Defend Your Ground!

Land Use Updates August 3, 2022 ModernJeeper

As always, our friends that fight to keep our lands open for all of us to use and enjoy, need our help! The Blue...

As always, our friends that fight to keep our lands open for all of us to use and enjoy, need our help! The Blue Ribbon Coalition continues to fight many battle for us but fighting to keep our lands open is expensive! Please take a few minutes and check out their website and keep up to date with what is happening in the Land Use Arena!

The Bureau of Land Management released their Travel Management Plan last fall, which closed 58% of all routes in the Black Canyon Corridor area north of Phoenix, AZ. BlueRibbon Coalition joined a collection of OHV groups and mining organizations to appeal the plan and the BLM pulled the previous plan. In the meantime we have met with the new management of the BLM, and they are now requesting another round of public feedback on this plan. While some improvements have been made related to recognizing several technical rock crawling routes, the plan still suffers from several deficiencies. You can read the specifics on the BLM planning page.

You can review a draft version of our comment that we will be sending to the BLM once it is finalized.

We invite you to use our action alert to submit a comment of your own encouraging continued access on these public lands. If you agree with the concerns we shared in our comment, you can modify the action alert and add your own thoughts, concerns, and experiences. If you have strong familiarity with the area, we definitely need you to add your feedback and experience to this effort.

Help us Keep the Black Canyon Corridor Open!

We are encouraged that the BLM has already made some improvements to this plan compared to what was prepared last fall. Part of the reason the BLM is reconsidering the plan is because of the unified coalition we were a part of last fall.

We will be sending our comment jointly with Arizona Backcountry Explorers, American Mining Rights Association, and Arizona State Association of 4WD Clubs. Together we are a strong united voice for access in this area. Our four organizations have created a special membership offer in connection with this effort called the Arizona Access Alliance. For one membership fee of $100, you can join all four organizations. You will be supporting our work to keep adventure open in Arizona, you will be supporting a strong alliance that can influence the BLM to develop a better plan, and each organization offers a range of benefits to members. Be sure to check it out.

Ben Burr

Executive Director

BlueRibbon Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization. We are able to protect your adventures because of charitable contributions from our members and supporters. Please consider making a sustaining contribution to BRC today!