The Blue Ribbon Coalition, a UTV club from Idaho, seems to feel it should be able to ride its noisy machines through our neighborhoods and surrounding public lands unfettered by any sense of responsibility or care for the people that live here. It’s just filed litigation against Grand County’s efforts to bring some balance between the noise from UTV use and those who live here. But that’s not all.
It’s also fighting the local BLM office’s efforts to bring some control over the unregulated camping around Moab and attendant human waste issues; it challenged the BLM’s off-road-vehicle plan for the San Rafael Desert to the west of us; it challenged the BLM’s ORV plan for Hatch Point south of us and, under the adolescent hubris of “never give an inch,” it opposes closing any of the hundreds of miles of routes in the Labyrinth Canyon area, including those that are redundant, harm wildlife, cause damage to rare desert streams, or ruin quiet family floats down the Green River.
I appreciate our elected officials standing up to these out-of-state bullies, in an effort to bring some balance to the negative side of the off-road vehicle tourism industry, especially noise in our neighborhoods. Fortunately, while it seems BRC is good at making noise, it’s not so good with actual advocacy and generally loses its appeals. Although as taxpayers we’ll still have to pay to ensure that result here.
Dan Kent
Moab
