Chaos at Utah's Little Sahara Recreation Area

It seems as if BLM personnel could have studied Wildland CPR's Enforcement Report to get control of “near-riot conditions” at an ORV gathering in Utah's Little Sahara Recreation Area. After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to determine what really happened that weekend, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility report that:

A 2007 BLM analysis of the preparedness of its Little Sahara Recreational Area, obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act, finds that the “high number of personal injury accidents, lost persons, littering, burning of flammable materials on the mountain and various safety violations” caused by irresponsible off-roading were fanning visitor fears and producing “a nearly all-reactive law enforcement operation with little opportunity to deter or reduce unlawful behavior.”

This official forecast, however, did little to prepare the agency for the 2007 Easter weekend when a gathering of an estimated one thousand off-road vehicle enthusiasts at Little Sahara degenerated into “near riot conditions,” according to the BLM incident report. Over that weekend, 37 injuries, including a state Highway Patrol officer, and some 300 arrests and citations were tallied. More than 50 officers from state, federal and local agencies called to the scene tried unsuccessfully to cope with numerous sexual assaults and other attacks attributed to marauding bands of off-roaders.

While no doubt not everyone at the gathering was contributing to the "near riot conditions," situations such as this do lead to serious questioning of the current state of motorized recreation. Defenders of off-road vehicle use cite the "a few bad apples" argument. However, according to respondents of a 2002 Utah Division of Parks and Recreation Survey, 50% of motorcycle users and 39% of ATV users ride off designated routes. While this is not a majority of users, it is still a very large chunk of those with off-road vehicles. Clearly the "a few bad apples" argument has been greatly exaggerated - it is actually lots of bad apples. And the fiasco at Little Sahara illustrates that point.

Thanks to Trout Underground and Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News for first reporting.