Deserts Are Not Desolate

In 2019, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decided to re-open an area of Utah badlands to unfettered off-highway vehicle access (meaning that such vehicles can travel anywhere they wish -off the existing network of roads - in very expansive "open play areas"). This area features one of the most extensive and beautiful networks of badlands in the United States and thus this decision caused uproar among wilderness advocates. On social media, many in favor of the decision made comments about how the area is nothing more than a desolate wasteland, so why does it matter if OHVs can travel anywhere they want? Well, the area isn't a wasteland. It features a diverse ecosystem full of plants and animals that call the area home. This gallery features a small sampling of the wildflowers and plants that grow in what some sadly see only as a "wasteland."