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Articles: Dispersed Camping
Today, BlueRibbon Coalition filed a Motion for Leave to Intervene in the federal lawsuit that triggered sweeping closures across the West Mojave OHV route network. This is a direct legal action to get a seat at the table and protect your access. Read more about why it matters and how you can help below.
The BLM quietly removed hundreds of miles of long-standing motorized routes in Idaho’s Silver Valley by calling it a map correction, and BRC is fighting back. BRC has filed a formal appeal and a petition to stay enforcement, arguing the agency bypassed federal law and set a dangerous precedent for access nationwide. Read the update and learn how you can support BRC’s legal fight to keep these routes open.
A Nevada land bill would hand thousands of acres of public land to county and state control while locking another 12,392 acres as Wilderness, closing it to motorized use forever. This bill isn’t getting any attention and we wonder why. Tell your representatives to oppose the Douglas County Economic Development and Conservation Act.
Agencies are quietly eliminating free, dispersed camping across the West. The SR9 decision outside Zion is the most recent example of a strategy designed to end it permanently. Here’s how they do it and what you can do about it.
The BLM has approved the SR9 Camping Management Plan, closing dispersed campsites near Zion and replacing them with a controlled campground system that may never fully be built. The agency appears to be leaning on a SUWA-commissioned literature to justify the decision, not actual field data from the SR9 corridor. Tell the BLM State Director this is not acceptable and recreation policy must reflect the public interest.
A new WDFW rule proposal would reverse the current open-unless-closed policy on more than one million acres of state-managed land, effectively closing every unsigned route with no realistic path to reopening them. The cost to rural communities, volunteers, and emergency responders will be significant. Contact WDFW now and demand they keep these lands accessible.
A fast-moving bill in the Minnesota Legislature could close 4.2 million acres of state forest to snowmobiles, ATVs, and motorized vehicles, dismantling one of the country’s best trail networks through litigation, petitions, and sweeping restrictions. SF 1245 is not just an OHV issue; it puts every user’s access at risk. Contact Minnesota legislators now and tell them to oppose SF 1245 today.
Resolution in Congress would overturn the GSENM travel management plan that closed more than 1.2 million acres to motorized recreation and raised broader concerns about presidential abuse of the Antiquities Act.
A recent federal court ruling will close more than 2,200 miles of designated OHV routes in the Mojave Desert via an expansive judicial interpretation of BLM’s minimization criteria. FLPMA requires the Bureau of Land Management to balance multiple-use recreation while preventing unnecessary degradation, yet the current application turns minimization into a default closure mandate that overrides Congress’s intent. BlueRibbon Coalition is calling on the Department of the Interior to immediately rescind or revise this framework—contact your representatives via the form below and tell them to support balanced public land management.
Government Wash at Lake Mead in Nevada is a case study in a land management agency noticing that management is failing, admitting why it’s failing, and doing the hard work to improve access and recreation.