is not just part of our American heritage, but mankind's heritage. Once spoiled, it is lost forever. I appeal to my colleagues, Interior Secretary Kempthorne, as well as the general public to take the appropriate actions to prevent this land from exploitation," pleaded Johnson.

Federal law requires the agency to protect natural and cultural resources as it develops the travel plans, but the Utah BLM is proposing hundreds of miles of off-road vehicle routes in the same areas the agency found to be "roadless" in its most recent inventory.

The plan would give off-road vehicles access to red rock canyons, desert streams lined with cottonwood galleries, high forested mesas, towering buttes, variegated badlands, and undulating slickrock expanses.

These travel plans will change the remote and undeveloped nature of these roadless lands, which have sheltered prehistoric cultural artifacts dating from mammoth hunter times - rock art, rock shelters, hunting points, tools, and pottery.

Professional archaeologists broadly agree that cultural resources are at much greater risk of vandalism, looting, and unintentional damages when located near roads and off-road vehicle routes. Looting is fueled by the illegal but lucrative market in these artifacts.

Although BLM has been working on these off-road vehicle travel plans for nearly six years, the agency has not conducted comprehensive archaeological surveys of the areas in which off-road vehicle routes are proposed, including areas that are known to have cultural resources.

"We should do more to protect key habitats from the damage caused by off-road vehicles," said Congressman Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican. "The Bureau of Land Management must help to protect critical ecosystems and the archeological heritage of our country."

The congressional letter comes at a pivotal time in BLM's travel planning process, as the agency has announced its goal is to finalize the travel plans in 2008.

The long-term consequences of these travel plans cannot be overstated, as they will govern off-road vehicle use in Utah's redrock country for the next 15 to 20 years, and Congressional members are concerned that flawed travel plans in Utah could serve as models for off-road vehicle travel plans in other western states.

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• rock shelters
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• undeveloped nature
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