SALT LAKE CITY - Off-highway vehicle (OHV) use on public land is the issue this week in a Salt Lake courtroom. On Tuesday, the first of six Resource Management Plans by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will come under fire from conservation groups. It is a battle that started in 2008, when they first challenged the Richfield Resource Management Plan (RMP) for south central Utah.

Attorney Steve Bloch with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), said his group believes the plan puts too much emphasis on off-roading and oil and gas development in areas that deserve greater protection.

"What we're seeking at this hearing on Tuesday is to bring some balance back to how the public lands are managed," Bloch said. "It's our position that designating more than 4,200 miles of dirt roads and trails, in this office alone, is not a balanced decision."

Supporters of keeping the Richfield RMP as it is have pointed out that it resulted from six years of input and is a compromise plan, so none of the parties involved got exactly what they wanted. The conservation groups' challenge has languished in Washington, D.C., for the past few years until being reassigned to the federal district court in Salt Lake City, where oral arguments will be heard on Tuesday.

According to Bloch, the BLM used existing county road and trail maps to make its OHV travel plans, without doing sufficient field work to follow up. He said his group and other challengers are not against off-roading in general, but they warn it should not be allowed in sensitive areas.

"There are roads and trails that should be closed to protect a whole host of resources," Bloch explained. "And even if those are closed, there will be hundreds - if not thousands - of miles of roads and trails still available in this part of the state and, surely, statewide."

He added that none of the six RMPs discuss the combined effects of off-roading and climate change, from dust storms to stream degradation. Instead, they state that other decisions will be made later. The Richfield plan covers an area of roughly 2 million acres of public land across five Utah counties.

More information is available on the BLM Richfield RMP website, www.blm.gov. Information about the SUWA protest is at http://action.suwa.org.


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A Montana conservation group is holding a photo contest, with a focus on dogs and social media to promote the state's vast trove of public lands.

The Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund wants photos of people with their dogs enjoying Montana's 30 million acres of public lands.

Kearstyn Cook, program director for the fund, said those lands are one-third of the state and featuring photos of dogs with their humans in the "Pups for Public Lands" photo contest is an effective way to encourage people to experience Montana's crown jewels.

"With our best friends, our dogs," Cook explained. "Because it seems like dogs are also a way of life here. Everyone has them. So, with this contest we are kind of hoping to inspire Montanans to get outside with their dogs in a responsible way that respects our public lands."

People enter the contest on Instagram by following Montana Conservation Voters, tagging them and using the hashtag "pups for public lands" in their post. The contest winners will be featured on a calendar and the top dogs will get what's described as a "prize pack of goodies."

Kim West, professional pet photographer for Missoula-based Lint Roller Productions, is a contest judge who will potentially scroll through thousands of dog photos after the contest closes Monday.

"It's a tough job looking at cute dog photos but I'm up to the task," West joked. "One of the easiest ways that people can improve their pet photos is to get low when they're taking that shot, and to photograph from the dog's eye level. It really invites the viewer into the dog's world."

West added the best time to snap a photo is in what she called the "golden hour," either early in the morning or just before dusk.

This month, the federal government announced funding for next year's wildfire management, totaling $236 million and experts hope threatened communities in Wyoming receive some of the funds.

Money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to help reduce wildfire risk, improve firefighter training, rehabilitate burned areas and advance research, according to the Interior Department. The focus areas are partly based on a report last year by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, with 148 recommendations on how the U.S. can approach fires more effectively.

Kimiko Barrett, wildfire researcher and policy analyst for the nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics and a member of the commission, said the recommendations build off one another but the federal government has focused on some more than others.

"It's not surprising that some of the policy is cherry-picking those recommendations that seem to be easiest or more reasonable, given the time constraints of the current administration," Barrett asserted.

The U.S. House of Representatives will consider a bipartisan bill this month, called the "Fix Our Forests Act." It could adjust permitting under the National Environmental Protection Act to make wildfire prevention projects happen faster, among other changes.

Most wildfire management is supported at the federal level, through agencies that manage public lands, as well as state foresters and natural resource managers.

Barrett notes communities are often the first line of defense when a fire ignites.

"Communities and counties need to be additionally empowered and provided the funding, the resources, the technical assistance, to be able to have more ownership over becoming more resilient," Barrett contended.

Barrett added the protection of the built environment is especially important to communities, including home and neighborhood infrastructure.


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A sanctuary for stargazing in Oregon is the largest in the world and is set to get even bigger.

In eastern Oregon, the organization DarkSky International declared 2.5 million acres of the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary in the first phase of its process in March. It plans to increase the sanctuary to more than 11 million acres in the next few years.

Damon Motz-Storey, director of the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, recently visited the area.

"Anybody who's visited it on a clear summer night or otherwise will agree that it is very spectacular," Motz-Storey observed. "It's a very unique and amazing place to stargaze and get into astronomy."

Motz-Storey pointed out the area is far from urban centers like Portland and Boise, and is sparsely populated. It is estimated more than 2.5 times as many stars are visible than in urban areas. DarkSky International has designated sanctuaries since 2007 and the Oregon Outback is the first in the state.

Motz-Storey emphasized protecting dark areas is good for wildlife and humans alike because both are affected by artificial lighting.

"These kinds of designations help to spread awareness around people preserving the dark sky for both wildlife and human enjoyment," Motz-Storey stressed. "And also to serve as a little bit of a warning signal to future development to say, hey, this is really worth preserving."

Within the Oregon Outback is an area known as the Owyhee Canyonlands. However, Motz-Storey noted Congress has been unable to pass protections for the unique landscape. A coalition of organizations, including Motz-Storey's, are pushing the Biden administration to declare it a national monument.

"That would pair very nicely with this dark sky designation and help to protect everything that's on the ground around the Owyhee Canyonlands, which is just as special as the sky you look up at," Motz-Storey contended.