>>2669111local to southeast utah, but i do also work for a federal land management agency (not blm)
they generally want to close areas that see the most camping impact and worst offroad use, offroad as in off the designated 4x4 roads. the proximity to the national parks, especially as this being one of the areas on the way to island in the sky that the nps workers will tell people to go camp in as the nps campgrounds are always full, means these areas get lots of use, and lots of use by people that dont know or dont care about what they are doing.
the atv trails also see a lot of offtrail use that is nearly impossible to stop, and the atvs and dirtbikes like to go wherever they can. they have to run them out of the national parks all the time and in the national forests closing their unoffcial trails is playing a game of whackamole
i dont think its from complaints of any specific user groups like river users, just blm doing their job
on the 4x4ers side, they have watched over a half century as their areas to drive in have slowly constricted over time. new park/monument/wilderness designations limit travel, and the land management agencies like to not maintain roads to let them slowly close themselves over time as they erode or get washed out.
on the other hand, 2/3 of utah is still available for 4x4 travel and dispersed camping, and there are still a lifetimes worth of atv/bike trails around moab. and this is just closure to motorized travel; these canyons are still gonna see use by hikers, bikers, and stock.
there is nimbyism in moab in general about tourists (despite tourism being the entirety of the economy) and theres been a fight about banning atvs/utvs/etc in town for the noise. but 4x4 is also a huge part of the local economy, and im sure theres some jeep outfits in town that do tours on these roads. im sure some locals would love to see less dispersed camping available to tourists, but they are idiots if they think it means less people will show up
