Happy Friday! I’m Sara Weber, The Salt Lake Tribune’s Voices editor. Welcome to Inside Voices, a new weekly newsletter that features a collection of ideas, perspectives and solutions from across Utah — without any of the vitriol or yelling that’s become all too common on other platforms. Subscribe here.
We’re deep into the heart of summer and, as you’re out exploring our beautiful state, there’s a good chance you’re recreating on public lands. While these areas tend to be admired by most who cross them, there’s an argument that has Utahns divided: When and where should motorized vehicles be allowed on public lands?
- Gov. Spencer Cox and Redge Johnson, the director of Utah’s Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office Redge Johnson, wrote in an op-ed that Utah needs to find a balanced approach to this matter — and that the BLM sometimes stands in the way. “Utah is fighting to preserve motorized access on the roads and trails as they currently exist on the ground, so that all types of recreation — both motorized and non-motorized — will have their place across Utah’s stunning landscape.” That includes working with Mike Lee, they write, on “legislation that will protect that crucial balance.”
- In a direct response to the governor’s op-ed, Steve Bloch and Laura Peterson at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance wrote that “motorized use has exploded across Utah’s wildest places” and the BLM “is updating several plans that identify which dirt roads and trails will remain open to motorized vehicles and which will be closed to that particular use.”
