LAND USE: The San Rafael Swindle: 7 Things We’ve Learned 5 Years After Passage of Dingell Act

Recently, anti-access wilderness groups celebrated the five year anniversary of the passage of the Dingell Act. This law was passed by Congress and signed into law on March 12, 2019. In Utah this law is often referred to as the the Emery County Wilderness Bill that designated 663,000 acres of Wilderness in Utah in the area of the San Rafael Swell and along the Green River.

BlueRibbon Coalition has been actively participating in the implementation of this act since it was passed, and the motorized recreation community was heavily involved in trying to prevent the law from being passed because of the serious restrictions on access that would come from the designation of 663,000 acres of Wilderness.

With the release of the proposed travel management alternatives for the San Rafael Swell, we are not surprised to see that the Bureau of Land Management is proposing substantial restrictions on public access to this area on top of the nearly 700,000 acres of wilderness that was already created. Many of us were worried that the Dingell Act was filled with empty promises and hollow, unenforceable protections, and now we are learning that those who negotiated the Dingell Act have a lot of explaining to do.

Here are seven lessons we’ve learned from the failure of the Emery County portion of the Dingell Act to live up to its promises of protecting public lands for public access:

We explored each of these points in more depth in a recent article on our website. With a comment period likely to open in the coming weeks for the San Rafael Swell, we need everyone to become educated about the history of this area.

Read the Full Briefing: https://www.sharetrails.org/the-san-rafael-swindle-7-things-we-have-learned-5-years-after-the-passage-of-the-dingell-act/

~Team BRC