An off-highway vehicle advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn a Utah travel management plan approved in the final days of the Biden administration that the group says illegally restricts access to the remote area.
The federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, challenges the Bureau of Land Management’s Jan. 17 decision approving the revised Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge travel management plan covering, collectively, 2,200 miles in parts of remote Garfield and Wayne counties in southern Utah.
The final decision record closed 289 miles of previously open off-highway routes, but left open more than 1,600 miles for use by off-highway vehicles like all-terrain-vehicles and dirt bikes.
The lawsuit from the Idaho-based BlueRibbon Coalition claims the plan violates a number of federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, which the complaint says requires BLM to conduct a detailed environmental impact statement, not an environmental assessment. for travel management plans covering such a large area.
