Great Old Broads for Wilderness

Help SUWA Document Displacement by Off-Road Vehicle Use

Have you stopped visiting southern Utah as often because of the growing number of off-road vehicles (ORVs) in the area? When you visit southern Utah, do you avoid certain places due to the increased level of ORV use there?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, or know someone else who feels displaced by Utah's ORV invasion, we could use your help. SUWA is seeking to establish contact with anyone who can help us document that this sort of user conflict is occurring in Utah's backcountry. We know from first hand experience that displacement is happening, but it is a hard thing to document concretely. With your help we can address this growing problem and make some headway.

Once we have compiled your responses, we will send information to the BLM and use it in our ongoing work with national, regional and local media. We hope to convey the simple message that allowing unrestrained ORV use in Utah's redrock country threatens our overall economy by turning away non-motorized visitors to our public lands. We know that this message resonates with a broad, diverse range of people in Utah,
especially in the local communities closest to proposed wilderness areas.

Many local residents intuitively understand that the majority of out-of-town visitors (and the money they bring) are attracted primarily by the beauty and serenity of southern Utah's unique landscapes. It follows that in order to protect the lion's share of their economies, they need to protect some of these landscapes from the various negative effects of ORVs.

Send comments about your own experience to franklin@suwa.org or call SUWA's Moab field office at (435) 259-4399. Please copy Broads Healthy Lands Project Director Tim Peterson at Tim@greatoldbroads.org.