美国国家公共电台 NPR In Utah, How You Tread Through This Canyon Matters

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

There's a truce 1 in Utah's Canyon 2 Country between preservationists and off roaders in Recapture Canyon, which is prized for its sensitive Native American cultural sites. And as NPR's Kirk Siegler reports, the agreement there could reach far outside the canyon.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE 3: San Juan County Commissioner 4 Phil Lyman cared so much about what he sees as his right to drive ATVs into Recapture Canyon, he went to jail for it.

PHIL LYMAN: Going into this, you know, I've said a number of times, I'm a foot soldier. I'm not a captain. I'm not a general. I'm willing to die on the battlefield for a good cause.

SIEGLER: Lyman's battlefield is an old jeep trail near his home in Blanding, Utah, that's become a flashpoint in the struggle by rural counties that want control of federal public land. The Bureau of Land Management temporarily closed this trail more than a decade ago. Ancient artifacts were being damaged, and there was looting.

Then three years ago, with the closure still being enforced, a frustrated 5 Lyman led an off-road vehicle brigade deep into Recapture. The protesters in this video are waving American flags. They kick up dust for the cameras as their tires travel across land considered sensitive to native people. Well, this caused a stir on reservations and in cities while Lyman became a darling of the far-right movement in the rural west.

LYMAN: Recapture runs just down below us here.

SIEGLER: Today, Lyman is still on probation 6. He served a short stint 7 in federal prison for that protest ride, but he's feeling vindicated 8. This month, the BLM partially 9 lifted the ban on off roading here in Recapture. Some of the canyon floor itself where the protest happened is still closed, but they're promising 10 to build a new network of ATV trails on the rim 11 and part way down the canyon.

LYMAN: I don't know if I won. I hope ultimately that we win.

SIEGLER: But Lyman says he's encouraged by the timing 12 of this announcement under the new administration, which he thinks will give a friendlier ear to his cause.

LYMAN: After an 11-year wait, to me, that signals, hey, we hear you.

SIEGLER: The new interior secretary Ryan Zinke is holding up the Recapture Canyon plan as a model for how to increase access to U.S. public lands for all users, motorized or not.

LISA BRYANT: You can actually walk fairly close to the cliff dwellings 13.

SIEGLER: But here on the ground, the BLM's Lisa Bryant is hesitant to describe this plan as a big policy shift. The decision to temporarily ban off roaders in Recapture came down during the George W. Bush administration. The impacts to cultural sites had become a big issue, she says, and it took time to come up with the right balance.

BRYANT: And in the canyon bottom itself, we have an authorized 14 motorized access, but prefer people to visit on horseback or on foot, much the way their ancestors did.

SIEGLER: But as we're hiking down toward one of the Anasazi cliff dwellings - the canyon is dense 15 with them - you can still see illegal motorcycle tire tracks in the mud.

BRYANT: We're going to take a left turn here.

SIEGLER: Environmentalists say one of the biggest ifs of this plan is whether there will actually be funding to enforce the closure, let alone rehabilitate 16 some of the damaged cultural sites. Yet they, too, are declaring a partial victory here.

Neal Clark of the Southern Utah Wilderness 17 Alliance says Phil Lyman's protest ride went nowhere because ATVs are still banned from the most sensitive areas.

NEAL CLARK: It's sending a clear signal that illegal activity as a means to forward your agenda for public land uses is not going to be tolerated by the federal agencies.

SIEGLER: So it's one of those rare moments in the fiery 18 debate over federal public lands in which both sides seem willing to stand down for now. Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Blanding, Utah.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAURA VEIRS SONG, "I CAN SEE YOUR TRACKS")

SIMON: This is NPR News.