For five years, I have annually reported illegal motorized traffic on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands to the Grand Junction BLM Office in Colorado. The illegal (non-designated) BLM route originates on private property in Garfield County, Colorado. I tried the patient / professional route for four years, annually emailing trail camera photos of the illegal use (Email 2021-23, Email 2025-26 ), and I even met with the Grand Junction BLM office in 2025. Now I am sharing my experience in the hope that shining a light on things will help fix the lack of law enforcement action by the BLM when the trespass violation comes from an adjoining private landowner. Here is a 2025 video showing a section of the route.
With the BLM’s well-documented passion for shutting down historic motorized roads on public lands, I have found my experience with this illegal route unexpected to say the least. Since 2021, I have annually supplied trail cam pictures of ATV/UTV violations to the BLM Ranger and various Grand Junction BLM staff. I have onX mapped the entire route for the BLM and provided landowner contact information. Before publishing this article, I submitted a FOIA request regarding the illegal route just to confirm the BLM has not even mailed a notification letter to the landowner. It was confirmed; they have no record of doing anything regarding the illegal route after 5 years of complaints.
The illegal motorized route in question comes off private property, along County Road 204 near DeBeque, Colorado. This article’s cover photo is a picture of a nearby sign “Report illegal ATV Use -BLM, CPW, BHA”, the sign is still up today, across the road from the violation—- what a joke. In this case, I have documented efforts of reporting the illegal route use to all three organizations –BLM, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA). CPW indicated they could not help; it was a BLM matter (CPW is correct). BHA was a waste of time and did nothing. My experience with the BHA is that they really love it when the BLM closes historic motorized routes on our federal lands, so I thought they would be helpful- not so much. The BLM at times has responded (slowly at best), and one time they told me to report the issue to the Colorado Highway Patrol. Can you imagine reporting that someone built an illegal road on BLM land and the BLM says, “call the state”. I have let the BLM know that the State Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) cannot legally do anything with a non-designated route on federal land. Shouldn’t they know the law?
Let’s review the rule of law regarding this route on BLM land. Below, you will see that this type of illegal non-designated / unmapped route/road, per Colorado Revised Statute (CRS) 33-14.5-108 – state and local police can do nothing regarding this federal law/rule violation.
(CRS) 33-14.5-108 (3) (a) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (d) of this subsection (3), it is unlawful for a person to operate a motor vehicle on any federal public land, trail, or road unless the federal public land, trail, or road is signed or otherwise authorized for such use. A peace officer shall not enforce this paragraph (a) within an administrative unit of federal public land until the controlling land management agency identifies whether a route is available for motorized travel by maps, route markers, or signs that are available to the public and provide information to determine whether the route is authorized.
Federal Law / Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Rule regarding non-designated routes built on federal land —- the BLM operates under the principle that non-designated routes are closed to motorized use once a Travel Management Plan (TMP) has been completed and published. This policy stems from 43 CFR § 8342.1, which requires the authorized officer to designate all public lands as either “open,” “limited,” or “closed” to off-road vehicles (ORVs).
“Closed Unless Designated Open” Policy: Once a TMP or Resource Management Plan (RMP) that designates routes is finalized and maps are made available to the public, any route not shown on the official BLM map is considered closed to public motorized or mechanized travel. There are hundreds of non-designated roads in Colorado (from private lands onto federal lands) in use today.
Based on CRS 33-14.5-108 the CPW and local/state law enforcement can do nothing when it comes to an illegal, unmarked non-designated trail built on federal land. This is 100% a BLM legal matter. State law says that for CPW or a state LEO to enforce a Federal Law / Route Violation, the route must be mapped and designated (with a carsonite sign posted), and the map must be readily available to the public. The illegal route in question does not have a carsonite sign, nor is it mapped on any BLM map.
In this case, the public must hike on foot to this area, but the adjoining private landowner/s have built their own (illegal) motorized route through our BLM federal land. The illegal route drives through a huge swath of BLM lands, then it illegally accesses a BLM Admin Route (all BLM Admin Routes are closed to the general public for motorized use) and then the trespassers often drive through other private property at the top of the mountain owned by Island Mountain Farm LLC. In the past, hunting with my son, we have hiked in for 2 hours (before daylight) only to have these ATV users coming off the Private property to ruin our hunt by driving through all the BLM.
- ***Admin Route, Side Note***** The Colorado BLM quit topo mapping BLM Admin Routes in Colorado. There are about 1100 miles of two-track Admin Routes in just the GJ BLM TMP alone. Why did the Colorado BLM stop providing the public with topo maps showing Admin Routes that are open to the public for foot and horse travel? My guess is they don’t like discussing the adjoining private landowner/outfitter user lease agreements associated with them. The public must walk, but often the adjoining private landowners and outfitters get to drive trucks on Admin Routes. Here is a link to an outdated 2015 map (example) in the Grand Junction TMP – you can see 90% of the motorized routes in Zone G are now Admin Routes– all closed to the public in 2015 and recently renamed. You must understand BLM Google Earth map layering to find Admin routes in Colorado. You can see the safety concerns associated with hiding these routes from the public. In the event of an emergency, the public should know of these Admin routes on their public lands. Additionally, the state will not be able to enforce law violators on Admin Routes since the BLM quit mapping them. Here an example of the BLM road lease to a private landowner.
The BLM “Rules” declare all unmapped non-designated motorized routes on BLM public lands are closed. If you have experienced this type of selective enforcement bias from the BLM, please reach out to me through www.publiclandjurisdiction.com. I have a good line of communication with Congressman Jeff Hurds’ office and will be glad to accumulate more data nationally. Currently the BLM says they are understaffed but that was not the case until recently, this issue has been in place for 5 years. After all, how hard is it to contact a landowner and put up a small carsonite sign.
In closing, I have been active with public land and outdoor issues in Colorado since 2010. As a backcountry hunter and public land access activist, I often find myself fighting for the rule of law on our federal lands. If you’re fighting for the rule of law on public lands that means at times you are working to protect historic (RS 2477) roads from closure or (like in this case) working to close illegal routes built by someone (usually an adjoining landowner). Over time and with much research, I can say that my perception of our federal land management agencies has changed significantly over the past 16 years. If you go to my website www.publiclandjurisdiction.com you can see my research/projects on federal lands and within big game hunting in Colorado. It’s not all the BLMs fault, but there is no excuse for selective law enforcement and ignoring laws based on who the perpetrator is. I have been reporting illegal activity on federal lands from private landowners since 2010 and I can tell you that private landowners are treated much more favorably than the general public. When Joe Public clears a “closed” road or opens a gate on BLM land and gets caught, it’s front-page news, and the BLM wants to make an example of them by calling them anti-government and taking them to federal court for jail time (just ask David Justice in Colorado). Over the years, I have reported the following trespass situations on BLM lands to the BLM office in Grand Junction, and most of my filings have either been ignored or the violators were never publicly disclosed.
- Mini Bulldozer building a motorized trail on BLM land in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District.
- Adjoining landowner outbuildings and cabins built on BLM land in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District..
- Adjoining landowner intentionally ruining a youth big game hunt in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District.
- BLM land used as a storage lot by an adjoining private landowner in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District.
- Illegal gates and private land signs– blocking access to federal public lands in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District. (most signs/gates were removed, but no tickets)
- Adjoining private guest ranch/outfitter building and mowing trails for horse rides and clients hunting on BLM land in the Grand Junction Travel Mgt District.
- Adjoining landowners leaving hunting tree stands up all year on BLM land.
The BLM seems fully staffed with administrators who love closing historical public land motorized roads each time they do a Travel Management Plan (TMP). My experience has been when the BLM executes a TMP they close about 40%- 60% of historic motorized access in an area. In 2015/16, the Grand Junction BLM closed over 2,100 miles of motorized routes, which was 62% of the historic motorized access closed within the GJ Travel Management District. Most were in place before Oct 21, 1976, and met the definition of an RS 2477 right-of-way. I was just hearing how the BLM office in Mojave Valley, AZ is closing 10,000 miles of routes in 2026, so the BLM is still at it. Closure is not management, but closing illegal non-designated BLM routes that are only accessible by private landowners should be considered good management.
