If Biden Gets His Way, Your Next Adventure Out West Will Be Canceled

[mountaineer]

If Biden Gets His Way, Your Next Adventure Out West Will Be Canceled
Our freedom to roam is under assault from a plan to close everything off and make us ask permission before we enjoy it.
By: Matt Miller
November 02, 2023

There is a plan underway to close the great open spaces of the American West to you, me, our children, and our children’s children. The federal government — which owns most of this land — is determined to move from a “use and let use” system of accessing Western public lands to a permission-based system that will mean reservations, permits, and closures.

Just last month, the Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision to close 317 miles of historic and popular off-road trails near Moab, Utah. For decades, these trails — which are mostly old uranium mining roads — have been enjoyed by everyone from Jeep owners to dirt bike riders to base jumpers looking for a place to land. They have evocative names like Gemini Bridges, Mashed Potatoes, and Dead Cow Trail. They appear in guidebooks. Some of them are even featured in the hugely popular Easter Jeep Safari.

The plan is already being implemented, and it threatens the freedom enjoyed by tens of millions of Americans who hike, camp, Jeep, mountain bike, ATV, fish, swim, canoe, kayak, trail run, overland, base jump, raft, and backpack the millions of acres of free space that make “the West” the West. ...

There is no evidence that users of these trails have been damaging them. Indeed, people cherish these lands. Go drive the trails and you will rarely encounter even a single piece of trash. That is why they have been in use for decades with no appreciable degradation. ...

Read entire article at The Federalist

[Smokin Joe]

I have been out in some of that country, and it is as described. You will find more trash in the average suburban front yard than you will in a mile of those trails. Even worse, however, there is some geology out there worth seeing, especially for a geologist.

I can foresee where university connections and dedicated research, approved, etc. will be needed to even get past the gate if these bozos have their way, instead of being more of a self-guided geological 'tourist' checking it out. Not to mention depriving millions of the access to experience and learn from that area, even a little.