‘Listening session’ seeks comments on desired motorized recreation plan

A series of listening sessions will address off-highway vehicle recreation in Arizona including the Arizona Strip, a huge swath of BLM-managed land located in northern Arizona near St. George, Utah, Jan. 3, 2015 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – A series of listening sessions are scheduled to help create a Bureau of Land Management motorized recreation plan for Arizona. The first meeting is set for Monday at 6 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center in St. George.

Many Southern Utahns hunt, fish and recreate in the nearly 2 million acres known as the Arizona Strip, which is bordered on the south by the Grand Canyon and managed by the Bureau of Land Management Arizona Strip District office in St. George.

The National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council has partnered with the BLM to help create a national motorized recreation action plan and is soliciting feedback from the public.

Information from the conservation council states that the action plan is not designed to be a “top-down set of ideas” that each BLM unit will need to accommodate.

“Instead, it will be a set of ideas and actions that each state can employ to develop the best strategy for high-quality OHV recreation in its units.”

The conservation council will hold several meetings in each state to gather information, and both the public and local BLM staff are invited.

The BLM action plan will encourage partnership and open communications between the BLM and off-highway enthusiasts, clubs and associations. The two groups will work to develop a plan for how the BLM can improve off-highway recreation.

The process will start by asking questions such as the following:

  • What activities are taking place on BLM-managed land?
  • What experiences are riders seeking on BLM-managed land?
  • What experiences can’t currently be found?
  • Which BLM units and what areas of the units could fulfill the missing experiences?
  • What could the BLM do better to enhance off-highway vehicle recreation experiences on the local level?

Once action plans are developed for each state, the BLM will use those strategies to help guide its resource management and travel management plans.

Upcoming meetings

Meetings will be held in January in the following locations:

  • St. George: Monday, Jan. 23, 6-9 p.m. | Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center, 850 S. Bluff St.
  • Kingman, Arizona: Jan. 24, 6-9 p.m. | Ramada, 3100 E. Andy Divine Ave.
  • Quartzite: Jan. 25, 6-9 p.m. | Quartzite Community Center, 295 Chandler St.
  • Tucson, Arizona: Jan. 26, 6-9 p.m. | Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites, 5151 E. Grant Road.
  • Wickenburg, Arizona: Jan. 27, 6–9 p.m. | Coffinger Park Recreation Center, 175 E. Swilling Ave.
  • Phoenix: Jan. 28, 6–9 p.m. | La Quinta Inn, 2510 W. Greenway Road.

Anyone who is interested in participating but can’t attend a meeting or is looking for more information can contact the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council via email to [email protected].

To learn more about the conservation council and their involvement in BLM’s recreation action plan, see this website. For more resources, go here.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

3 Comments

  • ladybugavenger January 23, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    What’s a listening session?
    Shout out to Josh Dalton: Go Falcons!

    • .... January 23, 2017 at 10:36 pm

      Pssssssst……the Raiders can hear you

      • ladybugavenger January 24, 2017 at 11:13 am

        HaHa! They know I love them ? Win, lose, or tie, Raiders fan until I die

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.