It's no surprise, then, that the 1978 plan for the area did not address the potential effects of off-road vehicles, and those effects are dramatic enough in the Vermilion Cliffs area that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance petitioned the BLM last week for an emergency closure of some trails in the area.

The conservation group contends those ORV trails were developed only in the last couple of years and threaten critical habitat for native wildlife and some archaeological resources.

The petition was delivered to the Kanab BLM field office last Monday. SUWA says it is the first time the group has filed a formal petition with the BLM to protect specific places from off-road vehicle damage.

The BLM's Rex Smart, manager of the Kanab field office, acknowledges that the lands in his region have been a free-for-all of sorts for recreation enthusiasts, something that will be addressed as they develop a new land use plan. In the meantime, he said, the office has looked at the concerns of groups such as SUWA and are ready to designate specific trails for ORV use, and others for nonmotorized recreation.

"It is a convenient place for the locals to go because it is so close to town, and there have been some new trails going on up there, people just driving all over the place," Smart said. "The place, according to our land-use plan, is classified as open, which basically means they can go wherever they want."

While he recognizes the concerns of SUWA, Smart also has to take into account the desires of the four-wheeler clubs, most of which he said are as interested in creating and using designated ORV routes as anti-ORV folks are in creating ORV-free zones.

"The clubs want specific routes, and you have the other people who go up there and drive all over, and the clubs don't want that, either," Smart said. "We're starting a land-use plan that will address all that, but that takes three or four years, so we felt like this was a serious enough problem that we need to address it right away."

Smart said his office will announce an "emergency order" to designate specific routes for ORV use and "that way, anybody that gets off those designated routes can be cited by our law enforcement people."

Which routes will be designated for ORVs, and which for nonmotorized recreation, is still being considered, Smart said, but he hopes to have a plan in place and signs put up to designate routes within a month orso.

"We feel like we're accommodating both the hiking types and the motorized because we're limiting where the motorized can go. So we feel like we're trying to be fair."

nailen@sltrib.com