Help Stop a Paved Road in the Wild Book Cliffs!

In the words of SUWA board member and former Grand County councilman Bill Hedden the reemergence of the Book Cliffs highway is “proof that no truly terrible idea ever goes away.”

With little time for public comment and a poorly done environmental “study,” the Bureau of Land Management’s

The Book Cliffs.  Copyright Tom Till.

Please help to keep the Book Cliffs intact as one of the largest areas in the lower 48 states without paved highways by submitting comments today to the BLM asking that they (1) prepare a full environmental impacts statement (EIS) to analyze this project, (2) consider the impacts to important resources like big game, and (3)  fully consider the cumulative impacts from the increased traffic and development that will occur in the Book Cliffs as an inevitable result of approving this project. PLEASE personalize your comments in the middle section of our comment form by writing briefly about your experience/views of the Book Cliffs so the BLM will "count" your comment.

The Salt Lake City Weekly’s website has an interesting article on the proposal and you can read the BLM EA by clicking here.

The Book Cliffs highway proposal to create a paved highway running from I-70 near Crescent Junction (the turn off to Moab) all the way up to Vernal seems to re-emerge every twenty years. Although numerous dirt roads exist in this area, this proposal would authorize a paved highway in a 150 foot wide highway corridor with a  55 mph speed limit. This paved highway would bring dramatically increased levels of energy development, wildlife habitat fragmentation, and adverse effects on nearby wilderness-quality lands.

Thanks for your help!
The SUWA Grassroots Team