Liz Thomas, a Moab-based attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Wednesday that the group filed the formal petition this week after the BLM rejected what she called earlier, informal attempts to protect the area.
The canyon is known for its large, though mostly unsurveyed, collection of Anasazi and Pueblo ruins and artifacts. Its year-round stream also is home to three native fish species - the flannel mouth sucker, blue head sucker and speckled dace.
"We've been asking for this for a long time," Thomas said. "We understand that the BLM doesn't have the resources to do an inventory of the canyon. But until they know what's there, they need to protect those cultural resources and species until they have more information."
Besides SUWA, the petitioners include Navajo tribal Councilman Mark Maryboy and Vaughn Hadenfeldt, owner of a Bluff-based outfitting company.
"Preservation of these lands is important for our culture and spiritual values," Maryboy, who lives in Montezuma Creek, said in a statement. "Arch Canyon should not be sacrificed by the damaging effects of [OHV] use."
Mary Wilson, spokeswoman for the BLM's state office, said the agency would respond to the petition, but noted the agency is satisfied that the Monticello Field Office's current land-use plan for the canyon is adequate - and that an updated plan is in development.
"We'll look at the information and take action if it's warranted," Wilson said. "But there's a well-determined process for how we manage the land. And we believe we are managing Arch Canyon in a way that protects the riparian and archeological resources."
The closure petition also clashes with San Juan County's ongoing process to claim the Arch Canyon road as a county right-of-way. County Commissioner Lynn Stevens, who doubles as the director of the state's Public Lands Policy Coordination Office, led a jeep jamboree up Arch Canyon in 2004, defying the BLM's rejection of a county request for a permit to hold the event.
The county currently plans to submit the Arch Canyon road as a right-of-way under a nonbinding determination process the BLM created earlier this year. The process is a response to an appeals court decision last year that determined that 10 years of continuous use of a road prior to 1976 was sufficient to prove county ownership in Utah.
"SUWA has been trying to close Arch Canyon for at least 16 years, and they keep trying different ways to do it," said Stevens. "But San Juan County is quite comfortable that this is a [county] road, and we're confident we will prevail in federal court if it comes to that."
Thomas, the SUWA attorney, points out that the county will need to buttress its ownership claims with documentation. But she says that even if the right-of-way claim is valid, it is in the county's interest to restrict motorized use in the canyon road.
"There aren't many riparian areas in southern Utah and this is one of them. Its one of the few places in this part of the state with year-round water," Thomas said. "It's a special place."
jbaird@sltrib.com
