The BLM's Moab field office on Friday released the second of six management plans that eventually will govern a total of 11 million acres in southeastern Utah. The environmental-impact documents will guide every decision on land-use activity the agency makes for the next 10 to 15 years.

Trouble is, those activities - from hiking to biking to grazing to drilling - conflict with one another, leaving the BLM to sort out solutions that satisfy few and anger many.

The Moab region in Grand and San Juan counties encompasses world-famous recreational areas, including the Slickrock Trail, the Green and Colorado rivers, Fisher Towers, Labyrinth Canyon, Arches National Park and portions of Canyonlands. Once a played-out, depressed uranium mining area, Moab and its surroundings have been revitalized by recreation and oil and gas exploration.

Oil-industry representatives insist there are too many restrictions on exploration, an attitude county officials share. Conservationists object to drilling in sensitive lands and especially dislike how much public land is open to motorized recreation, considering off-highway-vehicle users represent a small minority of all those who visit the area.

The Moab field office says its plan could constrain oil, gas and mineral extraction to maintain or protect natural resources, which could harm local economies in the short term.

But the Wilderness Society doesn't see much constraining in the plan, and vows to protest it.

"Seeing as how 80 percent of the planning area is open to oil and gas leasing, this doesn't really look like an exercise in constraint," said Phil Hanceford, a Denver-based Wilderness Society legal analyst.

San Juan County Commission Chairman Bruce Adams said the Moab plan is "not so bad," but still believes it should have allowed more mineral development.

"We want to protect all our other resources, cultural and visible beauty," he said. "But mineral exploration has a life of its own. It's not going to be there forever."

Marc Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said his industry group has no plans to protest the Moab resource-management plan, even though it hoped the BLM would put fewer restrictions on development.

The region's recreational attractions have rebuilt the region's economy, yet the BLM has gone too far in accommodating OHV use, said Liz Thomas, an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in Moab.

In 2007, the BLM released a survey of 829 people who visited the area that showed the vast majority were so-called quiet users. Many engaged in multiple activities: 49 percent walked, hiked or ran trails; 41 percent watched wildlife; 18 percent rode mountain bikes. Just 11.5 percent drove dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles or four-wheel drives.

Thomas analyzed the Moab plan and found 84 percent of the public lands south of Interstate 70 would be within the equivalent of five city blocks from an OHV trail.

The dust resulting from drilling activity and OHVs has become an air-quality issue across the West and contributes to climate disruption. Signs along U.S. 191 through Moab warn of dust storms. "There should be places where you don't have soils disturbed," Thomas said.

"With nearly 3,000 miles of [OHV] routes, you're not protecting against the impacts of climate change," Thomas said. "You can have oil and gas development in places. You can have motorized recreation in places. You can have wildlife in places. But these uses are not compatible in the same place."

phenetz@sltrib.com

* A reduction in the number of miles of highway and trails open to four-wheel off-highway vehicles but an increase in motorcycle trails. The plan calls for 2,500 miles of OHV trails and 150 miles of single-track motorcycle routes. Dirt bikes also could ride 163 miles of existing OHV trails. Combined with gravel roads, OHVs could ride more than 6,200 miles.

* Acreage devoted to special recreation-management areas would increase more than fourfold, and 63,232 acres would be managed as areas of critical environmental concern.

* The BLM found 10 river segments suitable for wild and scenic designation.

* Though the BLM surveyed 460,000 acres for wilderness characteristics, the agency selected just 48,000 for wilderness-style management. But because the BLM also would allow OHV access on these acres, they could become ineligible for wilderness status.

* The BLM would allow 432 oil and gas wells on 1.5 million acres, which is virtually unchanged from what has been allowed so far. The BLM would declare 17,000 acres off-limits to drilling and 217,480 acres would be open only to slant drilling so that no oil rigs would be visible on the parcels.

Note: Those who already have been involved with the environmental-impact statement have 30 days to protest the agency's decision. For the full report, go to www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/moab/planning.html