Impact of Wilderness Designation on Off Road Vehicle Use in Negros Bill Canyon and Behind the Rocks Wilderness study area of Grand County, Utah.

Geog 588 and 594

Keith Pruhs

Ryan Brunson

Introduction

The Idea of leaving land areas in a natural and pristine state originally started in the 1920's. The Regional Forester in charge of Arizona and New Mexico, in 1924, classified a section of the Gila National Forest as the first wilderness area (BLM VOl 1 p.8). The US Congress defined wilderness as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor and does not remain." According to the FLPMA (Federal Land Policy and Management Act), the BLM (Bureau of Lnand Management) is to invetory and report to congress land oppertunities that can be included in the NWPS (National Wilderness Preservation System) according to the Wilderness Act. In the State of Utah, the BLM manages about 22 million acres of public land throught out the state. To comply with the invatory process, the BLM prepared 83 WSA (Wilderness Study Areas) primarily located in the western, southern, and eastern sections of the state. The purpose of the BLM wilderness study areas is to recomend areas suitable for preservation of wilderness characteristics. "In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the united states and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in thier natural condition" (BLM Vol.1 p.8).

Wilderness in Utah

The first wilderness area in Utah, was Lone Peak, located in the Wasatach National Forest and designated in 1977. BY 1944, congress had added 14 other Utah National Forest areas for wilderness designation bringing the total to 802,238 acres of wilderness in Utah. By 1988, an additional 22,600 acres of BLM land in southern Utah was added in connection with the Wiulderness Act for Arizona. Although not offically identified as wilderness, there is a 56,000 acre area in the Book Cliffs and a 413,000 acre area of Hill Creek that have been managed to preserve roadless, primitive values. The WSAs that are considered comprise 3,230,434 acres and comprise 6.15 percent of the land in the state of Utah.

Project Objectives

The Object of this study is to accomplish the following:

1. Obtain information and produce maps of the BLM and SUWA wilderness proposals focusing on the areas Behind the Rocks and Negros Bill Canyon in Grand County around Moab, Utah.

2.Estimated the impact of wilderness designation on OFF Road Vehicle (ORV) use in these areas.

Limiting Factors

• Limited amount of data.
  The critical limiting factor is data. Only a certain amount of data was able to be collected for this project and therefore the analysis will be limited.

  The second limiting factor is time. Only a small amount of time was available for this project and therefore limiting the depth of the analysis.

  The third limiting factor is our lack of experience with GIS and it's capabilities.

Wilderness Criteria and Sandards

The Wilderness Act of 1964 lists the qualifications for an area to be considered for wilderness designation. Each area must meet all of the following criteria:

Criterion No.1 Evaluation of Wilderness Values: The area must "generally appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticable."

• A. Mandatory Wilderness Characterists: the area must have at last 5,000 acres of land or is of "sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in a nonimpaired condition", have outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive recreation.
• B. Special Features: the land also contains "ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value".
• C. Multiple Respurce Benifits: other mulitple resource values and uses that only wilderness designation of the area could ensure.
• D. Diversity in the NWPS:
  1. Expanding the diversity of natural systems and features, such as ecosystems and landforms.
  2. Identifying and preserving oppertunities for solitude or primitive recreation within a 1-day travel from major population centers.
  3. Balancing the geographic distribution of wilderness areas.

Criterion No.2 Managibility

• Standard No.1 Energy and Mineral Resource Values: Consideration of any indentified or potential energy and mineral resoure values.

  Standard No.2 Impacts on Other Resources: The extent to which other resource values or uses of the area would be forgone or adversely affected as a result of wilderness designation.

  Standard No.3 Impact of Nondesignation on Wilderness Values: The alternative use of the land under study if the area is not designated and wilderness values of the area that would be foregone or adversely affected as a result of this use.

  Standard No.4 Public Comment: Comments recieved from interested and affected publics at all levels, in conjunction with analysis of a WSA's muliple resources and social and economic values and uses.

  .Standard No.5 Consistency with Other Plans: The extent to which designation of nondesignation would be consistant with officially approved and odopted resource-related plans of other Federal agencies, State and Local governments, and Indian tribes. (BLM Vol.1 p.13-14)

What effects does wilderness designation have?

Allowed:

• Hunting and Fishing.

  Backcountry camping.

  Scientific study and educational programs.

  Travel by foot or horse.

  Guiding and outfitting.

  All existing miling claims.

  Any existing timber claims.

  All current grazing permits.

Prohibited:

• Road building.

  Any additional grazing permits.

  Any additional mining claims.

  Any future timber harvest.

  Off road vehicles (including bicycles).

  Motorized vehicles except in cases of emergency.

  New power lines or dams except thoses authorized by the president for national interests.

METHODS

Wilderness Proposals

The first step we took to understand the impact of wilderness on off road recreation is to define the areas that are proposed wilderness. The following arcview maps show the state wide BLM and SUWA proposals.

BLM

In the state of Utah, the BLM controls about 22 million acres of public land. According to the NWPS, the BLM has to inventory, study, and report to congress land areas that are suitable for wilderness designation. The BLM has recommended 83 Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) or 3,235,834 acres of Utah land.

Suwa (Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) proposal

A coalilition of wilderness groups have submitted thier own wilderness proposal (Bill HR1500). This proposal composes of 42 wilderness areas equalling 5.7 million acres of Utah land or about 11% of the State of Utah.

STUDY AREAS

The following wilderness study areas were chosen for our location of analysis because of thier location around very popular off road recreation areas.

Map Key: Green=SUWA Proposal Yellow=BLM Proposal

Behind the Rocks

.Behind the Rocks wilderness study area is located directly southwest of Moab, Utah. The study area is about 11 miles long in a northwest to Southwest direction, and is 0.5 to 3 miles wide. The study area is approximatly 12,635 acres (BLM proposal) or 51,000 acres (SUWA proposal) of BLM land. The study area contains 6,800 acres of Grand County and 5,835 acres are located in San Juan County. Behind the Rocks is located in a semiarid climate with very hot summers (120 degrees Fahenheit (F) and cold winters (-10 degrees F). The annual precipation ranges from 6 to 11 inches each year.

Behind the Rocks WSA is characterized by "red Navajo Sandstone formations which form a series of closely packed slickrock ridges, or fins, up to 500 feet high" (BLM Vol.5). Like Arches National Park, these cliffs have been carved, eroded, and folded by water, wind to form various arches, spires, alcoves and deep canyons. There are 20 named arches and at least that number of unnamed arches.

Negros Bill Canyon

The Negros Bill Canyon study area is located directly northeast of Moab, Utah in Grand County. The canyon is wedged between Arches National Park on the Northwest and Mill Creek on the south. The study area is approximatly 8 miles wide from east to west and 0.5 to 2.5 miles long from north to south. It contains 7,620 acres (BLM proposal) or 20,600 acres (SUWA proposal) of BLM land. Negros Bill conyon is located in a semiarid climate with very hot summers (120 degrees fahrenheit (F) and cold winters (-10 degrees F). The annual precipation ranges from 8 to 10 inches per year and the annual smowfall is between 10 and 20 inches.

Negros Bill Canyon is characterized as a triangle of slickrock and Navajo Sandstone fins and domes. The canyon contains six miles of perennial streams and vegitation ranging from pinyon-junipor woodland to low shrubs. Negros Bill Study area contains the Morning Glory Natural Bridge, one of the largest natural rock spans in the world.

After the identification of the study areas, the next step is to identify the roads or off road recreation areas with in the two study areas.

• The imagery that we chose was LANDSAT TM (Thematic Mapper) data.
• The study areas and Grand county were then clipped from the state data image.
• The TM data was then processed to using EDRAS/Imagine 8.2 to produce a shaded relief image of the study areas. These areas were then imported to Arcview for our base image.
• Using the state of Utah data provided by Dr. Douglas Ramsey, we clipped road data, wilderness study areas, river data of Grand county and the two study areas.
• The 50 meter road buffer was used to show the off road recreation areas, and the areas affected by the off road use inside the proposed wilderness study areas. Using Arcview we produced maps showing the study areas.

Map Key: Green lines= SUWA WSA boundary, Red lines=roads.

Negro Bill Canyon study area map shows some of the popular off road recreation trails. (Note:Weather or not each of the roads or roadways with in wilderness areas meet the techinical defination or a road is not known. What people consider and use as a road or jeep trail in wilderness areas are sometimes considered "ways".)

• A mining road, built in 1979, extends aproximatlly 1.5 miles into the southern Negro Bill Canyon area.
• Various other roads and recreation oppertunites exist along the perimiter of the WSA, and in the upper portions of the WSA providing recreational four wheel drive vehicles and mountain bikes access into the lower canyon areas.
• The Porcupine Rim trail covers most of the length of the WSA and is used during the annual Moad Jeep Safari Events. This road is popular with mountain bikes as well

Map Key: Green lines=SUWA WSA Boundry, Yellow lines=BLM WSA

SUWA proposal=20,600 acres. BLM proposal=7,620 acres.

Behind the Rocks study area map shows known access roads to the wilderness areas.

Map Key: Green lines=SUWA WSA boundry, Red lines= roads.

• Vehicular tracks can be found in the northern end of the WSA near the Moab Rim Jeep trail (boundary road).
• Two short roads extends abount 1 mile up a side of drainages of Hunters Canyon.
• About 15 miles of roads and jeep trails that border the WSA in Pritchett Canyon and along the Moab Rim trail are not included in the wilderness proposals and will remain open to off road vehicles. A road extends about 1 mile into the WSA along the Moab Rim cliff on the southern tip of the WSA, leading to a natural arch. This is a popular local jeep trail and is described in tour books.
• In total, the disturbed areas equals about 300 acres.

Map Key: Green lines= SUWA WSA boundry, Yellow lines=BLM WSA Boundry.

SUWA proposal=51,000 acres. BLM proposal=12,635.

ECONOMIC DATA

Tourism is a big business in the state of Utah, and is a major contributor to the state's income. According to one source, in 1993 Utah visitor's spent about $3.27 billion, and generated $240 million in tax revenue (Wilderness Des. p. 71). The area around Moab, Utah is increasing in popularity in recreation actitivies. No complete current economic data is available on the recreation impact of Moab or Grand county. The BLM obtained some information concerning the economic contribution of recreation.

• The Easter Jeep Safari trip of Four Wheeler Magazine in 1993, reported 1200 people in thier group for the weekend (Four Wheeler p.68).
• Engineers and executives from BFGoodrich, Trail Master, and other companies come to Moab to evaluate thier equipment.
• Approximately 30 % of recreation use is for off road vehicles (1982)
• Approximately 70% of recreation use is for primitive recreation (1982)
• State of Utah data cites that off road vehicle use was the 17th most popular recreation activity with a total of 2 million visits in 1976.
• Recreational use for Behind the Rocks WSA is estimated as about 2,500 visitor days per year. Visitor days are defined as "12 visitor hours" on FS land. (Ex. one person for 12 hours or 12 people for one hour etc. equals a visitor day)

Although little is known about specific recreational uses in certain wilderness areas, known studies report the following:

• Most wilderness users are collage-educated.
• Access to water seems to be correlated with use.
• The primary use is in the summer time.
• The average length of stay is relatively short, usually one day.
• Most users are local.
• Most RVD's are from repete users.(Wilderness Des. p.72)

Conclusion

The purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of wilderness designation on off road vehicle (ORV) use in Negros Bill Canyon and Behind the Rocks WSA's in Grand county.

• As a growing recreation meca off road vehicle use is rapidly increasing around and in the WSA study areas. This will continue to contribute economically to the area. Wilderness areas should be designated as soon as possible to lessen the impact on the area.
• The entire 12,635 acres in Behind the Rocks and 7,620 acres in Negro Bill WSA would be closed to off road vehicle use in designated as wilderness.
• Negros Bill Canyon is an ever popular off road recreation site and contains numerous roads and trails. Due to greater use and human impact, designation for wilderness would limit popular off road recreation oppertunities for the area.
• Behind the Rocks WSA is a popular primitive recreation site, based on available data human impact appears minimal and would be a sensible choice for wilderness designation.

TIPS

Four wheel drives and mountain bikes.

• Travel on designated roads at all times.
• Respect others, drive and act responsibly.
• Educate yourself, use maps, comply with signs, and barriers..
• Avoid wildlife and fragile enviroments such as streambeds, meadows, muddy roads and trails.
• Drive responsibly to protect the enviroment and preserve the oppertunity to enjoy the use of our public lands.

Bibliography

Utah BLM Statewide Wilderness Final EIS, Nov. 1990, seven vol. Salt Lake City, Utah, Deptartment of the Interior.

The Utah Wilderness Coalition. Wilderness at the Edge: A citizen Proposal to Protect Utah's Canyon's and Deserts. Utah Wilderness Coalition, Salt Lake City, 1990.

Wilderness Designation in Utah: Issues and Potential Economic Impacts. Utah Agricultural Expermiment Station. Utah State University, Logan, Utah. 1995.