BLM Proposes Oil and Gas Drilling Beneath Moab’s Cherished Slickrock Trail
For mountain bikes, Moab’s Slickrock Trail is world-renowned. 160,000 people visit the area annually for riding, hiking, off-highway driving, and camping.
The 10.5-mile trail takes riders over a landscape of petrified sand dunes and the eroded remnants of ancient sea beds. The trail lies within the Sand Flats Recreation Area.
The BLM is proposing opening the majority of the area to oil and gas drilling. Sand Flats is 9,000 acres. The BLM’s proposal would lease 5,000 of them for drilling. Two-thirds of the Slickrock Trail is in a proposed drilling parcel.
The BLM will be opening a public comment period on February 20. This administration, I can’t even…
