The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has developed new land use plans for the Bears Ears National Monument and for three units of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

AMA member Clif Koontz, executive director of Utah-based Ride with Respect, said the new plans give OHV riders an opportunity to secure responsible access to public lands while still protecting resources.

“They also give OHV riders a fighting chance for the forthcoming travel plans to include a larger portion of the historic access that the public has enjoyed responsibly and sustainably for decades,” he said.

The new management plans were prompted by a 2017 directive from the president, which called for “right-sized” boundaries for these public lands, while providing for the protection of objects consistent with the original intent of the Antiquities Act of 1906.

The revised Bears Ears boundaries include two separate units (Shash Jáa and Indian Creek) reserved for the care and management of objects of historic and scientific interest.

The Shash Jáa Unit contains 97,393 acres of BLM-administered land and 32,587 acres of U.S. Forest Service-administered land.

The Indian Creek Unit contains 71,896 acres of BLM-administered land.

Lands that remain part of the 1 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are the Grand Staircase (209,993 acres), Kaiparowits (551,034 acres) and Escalante Canyons (242,836 acres) units.

The BLM refers to lands that are now excluded from the national monument (861,974 acres) as the Kanab-Escalante Planning Area.