But by Sept. 30, the fate of those roads, and the recreation dynamics of the area in general, will be decided by the Bureau of Land Management, which is gearing up to release a new travel plan for the Gemini Bridges-Labyrinth Canyon area.
The six-seater Cessna plane continued west as the pilot, Bruce Gordon, steered over the Mineral Bottom boat launch before turning north, hugging the border of the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness Area in Emery County. The plane banked slightly to the right, peering down into the red maze of sandstone canyons and the flat water of the Green River.
The process started in 2008 after SUWA sued the Bureau of Land Management over its resource management at the Moab, Vernal, Price, Kanab, Monticello and Richfield field offices. Each alternative is subject to change depending on public comment, and some of the routes slated to be closed — including the popular Hey Joe, Gold Bar Rim and Ten Mile Canyon roads — could be left open. It's also possible that either SUWA or the BlueRibbon Coalition will sue if the decision doesn't align with their interests.
SUWA and the BlueRibbon Coalition — two groups that struggle to find consensus — agree that the BLM's pending decision could be indicative of what the agency does with the remaining eight travel plans. "If you damage the riparian zones, you damage everything," he said. "It's not about restricting people's access, it's about managing and controlling land so that it's here for others in the future."
It's issues like this that galvanized Lyman to run for office, and have him seriously considering a gubernatorial run. On Friday, he told the Deseret News that he's "definitely looking at that."Most of the routes that could be closed are "Class D" roads, small double-tracks, many of them unnamed. Most were established decades ago for mining or oil exploration, cemented in the desert by off-roaders and overlanders who continued to use them.