Rex Smart, manager of the BLM's Kanab field office, said the bureau has issued travel restrictions for motorized vehicles in the Hog Canyon and Trail Canyon areas north of Kanab.

The areas until Friday had been designated as open. But Smart says the restrictions - which largely limit OHV users to designated trails - were necessary to prevent continuing damage to soil and vegetation, and cultural resources. A seasonal closure of a part of the Hog Canyon area has also been put in place because of the presence of nesting raptors.

"After thorough field exams conducted by our field office and state office resource specialists, we agreed the restrictions were warranted and necessary," Smart said in a statement. "However, recognizing the popularity of such a scenic trail system so close to the Kanab city limits, we decided that some OHV routes in Hog Canyon could continue to be used, while unrestricted use is unacceptable."

The BLM earlier this year ordered emergency OHV restrictions for the Vermillion Cliffs and another portion of Trail Canyon. It faces legal challenges from off-road groups over previous closures in the San Rafael Swell and in Box Elder County.

A national off-road group says the BLM has ignored public input in closing Hog and Trail canyons.

"This is really frustrating for us," said Brian Hawthorne, spokesman for the Pocatello, Idaho-based Blue Ribbon Coalition. "They've done this with the stroke of a pen. If we're locked out of the process, our community is locked out of the land."

Hawthorne says off-roaders are particularly incensed because a local OHV group, Color Country 4-Wheelers, initially alerted the agency to the growing damage in Hog Canyon and put forth its own designated-route proposal.

"The BLM said 'great' and began the environmental assessment process. Then SUWA [the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance] flew off the handle and was successful in killing the project. Now, a few years later, we have these emergency restrictions," he said.

SUWA attorney Steve Bloch disputes the off-roaders' assertions.

In fact, he says they were part of the problem.

"We presented the agency with uncontested evidence, photographs and statements from experts, including a hydrologist and archeologist who said that OHVs were literally tearing the landscape to pieces," Bloch said. "So we think the BLM made the right decision. In fact, they probably should have gone further in Hog Canyon and closed the entire area to motorized use.

"To the best of our knowledge, the [Color Country 4-Wheelers] were some of the culprits, some of the riders who were most active in expanding the damage that necessitated the closure."

Phone calls to Color Country 4-Wheelers were not immediately returned. But the BLM says it is working with the club to sign the routes that will be open to travel while closing off and rehabilitating closed routes.

Still, Blue Ribbon spokesman Hawthorne calls the whole episode dispiriting.

"Our community has received black eye after black eye in the press and now we will again," he said.

"But we were up there, we realized there was a problem and were working to address it. It's not fair."

jbaird@sltrib.com