WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The National Parks Conservation Association is suing the National Park Service for allowing off-road vehicles in the area of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The suit, filed Jan. 19 in District of Columbia federal court, seeks to protect areas where “severe damage” has already been found at the NRA, located in Utah.
“That regulation will undoubtedly result in severe damage to Glen Canyon NRA’s resources, which in many respects are fragile and vulnerable,” the suit says.
The lawsuit notes that the National Park Service has already found that ORVs are known to affect resources like soil, water quality, air quality, vegetative communities, wildlife and watersheds.
“Congress has mandated that NPS manage Glen Canyon NRA and other units of the National Park System in a manner that will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations and to depart from that mandate only as Congress has ‘directly and specifically provided,’” the suit says.
“Congress has not made any such provision for ORV use in Glen Canyon NRA.”