The National Park Service scrapped a yearslong effort to restrict off-road and all-terrain vehicles in part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in southeast Utah and northern Arizona.
A rule was finalized in the last days of the Biden administration closing 24 miles of routes in the environmentally sensitive Orange Cliffs region to off-road vehicles, and street-legal ATVs, following years of litigation from environmental groups who wanted the area adjacent to Canyonlands National Park’s Maze District protected.
But that rule was mooted last year by Congress at the urging of Utah lawmakers who said off-road recreation was critical to local rural economies.
The NPS published a notice in the Federal Register on Tuesday that “terminates the rulemaking process” on Wednesday to comply with the congressional order.
