September 25, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on BLM’s Plan to Expand Destructive Off-Road Vehicle Use in Iconic Labyrinth Canyon – 9.25.2025
Peace and quiet throughout Labyrinth Canyon stretch of the Green River at risk
Contacts:
Laura Peterson, Staff Attorney, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (801) 236-3762; laura@suwa.org
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Salt Lake City, UT – Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it is considering reversing course on the motorized Travel Management Plan for the Labyrinth Canyon/Gemini Bridges area near Moab. The plan was finalized in September 2023 and guides where motorized vehicle use is authorized on a 300,000-acre landscape – protecting cultural sites, natural quiet, and the experience of non-motorized recreationists while allowing for motorized recreation on more than 800 miles of dirt trails and routes. Below is a statement from SUWA Staff Attorney Laura Peterson and additional information.
“This is a naked political decision to appease radical off-road vehicle groups and Utah politicans. Their vision for public lands in Utah is one where landscapes are covered in off-road vehicle routes, transforming quiet, wild places into motorized playgrounds and ignoring significant damage to cultural sites, desert waterways, and wildlife habitat,” said Laura Peterson, SUWA Staff Attorney. “With this announcement, the Trump Administration is taking steps to undo the 2023 Labyrinth Canyon travel plan, all the while turning a blind eye to the BLM’s own environmental analysis that shows just how destructive off-road vehicles have been in one of Utah’s wildest redrock landscapes.”
“To be clear, motorized groups suffered multiple legal defeats, and in March 2024 a Federal District Judge ruled that they were likely to lose on the merits of their case. These proposed changes from the BLM are out of step with how Americans want to see their public lands managed,” said Steve Bloch, SUWA Legal Director.
The BLM is accepting public comments on this proposal through Friday, October 24, 2025. Additional information can be found on the E-planning webpage.
Additional information:
In September 2023, BLM released the final Labyrinth Rims and Gemini Bridges travel management plan. SUWA’ s press release, BLM Releases Plan that Finally Protects Labyrinth Canyon and Surrounding Public Lands: New travel plan will balance motorized and non-motorized recreation, contains additional background.
Following a failed attempt (November 2023) by the BlueRibbon Coalition and others to administratively stay implementation of the BLM Plan, those groups and the State of Utah challenged the plan in Federal District Court in Salt Lake City. At a February 2024 hearing, motorized groups sought an emergency injunction, arguing against BLM’s approval of the Plan and seeking to block its implementation. Attorneys from the United States Department of Justice and SUWA (who intervened in the case on behalf of BLM) defended the Plan.
A federal judge denied the groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction in March 2024, holding that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claims. The case has been fully briefed on the merits and was set for a hearing in May 2025. Since then, the case has been stayed at the request of the Trump administration.
The Labyrinth Canyon travel plan is one of 11 travel plans the BLM is completing as part of a court-supervised settlement agreement between the BLM, conservation groups, and ORV groups. Covering more than 6 million acres of BLM-managed lands in eastern and southern Utah, these plans will determine where motorized vehicles will be allowed on some of Utah’s wildest public lands. To date, the BLM has completed five of the 11 plans and is currently working on new plans for some of Utah’s most beloved landscapes. Read more about SUWA’s litigation to ensure these travel plans follow federal laws to protect public lands and resources.
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
