ShareTrails | RELEASE: BlueRibbon Coalition Supports the Historic Roadways Protection Act

SALT LAKE CITY – Today Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Historic Roadways Protection Act in the United States Senate in response to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recent decision to close 317 miles of popular historic roads in Moab.

Senator Lee’s bill prohibits using federal money to enact new travel plans in Utah until all the historic road cases that are currently being adjudicated have been settled. Additionally, Sen. Lee’s legislation pauses any previous plans by the BLM to change how these lands are used until the courts reach a decision on these historic roads.

BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC) supports this legislation, and is encouraged to see Congress push back on the BLM’s radical decision to close these roads.

“The roads that the BLM closed in Moab are an important historic and cultural resource for the people of Utah and the members of BlueRibbon Coalition,” BlueRibbon Coalition Executive Director, Ben Burr said. “As Congress convenes to pass new spending bills in the coming weeks, we hope that this legislation will be included as an important priority for the public interest of Americans in the West who are fed up with the current Administration’s radical land grabs.”

The BLM plan to close 317 miles of historic roads in Moab was the result of a planning process required by a 2017 legal settlement. The 2017 Settlement Agreement between the Department of Interior, SUWA, the Wilderness Society, BlueRibbon Coalition, Colorado TPA, and Ride with Respect, says, “The obligations imposed upon Federal Defendants under this Settlement Agreement can only be undertaken using appropriated funds.”

BlueRibbon Coalition urges its members and supporters to contact their members of Congress to support the Historic Roadways Protection Act and save our Moab trails by enacting funding restrictions on public land closures: