* Not all Park Service officials are on the same page when it comes to letting ATVs that are registered and licensed in Utah drive on dirt and paved roads in Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion national parks.

"[In the past,] we acted through our own regulations to preclude the entrance of those vehicles into the parks, and that has stood for the last 11 years" Kate Cannon, superintendent of the southeastern Utah parks group, said recently a public meeting in Moab. "Now, there's a proposal that that be changed, and we're working right now to avoid that happening."

Uh,oh.

Ms. Cannon is an excellent park superintendent.

But now, her days may be limited if trump or some Utah politicos get wind of her comment.

please stop promoting the Arches Superintendent as a hero. Her latest move is a bit self serving and not all staff in the NPS agree with her tactics nor is her lack of any real interest in reaching a solution with her community Something to be praised.

I have been critical of Kate Cannon in the past; however, with regard to keeping ATVs out of the areas over which she has jurisdiction, she has done the right thing and has, again contrary to my past criticism, been strongly and courageously backed up by community leaders in the area.  In practical terms, those parks serve a dual purpose, first, to protect the resources they contain and, second, to provide as much relatively sustainable economic development as feasible under that first mandate.  In that part of the country, money rules and it's "pay as you go" even for national parks.  Moab has evolved a relatively sustainable approach in which road legal off pavement vehicles, primarily jeeps, stay on the unpaved roads, stay off the grass and out of areas outside those established unpaved road corridors, and leave shocking amounts of money in the local economy along the way.  I use the term relatively sustainable because, as long as the activities can be effectively policed to keep the vehicles within the established unpaved road corridors, most of the worst environemntal impacts will stay close to those established corridors.  The problems with ATVs, motorcycles, and other vehicles that are generally not accepted as road legal in most civilized states is that they have much higher rates of incursion into areas outside established unpaved road corridors; they are notoriously defiant toward rules and regulations; they are much harder to police; they routinely and gleefully disrupt other users; and their economic contribution to local economies isn't anywhere near as high relative to their much higher environmental costs.  I know; a whole demographic group shouldn't be judged on the behavior of a few bad apples; but, until the high ratio of bad apples to good ones in that barrel is lowered, that perception and reputation is going to stick.  Most of the jeep folks have worked long and hard to educate and police their ranks and they now worry, at least a bit, about their impacts, follow the rules, try to keep their dust and noise down, stay on the roads, and are more welcome as a result.  Given what happened to Bears Ears National Monument, Ms Cannon did the right thing to properly defend the parks under her care.