Responding via e-mail to my June 15 column on how the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance would like to see thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management property in Wayne County near the Factory Butte area managed, Kofford said he is a former member of that prominent environmental group who also enjoys riding all-terrain and four-wheel drive vehicles.

He likes riding and wild places.

"Some folks are more in love with the idea of someplace wild that man has never trounced upon than they are likely to ever actually experience it," wrote Kofford. "That's not really a bad thing. We all need that place to escape to in our minds sometimes."

He went on to tell stories of how much he enjoys riding in beautiful open spaces.

Organized off-highway vehicle enthusiasts Mike Swenson and Rainer Huck made much the same argument. They are fighting to keep land such as Factory Butte open to OHVs. While environmental groups such as SUWA need to be heard, so too do the folks who represent many Utah OHV owners.

"There is not that much difference between us and most hikers," said Swenson, who heads the Utah Shared Access Alliance. "We love the land, scenery, sights and smells. We take pictures of scenic views."

The Factory Butte argument is particularly meaningful to Huck, who has been riding his dirt bike there since 1969.

"I may be one of the most senior users of that area left on earth and it hasn't changed a whit," said the Salt Lake resident. "That is a landscape that is more suitable to off-highway vehicle recreation than anything else except for perhaps sand dunes."

He and many OHV users think environmentalists view motorized recreation as an illegitimate activity that is destructive to the land and should be suppressed.

"Why does every plan close access?" asks Huck. "The land agencies plan for other activities like mountain bikes. They increase facilities and access. When it comes to motorized recreation, the situation is inverted. There are more users and fewer acres open."

The riders argue that reducing access when OHV use is increasing will lead to overuse.

Swenson was part of a group that failed to agree on a Factory Butte plan. He disagrees with SUWA's Ray Bloxham that the Utah Shared Access Alliance did not offer a compromise.

The OHV group plan called for 90,440 acres of open play areas, 130,105 acres where riders would be limited to existing trails and 4,164 closed acres. With the exception of a relatively small, longtime riding area known as Swing Arm City near Hanksville, part of the plan would have buffered riding along scenic state Highway 24.

That compares to SUWA's proposal of keeping about 5,100 acres of the area open to riding.

Obviously, with positions so far apart, compromise ended up being impossible. That leaves it to the BLM to make a decision that ultimately will make everyone unhappy.

That makes Kofford's feelings interesting.

"I like [what land managers] worked out in the Mojave Desert in California some years ago in which there is wilderness but, due to the vastness of the desert, you can still drive the unimproved roads through it and camp."

Expect something to happen like that at Factory Butte, with a few play areas added.

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