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John Hollenhorst reporting A crackdown is under way in Southern Utah on illegal riding of off-highway vehicles. It's in an area that's extremely popular with motorcyclists and four-wheelers.
A state detective wrote so many warning tickets last weekend that he ran out. So he went back this weekend with another batch of tickets. To protect the land and rare plants, OHV riders are being forced out of one of their favorite places.
With his German-Shepherd, "Levi," detective Ron Barton is patrolling the backcountry for illegal riders.
"Hoping to preserve what's left to preserve out here," he said.
Believe it or not, the rugged landscape is within the city limits of St. George. OHV riding is illegal. But the hills are criss-crossed with tire tracks. And signs put up last year have been shot full of holes.
It's more than 10 square miles, mostly owned by the State School Trust. It's master-planned as a huge housing development. A big chunk is the White Dome Nature Preserve. But fences have been cut several times.
"Obviously OHV riders or motorcycle riders had cut the fence so they could go into that area," Barton said. Now Barton is kicking them out and writing them up, motorcyclists, four-wheelers and target shooters.
"There's not a place that you can go that you can't see a trail within a few feet of where you're standing. It's just in Trust Land's interest to preserve this beautiful area out here," he said.
St. George resident Steve Gary said, "We'll just go further out. I mean, they got designated areas for stuff. There's plenty of land out here."
And Farmington resident Dave Kiley told us, "We just enjoy riding out there because it's wide open. It's got good terrain. Got some good jumps. And, just no one bothers you out there. We didn't know it was closed off."
Recently the Trust Lands administration even banned hiking in the area to protect the resource. It's partly to preserve the land for future development.
But within the nature preserve, several agencies agreed to protect three rare plant species, one of which grows nowhere else.
Elaine York, of the Nature Conservancy, said, "Because this is it, and already 50 percent of the habitat has been lost, we're interested in protecting it."
Jeff Prince, an OHV rider from Farmington, said, "We're not the rebels. We're not here to cause any damage. We can appreciate the endangered species. I think a compromise needs to be reached."
But experts say it could take generations to undo damage already done.
York said, "We are really putting a lot of effort into making sure that this will be a community asset."
Eventually, they plan to have designated hiking trails within the Nature Preserve. The rest of the trust lands property will be open space and up to 13,000 new homes. And by the way, we don't really know if that sign was shot up by an OHV rider.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
