ATV riders usually want most land open and environmentalists seek closures.

Knowing this, I came into an interview with Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance field inventory specialist Ray Bloxham as a skeptic.

He wanted to discuss Factory Butte, a redrock formation between Capitol Reef National Park and Goblin Valley in Wayne County.

More than a few Utah environmentalists regard Factory Butte as every bit as much of a Utah icon as the Delicate Arch. They cannot understand why the media has made a huge story out of potential damage to Delicate Arch by climber Dean Potter while relegating what they perceive as ATV damage to Factory Butte to the back pages.

I expected Bloxham to advocate closing all land around Factory Butte to off-highway vehicle use.

What I got was an interesting story from a former dirt bike rider who attempted to work with the Bureau of Land Management, Wayne County Commission and off-highway vehicle users to come up with a management plan.

Bloxham and many environmentalists are concerned about ATV tracks scarring the scenic vistas near Highway 24 and impacting two species of endangered cactus.

SUWA and Friends of Factory Butte, a group that includes Wayne County residents, offered a plan in which 5,100 acres of the 170,700 managed by the BLM would have been open to ATV use.

"We went through nine months of meetings," said Bloxham. "The idea was to find management options, do fact-finding, find where dirt bikers like to ride and what visitors in the area wanted. [ATV groups] never provided any management options and wanted the riding area even larger at the end of the day. They stood their political ground. We never got anywhere. They never wanted to make anything happen."

Bloxham pointed to the BLM's management practices at the nearby San Rafael Swell as a good example where areas were left open to off-highway vehicle use and others were closed.

"That was a great step for the Utah BLM," said Bloxham. "There were things we didn't like and things we liked, but we supported the BLM."

I asked Bloxham if he supported ATV use in any Utah desert areas. He cited the Knolls area east of Wendover, Little Sahara Recreation Area and the state park portion of Coral Pink Sand Dunes as excellent ATV riding areas.

On April 7, Richfield BLM Field Office Manager Cornell Christensen denied SUWA's petition for an emergency protection order at Factory Butte.

"In the majority of the Factory Butte area, [off-road vehicle] use is not causing considerable adverse impacts," wrote Christensen in the decision. "ORV impacts are most prevalent in scattered areas and are not prevalent throughout the total 170,700 acres."

He wrote there may be justification for the emergency closure to protect two species of cactus. He said the BLM would look into the issue, but that any closure would take time because of the many regulations involved.

The discussion raises an interesting question:

Is it possible for environmentalists, land managers, recreation user groups and local politicians to work out compromises that can protect resources while keeping some areas open to motorized recreation?

Judging from the Factory Butte process so far, the answer to that question is, unfortunately, no.

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Contact Tom Wharton at wharton@sltrib.com or 801-257-8909. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.