No Review, No Input, No Public Comment: Now, ATVs Can Use Any Backroad In 5 UT National Parks

[hatrack]

And their drivers would never, ever go offroad, I'm sure.

Besides the winding canyons, the layer-cake washes of color, the impossibly teetering arches, and the soaring buttes and vast mesas, one of the first things you notice about remote Utah is the silence. On a windless day, the silence is numbing. But beginning in November, the sound of ATVs and UTVs (side-by-sides like the ubiquitous Polaris brand of vehicles) powering along dirt roads may begin echoing throughout Utah’s canyon country. Palmer “Chip” Jenkins, the National Park Service’s acting regional director, instructed national park superintendents last week to begin allowing the vehicles to travel back roads on the five national parks within Utah: Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef.

The decision was reached without public comment.

In 2008, Utah passed a law that would allow any street legal vehicle on all state and county roads anywhere within state borders. This new rule handed down by Jenkins is intended to bring Utah’s national parks in line with that 2008 law. If an ATV or UTV is registered and fitted with legally required safety features, it will be allowed on all legal back roads within Utah, whether on national park property or not. The NPS had been reluctant to open these roads to ATVs despite the 2008 law out of concern it would be difficult to ensure the vehicles were staying on designated roads.

Almost immediately after the announcement, conservationists began to criticize the decision. “These are national parks that have incredible resources, cultural resources, natural resources, and so by allowing these vehicles that are tailored to go anywhere, you’re potentially putting these resources at risk,” said Kristen Brengel, the National Parks Conservation Association’s vice president of government affairs. “The Park Service should be going through a public process, doing an analysis and making sure they can adequately protect the park and its resources and visitors. They haven’t done that.”

EDIT

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2019/09/the-roar-of-atvs-may-soon-echo-through-utahs-national-park-canyons/

[Turbineguy]

1. What's the point of having national parks

if you can't fuck them up? Those parks are also great places to dump beer cans and plastic snack wrappers!

Who doesn't like living in a republican paradise?

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Disgusting.

Watch these treasures get ripped to pieces.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Many will follow the rules and stay on designated roads, but many

will not. This administration seems to be hell bent on total destruction of our environment.