The BLM is taking public comment on the Kanab District's draft resource management plan, a two-volume study that includes environmental, economic, cultural and social aspects of governing 550,000 acres of federal land.

Amid Utah's famed Grand Circle of national parks and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kanab is different from other BLM districts in that it has virtually no oil or natural gas development. That guarantees a tighter focus on recreational use - and misuse - of the land, said Tom Christensen, Kanab BLM outdoor recreation planner.

"You don't ever want to highlight conflict, but that's the biggest issue," he said. "We just seem to be so short-staffed to deal with it."

For that reason, the Kanab field office didn't develop a coherent travel plan for motorized access. Rather, the BLM mapped what was already on the ground, including redundant routes to destinations.

"We're going to depend on the public during this 90-day period to refine that," Christensen said. "We know we're going to get challenged. On the other hand, the OHV clubs might say there's something we missed."

The Kanab BLM District is in south-central Utah redrock country on the Arizona border, near Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon. East of the city of Kanab are the Vermilion Cliffs. The Paria River, which runs through the Vermilion Cliffs, also cuts through the Paria Canyon-Vermilion cliffs wilderness area that includes Coyote Buttes and the Wave District.

The region is also home to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, and other dunes areas on federal land adjacent to the park.

Eight threatened or endangered animal species, including the California condor and Mexican spotted owl, are in the district, which also contains one endangered and two threatened plant species.

A 2005 federal court order required the BLM to evaluate areas not designated as wilderness or wilderness study areas that still have wilderness characteristics. The Kanab Field Office evaluated nearly 133,000 acres and found that 89,780 acres were beautiful and remote enough to be considered for wilderness study.

But the land-use plan doesn't specify how those lands would be managed, said Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney Liz Thomas.

Thomas criticized the lack of a defined OHV travel plan because as it stands, there are few places in the district where hikers, horseback riders and mountain bikers can be more than a mile from trails or roads open to motorized travel.

The Kanab preferred alternative has just 77 fewer miles than the alternative considered least-friendly to nonmotorized recreation - 1,385 miles of designated roads and trails versus 1,462 miles. Unrestricted cross-country travel would be allowed only on the 2,000-acre play area in and around Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

But BLM's own numbers show about four times as many "quiet users" as off-roaders, Thomas said.

Christensen, however, said the numbers are misleading because different counting methods have been used over the years and some of the numbers are more anecdotal than actual.

Since 2000, the recreation analysis shows a steady increase in all types of visitors to the Kanab District.

Periodic spikes in the number of hikers and campers seem to come when articles about the region appear in outdoor and travel publications.

Mike Swensen, president of Utah Shared Access Alliance, said his OHV club members are reviewing all of the BLM plans that are coming out this fall and winter, and will post their opinions on the club Web site as well as with the BLM.

The Moab District has released its draft management plan and Price and Vernal have published supplemental studies to earlier plans. Richfield and Monticello are expected to release their full plans by January.

If there's one thing conservationists and OHV enthusiasts agree on, it's that BLM is assigning way too much homework just as the holiday season is beginning.

"It doesn't matter what side you're on, that's wrong," Swensen said. "How can the public have meaningful impact the way these are coming out?"

The BLM had four or five years to create the plans and ought to give the public more than 90 days to respond, Thomas said.