If in fact they did this, they deserve to lose access to the area.
Obvious solution: Charge an exorbitant amount for permits to do this and use those funds to repair any damage done by these activities. Works great for funding preservation for endangered species (through allowing extremely limited hunting and charging a butt load for permits to hunt them).
it sounds like flooding does more damgae than the jeeps
I used to go to this area a long time ago. It is an historic area as well as being visually stimulating. I used 4x4's to get thru here to hunt deer at the higher elevations.
If you like 4 wheelin', tobacco products, guns, limited government, and Tom Mclintock, then I recommend moving to Missouri and eating my dust.
If you only like some of the above (like Arnold instead of McClintock or don't like smokers), I recommend moving to Johnson County, Kansas, across from KC, MO, and commuting to Missouri to eat my dust.
"..Environmental groups allege that, before they won protection for the area in 2001, off-roaders destroyed the canyon by cutting trees, dumping boulders in the water and using winches to drag their Jeeps up the waterfalls. They are seeking to intervene in the off-roaders' lawsuit.
Since 2001, the canyon has regenerated, with new vegetation attracting wildlife.
"It's almost unbelievable what's up there. It's precious, it's pristine," said Tom Budlong, an activist who regularly hikes the canyon about 200 miles northeast of his Los Angeles home. "I shudder to think of the extreme four-wheelers getting back into the canyon and making a road where there is now no road.".."
So it was destroyed and now it is pristine. The Greens are Shrill, liars, and a tremendous drag on the economy.
The damn greenies are like the anti-gun types. They are all wound up about protecting huge expanses of barren desert from use by offroad recreational users. The land is completely fallow. It's use hurts nobody. Stupid busybodies and control freaks.
Surprise Canyon Road is an Inyo County public road.
The county has passed a resolution that claims all roads within Inyo County as RS2477 roads...
http://www.fopv.org/action.html
Amazing that the activist gets his britches in a bunch over a desert cyn., and yet lives in a city covered with hundreds of square miles of asphalt and concrete, with millions of vehicles circulating on it. Maybe they should just pave the canyon, so he can drive his BMW SUV up it.
So then... If the BLM had properly maintained the road in the first place, none of the alleged damage would have occurred. And now it's the negligent BLM who wants to continue to keep the area off-limits. I suppose that I could try something like this with the IRS; blame them for my math errors and claim that I thus do not owe any taxes. Of course, I'd end up in jail, but if it works for the BLM...