Abajo Mountains

The following tables show what percentage of lands are within specified distances from motorized roads and trails. We give figures for four distances:

• Less than 0.5 miles from a road - Areas dominated by motor vehicle use.
• Less than 1 mile from a road - Noise from dirt bikes, ATVs, etc. clearly noticeable.
• Greater than 2 miles from a road - Areas little impacted by ORV use.
• Greater than 3 miles from a road - Primitive areas, far from roads.

Our conclusion: The current transportation plans are heavily biased in favor of motorized recreation, with few opportunities to get out of earshot of roads and ORV trails. Even our proposal would leave a majority of National Forest lands close to a road (within 1 mile). Our plan would restore recreational balance; the existing situation is unbalanced and getting worse.

We analyze two regions, the La Sal Mountains (Moab Ranger District) and the Abajo Mountains (Monticello Ranger District). We also give figures for larger regions including all land ownership, to show that quiet recreation opportunities which are hard to find on National Forests are not abundant on nearby BLM lands, National Parks, etc.

In future we will do a similar analysis for all Utah National Forests. In southern Utah, we expect the numbers for other regions to lie somewhere between the numbers for the La Sals and the Abajos. Based on a preliminary look at the data, we predict that for all southern Utah National Forest lands, our plan will leave 2/3's of the Forest within 1 mile of a road and less than 10% greater than 2 miles from a road.

Abajo Mountains (Monticello Ranger District)
Distance from roads	Current Travel Plan	UFN Wilderness Proposal
less than 0.5 miles	54.6%	31.2%
less than 1 mile	80.5%	54.2%
greater than 2 miles	1.5%	19.3%
greater than 3 miles	0.1%	6.3%