Dozens of people rode their ATVs and motorcycles on an off-limits trail in southern Utah on Saturday in a protest against what the group calls the federal government’s overreaching control of public lands.
San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge says from 40 to 50 people drove about a mile down Recapture Canyon near Blanding and then turned around.
BLM Utah State Director Juan Palma, in a statement, says the riders may have damaged artifacts and dwellings that are up to 2,000 years old, and the agency will pursue “all available redress through the legal system” to hold them accountable.
Commissioner Phil Lyman, the protest’s organizer, says it was designed to show that the federal agency isn’t the “supreme authority” and local residents have a right to have their opinions heard.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
How dare they? I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent and then some.
A few decades ago I was going to grad school in SE Idaho and the snowmobilers from Utah
would come up on winter weekends and just ride wherever they wanted, destroying ranch fences,
chasing cows and deer who were struggling with the cold, deep snow and finding food. Seems not
much has changed.
These people are anarchists plain and simple. Either the rules apply to everybody, or they apply to nobody. Each and every one of them should be arrested and fined $10,000. Enough of this nonsense.
I read somewhere this morning that law enforcement planned to get the names of all who trespassed (flaunted the law). I hope they fine or jail everyone of them with the highest punishment possible.
Well, in the absence of Cap’n Commonsense, fuck these people.