BRC and a growing network of businesses that support off-road recreation in Moab have joined together to defend your right to ride and explore some of the best off-road trails in the planet. Oppressive noise ordinances, speed limits, bans on events, and trail closures have all been used to limit off-road recreation in Moab. If everyone who recreates on off-road trails in Moab makes a small donation to our legal fund, we will have the resources we need to Defend Your Ground.
Join the Fight to Defend Your Moab!
On March 2, 2022 a group of 13 Moab ATV businesses and the BlueRibbon Coalition filed a Notice of Claim to Grand County to challenge recently enacted restrictions on ATV rental and ATV outfitter and guide service businesses. On March 3, 2022 the same group of claimaints filed a similar Notice of Claim to Moab City. On March 3, 2022, the Utah Legislature also passed HB 146, which provides an important check and balance to unreasonable local ordinances that were designed to harm ATV businesses in Moab and will provide immediate relief from some of the most oppressive elements of these ordinances.
Through the spring and summer of 2021, Grand County and Moab City enacted business license restrictions on ATV-related businesses that included limiting the number of business licenses, requiring additional identification, creating maximum sound pressure levels, limiting the number of ATVs traveling together, requiring education of customers, making business owners liable for the actions of their customers, and threatening revocation of business licenses for non-compliance.
Since that time, the same local officials have requested that the BLM close some of the most popular off-roading trails in the Moab area. The following articles illustrate our recent work to protect all forms or recreation around Moab.
- Anti-Access Playbook – Major Closures Proposed for Labyrinth Rims and Gemini Bridges Travel Area
- The Fight for Moab Continues: The Green River Wild, Scenic, and Recreation River Segments Amendment is backdoor threat to close motorized trails around Moab
- BLM Amendments to 2008 Moab, Price and Vernal Resource Management Plans Following the Dingell Act
- “We didn’t leave an impact, like you damn Jeepers do”: Grand County Escalates Fight in Labyrinth Rims and Gemini Bridges Travel Management Area
These fights will be heating up in the coming weeks and months, and they will involve litigation, advocacy, public outreach, and most of all we will need our members and supporters to rally the full strength of our movement. We have created the Defend Your Moab Campaign to rally supporters to this fight.
The public lands around Moab belong to all Americans, and the need to be kept open for all to enjoy. When you visit Moab, you’re not just a tourist. You’re a citizen visiting public lands that belong to all of us. If you love Moab, we need you to join us to Defend Your Moab!
