But environmentalists who have been lobbying the BLM to implement trail closures in the region for more than a year say the new plan may come too late to save some riparian areas.

Rex Smart, manager of the BLM's Kanab Field Office, said Wednesday that because of documented damage in Trail Canyon and adjacent Hogs Canyon, a combination of route designations and area closures will be put into effect as soon as a final order is drafted and can be sent off to Washington for publication in the Federal Register. That process could take anywhere from three to eight weeks.

"Because the area is so popular and promoted by the locals, we feel like we need to get some controls in there," he said. "We want it published as soon as possible, but we don't have any control over when the order shows up in the Federal Register."

The areas in question are designated as "open" to OHV use in the BLM's current resource management plan. A new plan is in the early stage of being drafted.

Smart says the agency has been aware of the OHV problem - specifically heavy all-terrain vehicle use - for the past year. But he says that efforts to address the issue have been slowed by a combination of ongoing litigation - challenges brought against the BLM by OHV groups elsewhere in the state - and the presence of numerous cultural sites in Hogs Canyon.

"It's been a little more time-consuming than we expected," he said. "Evaluating the impacts took longer than we anticipated."

But Liz Thomas, an attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, says that BLM has essentially been "unresponsive" to its requests for action since last February, when it began providing the agency with photographic evidence of OHV damage in the area.

"It's documented damage in a specific, well-defined area, and they've basically been sitting on their hands," Thomas said. "I would love to see trail closures in Vermillion Cliffs and Trail Canyon, but I'll believe it when I see it."

Thomas says what has been most upsetting is that since last September, when SUWA presented a petition for emergency closure, a combination of heavy rains and OHV use has cut some streambeds down to the bedrock level, wiping out stream banks that vegetation once clung to, and leaving vegetation higher up without a water source.

"What has happened is exactly what was predicted," she said. "It's blown out a stream, and the little riparian areas that 80 to 90 percent of the wildlife depends on. If it's damaged beyond repair, that's a pretty heavy hit for the wildlife."

Smart says that, based upon the BLM's surveys of the area, there is nothing in the region that can't be restored with the OHV restrictions. He also says local OHV organizations have taken a proactive role in trying to help mitigate the damage.

"They want an area they can play in, but they also believe it should be limited to [designated] routes," he said.

jbaird@sltrib.com