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.
Posted in News
Recent Posts
Sometimes one needs to look no further than one's incoming correspondence to find inspiration. Just this past week, folks passionate about the RAF mission reached out to me with suggestions that would bring resources to the RAF. Whether they be one-off items that we might offer, or events like large fundraisers, these folks are offering some thoughts on how we might continue to pay the bills. Additionally, we’re receiving word from folks with new destinations on their mind, and some pretty cool ones at that. Along the way, my inbox – as well as my calendar – is filled with updates on our Expanding the Map effort, with an emphasis on Fly Rocky Top. The Fly Rocky Top initiative in Tennessee is generating strong interest, and for good reason. It feels great. Folks are showing up to pitch in, with significant work projects planned. Trish and I, along with other board members, will be there to lend a hand to this exciting project. We are coming up on our annual year-end letter, which you will be seeing not long from now. In addition to showcasing a few more of our successful projects, we will be seeking your support. Stand by. I’ll wrap this up by letting you know that we could not be more pleased with how you all are doing your part. Thank you. It is so healthy to have an organization that uses passion as a primary energy source. - John McKenna, RAF Chairman Submitted September 14, 2026
“We had a busy day at Garrison Dam Recreational Airpark, as we continue to work on the underwing camping area,” RAF North Dakota Liaison Brian Rau reported. Rau was awarded an RAF grant in spring of 2026 to convert an adjacent day-use park into an airport camping area, and had organized volunteers who began the project in May. The airport, 37N, is closed while the runway and taxiway are being upgraded by a contractor for the ND Aeronautics Commission.
You know the feeling. You set the airplane down somewhere spectacular, shut off the engine, and enjoy the pristine landscape in front of you. This is why you fly. Keeping airstrips pristine is everyone's responsibility. But one item that doesn’t always make it into the airplane is a good trash bag. Not for the trash you planned to make. For the trash you didn’t. Cans left in a fire ring, fishing line along the river, or food wrappers working their way through the brush. None of it came in your airplane, but you have the ability to get it out. That’s reason enough to tuck a couple of heavy-duty contractor bags in with your tie-down gear. They earn their space in other ways, too. A contractor bag can keep wet or muddy gear out of the baggage compartment, cover equipment in a downpour, collect rainwater, or become an emergency poncho or windbreak. It weighs almost nothing and takes up very little room. Throw a few in the airplane and leave them there. You may not need one for your own trash, but there is a good chance you’ll find another use for it—or find something worth carrying out. Submitted September 9, 2026 By Stef Goza, Etiquette Chair, Safety, Education, and Etiquette Committee
RAF Colorado Liaison Ken Long, Ambassador Mike Langersmith, and other RAF volunteers participated in an August work event at Marble, Colorado, a mountain airfield about 20 nm up the Crystal River drainage south of Carbondale. Airfield Manager Susan Blue put together the task list and oversaw the event that brought 21 volunteers in ten aircraft and four dogs.
