Dozens ride ATVs into Utah’s Recapture Canyon in lands dispute rally

[Grassy Knoll]

Source: www.sltrib.com

Blanding • Fed up with federal control over lands their families have used for generations, dozens of Blanding residents along with out-of-town supporters Saturday drove ATVs into Recapture Canyon, a nearby trove of prehistoric sites the Bureau of Land Management closed to motorized use seven years ago.

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, acting as a private citizen, organized the event, which started with a rally in Blanding’s Centennial Park, to protest what he and more than 200 supporters call federal "overreach" into local jurisdiction. Prompting the protest was BLM’s failure to process San Juan County’s applications for ATV rights-of-way in Recapture, although resentment with the federal agency here runs much deeper and wider than the canyon that parallels Blanding a few miles to the east.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57909181-78/canyon-amp-blm-federal.html.csp

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***PHOTOS AT LINK***

[NYC_SKP]

1. We don't need the likes of these idiots in our society.

Assholes.

[Hoyt]

3. We need folks like the "environmentalist" riding with a cigarrette dangling from his mouth to remind

us how important education is.

[Hoyt]

2. As I figured, a bunch of ignorant, armed Tbaggers raising their kids to be same.

[okaawhatever]

4. The worst part, from the story:

"The American tradition of civil disobedience doesn’t change the fact that the rule of law needs to mean something," said Ewing, who lives in nearby Bluff. "I’ll be very disappointed in my government if it doesn’t follow through with upholding the law."Palma noted in his statement Saturday that "there are more than 2,800 miles of trails open to ATV use on public lands adjacent to or within a short drive of Blanding."

What morons (morans), this is backed by the likes of the Koch brothers. They want to get rid of the BLM so they can drill for oil wherever they want to. The Obama admin has done an extensive study of land, rivers and the like and is making some big changes this fall. The oil types know this is their last chance to keep lands under the control of oil drillers.

[bbgrunt]

5. +100

[Historic NY]

7. +100

they want to go where they want to w/o regard for the land. They think they are entitled. Being good stewarts of the land isn't in their vocabulary.

[zeemike]

8. The big changes is what concerns me.

Will the changes benefit us or the ones that want to exploit the land?
And based on what I have seen in the Bundy affair and now this I am concerned that the government is about to give in to the ones that want to take the BLM land and give it to the state to sell off to the billionaire investors.

[Sunlei]

29. Utah has more oil locked up in shale than the entire of Saudi Arabia. Thats why they want our land.

Corporations do not care that it would be incredibly filthy to mine that shale oil or that it would ruin the land forever.

[zeemike]

30. Yep, money trumps everything.

And it buys politics and laws to further it's own interists...so the big changes coming concerns me.

[okaawhatever]

33. Thanks for the heads up. I read an extensive report on the administrations BLM policy revisions

but it didn't focus on any one area, it was more of a macro report. I had no idea Utah had that much oil trapped in shale. Makes more sense now.

[Sunlei]

34. Utah was the land of the dinosaurs & so there is oil. my favorite fossil,Coprolite comes from there.

"Utah Dino Dung"

Let us hope they never start refining 'shale oil' & frack for gas- in any major way. Very dirty and destructive way to get low quality crude.

Our world would be better off if we focused on the abundant premium quality crude in many other countries.

Our DOI/BLM has needed 'updating' for many decades. When Obama first took office they were still using paper maps in many departments. Let us hope he won't be snookered by the 'good old boys' again.

[okaawhatever]

35. One of the papers/articles I read about the BLM was from the Center for American Progress. It is

titled A Turning Point for the Bureau of Land Management. It was written in Dec of 2013 but the first sentence is this:

In 2014, the Obama administration’s effort to clean up, fix, and modernize the federal government’s oil and gas leasing program on public lands will reach its most critical milestones since the Department of the Interior’s reform agenda launched in 2009.

It comes as no surprise to me that reaching a critical milestone and having protests erupt a la Crimea/Eastern Ukraine is not a coincidence.

Here's a link to the story:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/report/2013/12/18/81291/a-turning-point-for-the-bureau-of-land-management/

[freshwest]

10. Nailed it. Koch land grab. The jerks expect a cut from the theft, let's not kid ourselves. n/t

[Overseas]

22. K&R.

[snappyturtle]

32. I don't know about 'them' wanting to get rid of the BLM. It looks like to me the

BLM is a good agent for state and federal revenue by selling 10 year leases to the oil and gas industry. Click on the links at the right side of the chart for more interesting tidbits. I don't particularly like what happened in the OP but.....

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/oil_and_gas/recent_lease_sales.html

[jtuck004]

6. There is no difference between the Taliban destroying ancient statues with big guns

and these terrorists.

[mbperrin]

11. Except that our domestic terrorists talk a lot more.

Destructive, annoying, and stupid. The trifecta.

[jtuck004]

25. And their's don't hide behind women and children so much. They treat them badly,

but they stand out in front of them during battle.

I have a feeling one of them knows more about what it takes to be free than the other - and it ain't the one on the 3 wheeler with 4 attempts at the 6th grade on his record...

[Paladin]

23. Very apt comparison. (nt)

[Thor_MN]

9. Yes, I'm so sure that "generations" have used ATVs

Bullshit. If they want to take a horse or walk their fat asses out there, no problems. But no, we want to take motor vehicles out in the wilderness...

[Kaleva]

24. The Spainiards brought the ATVs over from Europe.

Some escaped and were captured by the Indians which contributed to the golden age of the Plains Indians.

[fbc]

12. More law enforcement double standards

If these were Occupy protesters demonstrating against Wall Street they would be beaten, gassed and jailed.

[atreides1]

13. You are correct

Because the Bundy Militia carry guns that they seem ready to employ...law enforcement will let them get away with anything they want!!!

Even with the FBI "investigation" I don't believe the feds will do anything! Holder hasn't done anything to the bankers who almost crashed our economy, he sure isn't going to do anything to Bundy or his followers!

[Crowman1979]

14. Now only if they would do a ride through an atomic bomb test site.

So we can be rid of this stupidity.

[Zipgun]

15. I am waiting for them to go too far.

One of these idiots will.

[csziggy]

16. So they don't care about destroying ancient sites or grave areas

But the canyon offers a window into how ancient Native Americans thrived for centuries in an arid, rugged land, according to Jerry Spangler, of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance.

"Damage to archaeological sites is permanent and the information about our collective past is then lost forever," Spangler said. "It is sad that irreplaceable treasures of importance to all Americans would be sacrificed on the altar of anti-government fervor. It is worse that protesters would be so blinded to their own insensitivity as to what others consider to be sacred treasures of their past."
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57909181-78/canyon-amp-blm-federal.html.csp

How would they feel if a large group tore around on ATVs in the cemetery in the background where they assembled with no respect for the tombstones or markers?

[alp227]

17. Seven years ago? And NOW they're worried, because of, err the new president?

So now that Obama is in office the BLM is EVIL EVIL EVIL BIG GOVERNMENT but not during the previous how many years it existed?

[riversedge]

18. @BLMUtah Press Statement Regarding Illegal ATV Use in #RecaptureCanyon (Issued 5/10/14).

@BLMUtah Press Statement Regarding Illegal ATV Use in #RecaptureCanyon (Issued 5/10/14). #blmnews http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/may/blm-ut_press_statement.html


Release Date: 05/10/14
Contacts: Megan Crandall , 801-539-4020


BLM-UT Press Statement Regarding Illegal ATV Use in Recapture Canyon

Today, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah State Director Juan Palma issued the following statement regarding the illegal use of ATVs in closed portions of Recapture Canyon near Blanding, Utah.

“Regrettably, after a peaceful rally in Blanding, Utah, a number of individuals broke the law by driving ATVs through Recapture Canyon where ancient artifacts and dwellings may have been damaged by the riders.

As always, our first and most important priority is the safety of the public and our employees, and our actions today reflect that. The BLM’s law enforcement presence today focused on recording and documenting individuals who chose to violate the law by traveling into the closure area on ATVs.

We know from the archaeological record left behind in Recapture Canyon that the area was previously occupied for at least 2,000 years. Illegal ATV use within Recapture Canyon may have damaged many of these archaeological resources—all of which hold the history and tell the story of the first farmers in the Four Corners region.

......

[zeemike]

31. A statement that will be interpreted as weakness.

"As always, our first and most important priority is the safety of the public and our employees, and our actions today reflect that.

Chock up another win for the right wing.

[iamthebandfanman]

19. So, If something involves the BLM..

you can break the law..
is that what we are all learning from this?

when are people going to start going to jail?
if I was alone and did something like that, I probably would be...

why are people not having laws enforced on them?

[Sunlei]

28. At a BLM round-up last year a book author passed the BLM 'first amendment line' tape to get better

pictures. He passed the tape by about 20 feet to take a picture. The BLM arrested him and then a elderly woman who was using her cell phone to record the arrest was also arrested. They both were handcuffed and placed in the BLM police cars and left in those cars for an hour. This was in desert heat, it was hot. They had to call an ambulance because both people got heat stroke.

I know the BLM can arrest people if they want to. They are overly, hardasses much of the time in my experiences.

For some reason the BLM is letting all these "anti- public-land" bozos get away with a lot more than they let a photographer and an older woman with a cell phone get away with.

[fasttense]

20. Fat men riding ATVs

Wow, those pictures certainly show a bunch of fat men riding around. Maybe if they got OFF their ATVs and walked or rode a horse they wouldn't be so awfully fat.

24 ATVs with Lazy people riding around making noise and destroying the environment. What are they protesting again? The right to be stupid and fat?

[warrior1]

21. I thought that this freaks were superstitious

Maybe it will be self fulfilling.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jacobs-response-broke-curse-native-american-cannibals

As we’ve been reporting, self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs has dedicated her show God Knows to discussing how lands are cursed by sins like abortion, adultery and homosexuality, calling on Christians to literally take control over the weather and reverse the curse. In the fourth part of the series, Jacobs claims that lands are cursed with violence because they were previously inhabited by Native Americans who “did blood sacrifice” and “were cannibals and they ate people.”

Fortunately, Jacobs maintains, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally in Houston broke the curse and “the land is starting to rejoice, you see, because of that prayer.”

This concept of curses left by Native Americans has a large foothold in the New Apostolic Reformation, and today Bruce Wilson reported that NAR figures Chuck Pierce, John Benefiel, Tom Schlueter and Jay Swallow recently participated in an event in Teas that involved “smashing of Native American art objects” in order to “divorce and tear down the principalities of Baal, Asherah and Leviathan.” Like Benefiel and Swallow, Jacobs was an official endorser of The Response.


snip

video at link

[Enrique]

26. Charles Manson's dune buggy brigade is finally a reality

[Sunlei]

27. "a meandering trail overgrown with sage and willow".<< this is how vehicles start wildfires.

That is all OUR public land, not Utahs, not the private adjacent land owners,..that public land belongs to all Americans. We expect that land to continue for hundreds of years in the future as public lands.

They better get a big fat fine for breaking the laws. Enough to cover damages to the 'trail' from ATVs. Notice even the BLM rangers are on horseback.

The nerve of them to think they are entitled to misuse our public lands!

Just because the people of Utah used to tear up the public lands 50 years ago. Chase wildlife off cliffs as a past time. Doesn't give them any excuse to start tearing up our public lands today.