WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - New rules for all-terrain vehicles at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are coming from the National Parks Service.
The NPS recently settled a lawsuit brought by groups hoping to protect the Utah park from ATVs. The National Parks Conservation Association sued in 2021 and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in 2023, alleging "severe" damages at Glen Canyon.
The sides on April 9 filed their settlement with a D.C. federal judge. It says the NPS will initiate new rulemaking to prohibit the use of off-highway vehicles and street-legal ATVs on an eight-mile segment of Poison Springs Loop located within the Orange Cliffs Special Management Unit, among other things that can be viewed here.
Another part of the new rule will be to add stricter quiet hours for the Lone Rock Beach Play Area.
The lawsuit said the NPS has already found that off-road vehicles are known to affect resources like soil, water quality, air quality, vegetative communities, wildlife and watersheds.
The park has 388 miles of designated roads, with 304 of them being unpaved.