Some 5,400 acres of badlands surrounding Factory Butte were just opened by the Bureau of Land Management to unlimited off-road use.
This area is tucked away between national parks, unknown to most but treasured by locals for its serenity and grandiose scale. The layers of space and time one can explore here are not matched in many other places.
Increased traffic by off-road users will quickly turn this place to a “Mad Max” wasteland with daily dust storms and piles of broken bottles strewn among the elephant -textured soil. What little life can survive in this hostile environment won’t stand much of a chance with this policy change.
The BLM should reverse its decision to open up this area to off-road use.
Douglas Tolman, Millcreek
