23,000 miles of roads on public land will undergo Travel Mgmt in the next 3 years.

Posted By

Kevin Allard

November 17, 2022

Posted in

Arizona – The Bureau of land management is ready to drop the hammer on motorized access to public lands in the next 3 years. According to the minutes from the July 2022 Arizona Bureau of Land Management Resource Advisory Council meeting, 18 Travel Management Plans that include over 23,000 miles of roads, need to be completed by the year 2025.

This is enough road to circle the entire earth!

The Bureau has completed nearly all travel management plans scheduled for 2022. These decisions have closed, or restricted the use of, roughly 7,000 miles of existing roads that provide access to thousands of dispersed recreation areas.

These recreation areas cover a variety of recreation opportunities. Some are accessible and are primarily used by passenger cars, 2wd trucks, conversion vans, and large RVs. While others are only accessible with highly equipped 4×4 vehicles, requiring hours, and sometimes days, to reach.

On a more critical note, these roads are public ways that foster access to tangible property, such as mineral claims, water rights, and private property. The road itself is a property right of the state of Arizona under existing state and federal law.

You can voice your opinion on the following plans that have been completed in 2022.

Our action alerts go out to local political representatives to pressure them to take action on behalf of We The People.

Black Canyon Corridore TMP

Bouse and Cactus Plain TMP

Buckeye Hills TMP

Littlefield and Arizona Strip TMP

The San Simon, Kingman, and Imperial Hills plans are scheduled to be completed this year but the Bureau has not released their decisions yet. These plans include around 2,000 miles of road closures that provide access to over a million acres of public lands.

The Middle Gila TMP started in November and is expected to be complete by the end of next year. Comments on this plan close tomorrow.

We won’t give up on our roads, and neither should you!

The Arizona People need to stay involved and focused on the mission. Please don’t give up on our backroads because a small minority of users destroy a small portion of our public lands. Only by applying massive political pressure on local political representatives, do we stand a chance of defending access to our public lands.

We urge you to hold the line!

It may seem like voicing your opinion does not matter. However, I assure you that it does. If enough attention is placed on a certain issue, it can no longer be ignored and politicians have no choice but to act.

We must demand that our political representatives assert the fundamental property right known as RS2477 that is held by the State of Arizona on behalf of We The People. These plans cannot be allowed to move forward with any RS 2477 road involved.

Author: Kevin Allard

Kevin is an American outdoorsman born and raised in rural Arizona who grew up exploring the Arizona backcountry with his father. Today, he and his son travel to the most remote regions of Arizona, scavenging for the remains of early western pioneers. As a lifelong outdoorsman, Kevin has learned to stick close to his roots while engaging in important advocacy work regarding motorized access to public lands. You can find his work in many local and nationwide publications, including The Western Journal, 4Low Magazine, and his website AZBackroads.com.

Tags:

Arizona, Dispersed Camping, Public Land, Road Closure, Travel Management

6 responses to “23,000 miles of roads on public land will undergo Travel Mgmt in the next 3 years.”

Joyce Ritner

Nov 18, 2022 11:24 AM

If the people abusing the roads were policed more ut would help

Reply
1. Kevin Allard
  
  Nov 18, 2022 3:10 PM
  
  I agree! That’s why we need to make sure local law enforcement is enforcing state law in problem areas. We should be demanding that additional funding be set aside to hire and equip LEOs with the tools they need. Luckily, people are starting to go to jail, and about 60 million was just allocated to county Sheriffs by the Legislature.
Gary Miller

Nov 18, 2022 7:01 AM

Kevin, i am all for keeping back roads open, but until someone controls the Razor type vehicle’s, we are going to lose the battle. I’m sure there are responsible drivers, but the majority of them are tearing up the landscape.

Reply
1. Kevin Allard
  
  Nov 18, 2022 5:52 PM
  
  I don’t believe the problem warrants the closure of thousands of miles of roads. These roads should be governed no differently that any other county highway under the long-standing highway right of way established under Section 8 of the Mining Act of 1866. ARS 37-931 gives counties authority over roads on federal lands. Therefore, the 4×4 community should focus its efforts on engaging the County Sheriff and allocating state funding to county sheriff’s departments.
  
  By relying on the Federal Government to stop these issues, we are justifying authority the federal government doesn’t have. Roads over public lands are a state issue under the long-standing principles established by Section 8 of the Mining Act of 1866. Federal law, federal regulation, agency policy manuals, hundreds of court cases, and documented rulemaking processes in the federal register, recognize this fact.
Duane Ward

Nov 18, 2022 6:00 AM

What can the general public do I have a lot of friends we all use and respect our public land I have over 100 of us ready to take action. Please respond thankyou.

Reply
1. Kevin Allard
  
  Nov 18, 2022 8:19 PM
  
  Thanks for asking. Many variables come into play here. In general, we have two major issues and both of them are related.
  
  First off, the federal government is out of control and ignoring its own regulations and agency policy manual. These roads are property rights of the state under long-standing federal law and agency regulation stemming from section 8 of the Mining Act of 1866. Simply put, the federal government is acting like a bad neighbor who locked the gate on a road used to access your property. The only option is to file a civil suit for injunctive relief, get the county sheriff to cut the lock, or cut the lock yourself. Or better yet, deregulate Federal agencies to end the Travel Management process.
  
  Federal Land managers have set a standard over the past 20-plus years that ignores states’ rights. The state and county should be taking action.
  
  The second problem is lawless actions by the public. It’s a common misunderstanding that people are causing closures. The fact is, the Travel Management planning process is written into federal regulation as a mechanism used to accomplish the goals mandated by other federal laws. The process is used to allegedly “protect” endangered species, wetland habitats, riparian areas, roadless areas, recommended wilderness areas, and so on. However, Federal law, federal regulation, agency policy manuals, and hundreds of court cases, make the travel management process only applicable to roads constructed after October of 1976.
  
  We cannot deny there are real problems. Open access comes with responsibility. The community and established clubs can only do so much to change how people act. In our opinion, motorized use advocates have mistakenly put law enforcement responsibilities on federal agencies where no constitutional authority exists. While doing so, we have pushed aside local law enforcement who have the legal authority to enforce state law. We NEED Sheriffs departments to start enforcing state law along our backroads and in popular areas on public lands. They are the answer to 90% of the argument. Currently, each county only has a handful of deputies dedicated to patrolling public lands in their jurisdiction.
  
  If we could get 20 sheriff deputies in each county to focus on these issues, it would protect the interest of the federal government (environment) and the interest of the state, and therefore, We The People.