If you've followed my coverage on our ongoing public land fights with our current and past administrations, you'll know that I'm always fighting for our continued access to said lands. They are, and will continue to be, the greatest natural resource we as Americans get to enjoy.
It's truly what makes America great, and something that's the envy of the rest of the world, while also being the one topic every American agrees on in a time when everything is supposedly divisive.
But a handful of groups are out there that are acting in truly bad faith on the subject of our public lands, and one of the most well-known is that of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, which has recently declared war on California for a temporary closure on a small portion of off-road trails in the Western Mojave. Emphasis mine, as it's not all of the Mojave's trails, nor even all of the trails in the Western portion of the area. It's just a small section that, again, is temporary.
But if you read Blue Ribbon's press release and parroted their idiotic talking points, you'd think California closed the entire Mojave down. And that's the point with them. They want you riled up and donating to their organization so they can continue their bad-faith attacks. Why? Because the Blue Ribbon Coalition has direct ties to Utah Senator Mike Lee, who remains public lands enemy number one, and has actively campaigned to do away with federal public land management.
Which, put plainly, translates to land sales.
Blue Ribbon's current focus is on the small and temporary closure of a portion of the Western Mojave, in which it was found that the Bureau of Land Management didn't do its lawfully required due diligence on the impacts of an endangered tortoise species when it put forth a travel management plan for the region. Biden's BLM just set forth a host of new trails and, according to the animal's advocacy groups, neglected to ensure enough protections for it.
A judge has now agreed with the group and, as such, temporarily closed a portion of the Western Mojave to give the BLM time to work out a new travel management plan that is in accordance with the law and which protects the endangered tortoise.
That's it. That's the whole damn closure. Even the judge states that off-roaders, hunters, anglers, campers, and other recreators will still have access to a whopping 271,661 acres in the Western Mojave until the BLM can get a plan together that adequately addresses the concerns for the endangered animal.
But you'd be hard-pressed to understand that if you read or listened to Blue Ribbon's talking points, or just blindly reposted the group's press release, which many of our colleagues have done and which make it seem like the sky is falling. Honestly, if you read it, it sounds like some wildcard judge just closed all of California's trails. That, however, is unfortunately the point with Blue Ribbon Coalition, as it's a misdirection for the countless other public land fights actual conservationists are fighting on multiple fronts, thanks to the Trump administration's war on them, and specifically Utah Senator Mike Lee's own hellbent crusade to do away with them. The latter of which the group's director has direct ties to, both through his family, and through his past work.
Ben Burr remains the executive director for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, and you might've seen him star in the group's Instagram reels when it still had one. For some reason, it deleted the account not too long ago. But Burr's history is one with direct ties to Senator Lee, as he was once a Lee staffer.
From January of 2011 to May of 2018, Burr was Senator Lee's Director of Digital Media, working directly under Lee. Right after leaving Lee's office, Burr became the Blue Ribbon Coalition's new policy director in December of 2019 and was subsequently promoted to Executive Director of the group. And he's used the group's social media to supposedly fight for public land usage since, though the fights Blue Ribbon Coalition has picked have ones that are aligned with state land management takeovers, a key point in Mike Lee's quest.
Burr's relationship with Lee, however, goes further, as Burr is married to Lee's niece, so he's a part of Lee's own family. That familial relationship was even the subject of a report by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington group in 2014, in which the group "found that relatives of 67 of the 100 senators were employed by an affiliated organization, such as a campaign or political campaign committee, worked as lobbyists or otherwise benefited from a financial arrangement related to the lawmaker’s influential position."
And if all that hasn't convinced you that you absolutely shouldn't take Burr or Blue Ribbon Coalition's word at face value, last summer when Senator Lee's amendment to completely do away with our public lands was put into the "Big Beautiful Bill," Burr and Utah Public Land Alliance, of which Burr is a trustee, came out with an article in support of Lee's disposal of all of our public lands.
Titled "Understanding the Lee Amendment-A Balanced Look at the Public Lands Sale," the article from the Utah Public Lands Alliance is rife with misleading statements, confusing language, and straight-up lies about Lee's amendment and true aims. Moreover, rather than getting someone who understands legal language and policy to explain what's up with the amendment, Utah Public Lands Alliance had an unnamed Lee staff member explain it to two of their executives, as well as Ben Burr, stating, that they were looking to "sort out some of the facts from misinformation," and "To do this, [they] arranged a meeting with Staff Member for Senator Lee to get accurate, up to date information from the main sponsor of the bill."
According to Utah Public Lands Alliance, Rose Winn, UPLA’s Natural Resource Consultant, Ben Burr, BlueRibbon Coalition’s Executive Director, and UPLA's President Loren Campbell attended the meeting.
But the kicker is that the Utah Public Lands Alliance, which makes it sound like an actual conservationist organization, states that the amendment is good for Utahns and Americans in general, stating, "One of President Trump’s campaign pledges was to improve home affordability, including opening federal lands, and Senator Lee has promulgated this Amendment as one way to deliver on this pledge. After review, I believe the Amendment is crafted well enough to provide safeguards for OHV recreation and should not have any serious impacts on OHV or other forms of recreation, but that is just my opinion, and it will largely depend on our efforts to stay on top of NEPA actions as lands are nominated."
As we all know, though, Utah Public Lands Alliance and Burr's approval of Lee's amendment in the article was absolute horseshit. There were no safeguards. There would've been serious impacts on recreation. It was an amendment designed to strip the American people of our greatest asset: our public lands.
Lee's amendment was fought tooth and nail by actual conservationists, and through the help of the entirety of the American people calling their senators and representatives, and getting riled up on social media, they got the amendment stripped from the final bill. Why? Because it was poison and absolutely aimed at selling off our public lands, a want of Senator Lee since his introduction to Congress, something he has not shied away from promoting in his tenure.
But these groups' full-throated endorsement of Lee's public lands sell-off amendment should be the jump-off point for anyone ever even thinking to listen to them ever again. They are stooges to these public lands sell-off ghouls, and haven't spoken out about anything but these distractions since the Trump administration's war against public lands has begun in earnest. Zero on Burgum's threats. Zero on the cuts to our Interior Department. Zero on "Sell-Off" Steve Pearce's nomination. Zero on changes to resource management plans. Zero on energy extraction. Zero on anything that actually affects you and me recreating on our public lands.
They are wolves in sheep's clothing, and I'm sick and tired of seeing folks parrot their talking points.
Regarding the Mojave, again, it's a temporary closure and one that barely affects your riding acreage in total. The BLM now just has to work within the law to get an actual travel management plan done. And it can absolutely do that, even though the Trump administration has gutted the division. But in regard to the Blue Ribbon Coalition and its supporters, these groups—along with Ben Burr—are fighting against your interests, plain and simple. They are working to remove your access to our public lands. Remove your access to hunting, fishing, off-roading, and any other recreation.
Please stop supporting them. Please stop fighting against your best interests.
