# River Community Petition: Protect Labyrinth Canyon from Off-Road Vehicles



## portermoab (Sep 20, 2017)

The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of revising its off-road vehicle (ORV) plan for the Labyrinth Canyon area, and recently released draft proposals for route networks. Unfortunately, none of the proposals close the routes into and along Labyrinth Canyon--routes that result in dirt bikes and UTVs burning up and down the riverbank. As many of you who've floated Laby already know, there's nothing worse than having multiple days of quiet and solitude destroyed by the noise and dust from ORVs on these routes, and it also makes the camping on river left (Grand County) in these sections awful. The river right side (Emery County) was designated wilderness in 2019, so there's no reason why the BLM shouldn't be managing the Grand County side for the same experience. It's nonsensical to keep three ORV routes open when they have such an outsized negative impact on river runners and Labyrinth.

All that said, here's a link to a petition for the river community from John Weisheit (Living Rivers/Colorado Riverkeeper) calling on BLM to close those routes and protect Laby as a one-of-a-kind wilderness river experience: River Community to the BLM - Protect Labyrinth Canyon

There's also a comment box to tell your story if you've had a negative experience with ORVs while you were on this stretch, which unfortunately is all too common.

Please share with your friends and social networks!

Thanks.


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## storm11 (Feb 10, 2006)

And shut down some of the only motorized singletrack left in the Moab area?? No thanks. #SaveTheTubes


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

As a motocross rider there’s nothing I hate worse than seeing a raft on a pristine river. We really need to get rid of these rafting hippies.

Now, I don’t ride bikes, and don’t like noise on the river, but why should it only be boaters there? There’s room for everyone.


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## KlaustheK (Mar 20, 2021)

In an era of ever decreasing access, trying to stop an existing use is just stupid. Let the dirt bikers stay where they have been. It's not a new trail system, it's an existing one. Give it a few years and they'll mostly be electric dirt bikes anyway.


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

Did you know that those damned river hippies actually pee in the water???? WTF! Fish live there, and we drink that! And don’t get me started on all the lost gear accumulating on the bottom of the river! And stream bank erosion! And plastics scraped off on the rocks! Plus they disturb fish...it’s getting so a guy can hardly fish anymore without some big ugly plastic boat with a bunch of drunk hippies on it, spoiling everything.
So please sign my petition banning all those asshats from spoiling my river.


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## azpowell (Aug 14, 2014)

Won't be long before they come after our motors.... 

I will be starting a petition to remove blaster use from the canyon because I am supper tired of hearing that thing fire off in the morning. It really ruins the peace and tranquility of the morning when some dude decides his coffee is more important than my perception of what a river needs to be....


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## DidNotWinLottery (Mar 6, 2018)

I used to enjoy cave exploration. Extreme environmental attitudes lead to the end of caving on public lands for all intents and purposes. I am also an overlanding enthusiast and have been fighting to preserve access for everyone my entire life. Extreme environmental attitudes in the River Rafting community threaten this sports future as well. Please remember, the multi billion dollar Environmental groups seek an end to ALL use of Government lands. So yes, they WILL come for you eventually. We can, and MUST share our Government lands. You hate OHVs on one of the few accesses to the lower canyons, I am not a fan of helicopters on the Grand or Jet boats on the Salmon. But in the end there must be a balance and we all have different abilities and time to explore the wilderness. Preserving existing uses of trails and activities is essential as the balance, as it is swinging hard towards anti access rapidly and has been for decades. What will you say when your key access road for launching on a favorite river is closed making trips all but impractical except for a handful of 20 somethings with Pack Rafts and endless time off because they live at home with there parents?


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

DidNotWinLottery said:


> I used to enjoy cave exploration. Extreme environmental attitudes lead to the end of caving on public lands for all intents and purposes. I am also an overlanding enthusiast and have been fighting to preserve access for everyone my entire life. Extreme environmental attitudes in the River Rafting community threaten this sports future as well. Please remember, the multi billion dollar Environmental groups seek an end to ALL use of Government lands. So yes, they WILL come for you eventually. We can, and MUST share our Government lands. You hate OHVs on one of the few accesses to the lower canyons, I am not a fan of helicopters on the Grand or Jet boats on the Salmon. But in the end there must be a balance and we all have different abilities and time to explore the wilderness. Preserving existing uses of trails and activities is essential as the balance, as it is swinging hard towards anti access rapidly and has been for decades. What will you say when your key access road for launching on a favorite river is closed making trips all but impractical except for a handful of 20 somethings with Pack Rafts and endless time off because they live at home with there parents?


That’s exactly right. The OP wants to ban the OHV crowd...for the benefit of the boaters. But there’s always another group a little bit up the ladder of ethical purity that’s going to be willing to ban us for all the reasons I listed. Mark my words, one day we’ll be seen as too destructive of the environment by the river management folks. That’s guaranteed.


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## ski_it (Aug 27, 2015)

The problem is that motor heads don't seem to understand the inequity of the mode of transportation. One mode has large negative impacts on the other- this is huge in-equity seemingly lost on motor heads. They don't care or understand this point (probably don't care). I've seen it bad with XC-skiing and snowmobiles: snowmobiliers say- hey we can just share trails what's the problem. access for everyone, blah blah blah. I say fight for every inch of non-motorized, they already have TONS of places to go (more than non-motorized). Fight for quiet spaces- they are getting smaller and harder to find.


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## jgrebe (Jan 16, 2010)

"I used to enjoy cave exploration" As did I. Unfortunately a lot of us didn't take the time to understand our impact. As number of users grows so does the impact. Last trip down the Grand Canyon I saw many bats during the day with white nose syndrome - which has decimated the bat populations in many places. Almost certainly from humans carrying the fungus from one cave to another (and yes this has been documented). Whirling disease was spread from stream to stream by fishing boots, Quaga mussels have invaded Powell and many other bodies of water primarily by boaters. Virtually every ATV ad I see shows people driving down streams and waterways. All of these are examples of extreme environmental damage caused by careless users. You don't want restrictions? Figure out how to use public lands responsibly and maybe there won't be so many restrictions. Meanwhile, say thank you to those "extreme environmentalists" who make it possible for your grand kids to enjoy some of the same outdoor activities and wonders that you did


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## sporkfromork (Dec 16, 2020)

If you took 2 moto-head trips to Moab every year for 50 years you still would not have explored 25% of what there is out there to braap. It's the motorized users thrashing out of bounds that got Kane Creek and other the other few remaining dispersed camping shut down for everyone, I don't think boaters have singlehandedly forced the hand of management agencies to completely rework how access is granted to any given area. When Covid first happened, I had friends who were Canyonlands rangers who were furlowed but decided to remain on duty specifically because they knew the motoheads would come in and trash the Needles when nobody was looking


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## kavukavu (Nov 13, 2011)

Save the access slippery slope BS for your buds at Fox and Friends. The impact of noise reverberating off the canyon walls from side by sides and dirt bikes in this area is too far out of balance among user groups. On May 1st this year in Labyrinth I was leapfrogging with a group of side by sides beginning at Spring Canyon. Shortly after I passed them they began to shoot their guns into the river. There is nothing "extreme" about an environmental attitude that does not want these types of impacts when visiting this wilderness space. I support signing this petition.


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