CALL TO ACTION: SAN RAFAEL SWELL TRAVEL MANAGEMENT PLAN

We need your help to preserve Utah’s scenic backcountry airstrips. Due to the 2017 lawsuit settlement with an environmental group, the BLM is obligated to revise 13 Travel Management Plans (TMPs) in Utah. Each requires public comment periods. RAF Utah Liaison Wendy Lessig says, “Please hang in there and keep sending your comments. Every voice counts.” 

Draft San Rafael Swell TMP comment period closes July 22, 2024. 

The 5 airstrips in the San Rafael Swell TMP area are:

Hidden Splendor

Cliff Dweller Flat

McKay Flat

• These three airstrips were listed in the 2008 Price Resource Management Plan (RMP). It says these airstrips cannot be closed without formally consulting with the FAA and pilot user groups. The BLM is proposing to limit use at these airstrips to aircraft only. 

Sagebrush Bench

• This airstrip is overgrown and doesn’t get as much use. The BLM is under pressure to close motorized vehicle routes that are disused and overgrown.

Gilson’s Butte

• This is an airstrip that was just recently identified, and is in a spectacular setting to enjoy primitive camping under dark skies. The BLM has not had a chance yet to perform the necessary studies to formally approve its use as an airstrip. 

Talking Points – Your comments should be substantive and provide the BLM with new information or new perspectives they had not considered before. In your own words, tell the BLM what access to the backcountry airstrips means to you.

• Thank the BLM for considering Hidden Splendor, Cliff Dweller Flat, McKay Flat, and Sagebrush Bench airstrips in the TMP. Ask the BLM to please include these four airstrips as open designated airstrips in the final TMP alternative selected. 
•     Please include Gilson’s Butte airstrip in the TMP, either in the current revision of the TMP or as soon as possible thereafter. 
• Tell the BLM that as pilots, we support limiting use of airstrips to aircraft only, but are open to allowing combined use with other OHVs. Signage requesting that OHVs not drive on landing surface (runway) would minimize ruts and would make combined use safer. 
• Aircraft meet the definition of an OHV and should continue to access the same designated routes that are open to other OHVs. Ask the BLM to please avoid language in the TMP that restricts aircraft to only landing on designated airstrips. 
• Aircraft are the lightest impact motorized access to Utah’s spectacular backcountry.
• Ask the BLM to not eliminate access to an airstrip because of encroaching vegetation. Pilot organizations, such as the RAF and Utah Back Country Pilots (UBCP) regularly rally volunteers to perform airstrip maintenance to make them safer for use. Airstrips are already previously-disturbed areas, and with a day or two of work, most airstrips can be adequately maintained. 
• Aircraft noise within the San Rafael Swell TMP area is short term and transient. Once on the ground, pilots and their passengers value the peaceful, quiet tranquility of the Utah backcountry for dispersed primitive camping, similar to hikers and backpackers. 

Your comments should be personal and tell the BLM what access to the backcountry airstrips means to you, to making memories with your friends and family, enjoying backcountry environment while making a very light footprint on the land.

Simply use this button to comment by July 22, 2024:

Above photo by Wendy Lessig of Hidden Splendor.