“The MUD Fund” The Red Rock 4-Wheelers try to reserve a little strength to keep our recreational trails open. To that end, Red Rock 4-Wheelers have been setting aside some funds for emergency use. We call it the Multiple-Use Defense (MUD) Fund. Often, people who have had to cancel registrations have told us to apply it to efforts to keep the trails open. Those amounts have gone to the MUD Fund. Sometimes people have been unsure of dues or fees and directed us to use the excess for this purpose. When trail access or other multiple uses of the public lands are threatened, it is safe to say that the most important defense need is someone’s time and effort. It takes dedicated personal effort just to plan how to spend available money — but the money is almost always needed. The most serious threats are likely to call for professional services, probably legal counsel and actions.
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16 - 2018 Moab Easter Jeep Safari
To this end Red Rock 4-Wheelers pursued a lengthy legal action against the State of Utah Institutional Trust Lands Division and some private individuals that purchased a parcel of State Trust lands. This issue was caused by the failure of the State Lands Agency to recognize a traditional right of way and pass title to the buyers with a clear title. We were joined in this action by San Juan County, who took the position that it was an RS 2477 road and should not be closed. Seven Years and many man hours later, this case was decided by the Utah State Court of Appeals in favor of the Red Rock 4-Wheelers at a cost to the club Mud Fund of over $75,000.00 The latest special event use permit that the Jeep Safari is required to have by the BLM expires in 2022. We expect that we will once again be challenged by SUWA and may very well be faced with litigation. The amount of money required to continue these legal actions has brought the club to a much higher level of awareness of the need to increase the cash flow into the MUD fund. What started out as selling MUD pins at registration, has now become a major fund-raising effort. The Red Rock 4 Wheelers have received a number of contributions by other four wheel drive clubs and many of our vendors at the Safari Trade Show give us sizeable donations. One of BF Goodrich’s Outstanding Trails Awards (see page 17), which came with a significant donation, was put into the MUD Fund. In response to the 2007/08 effort by the BLM to develop a new resource management plan (RMP), the Red Rock 4-Wheelers joined with the Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) and through donations by members and associate members, the club matched all of these donations which helped the BRC to increase their support to Moab trails. This major effort resulted in influencing the local BLM to leave all of the Safari trails open for the foreseeable future. A few very minor segments of trails that the Red
Rock 4-Wheelers acknowledged were just two ways to reach the same point were closed, but it was felt that these minor losses were more than offset by the gains that we made. Red Rock 4-Wheelers have also contributed to the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association to their trail protection efforts in other parts of the state of Utah. The Red Rock 4-Wheelers are committed to defend the Jeep Safari trails for all of our loyal supporters to enjoy, but we need your help. This help can be both financial and/ or by writing your respective state and national legislators when there are land use issues.
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