Moe's Valley

Hey all, 

This weekend was a busy one at Moe's Valley in Saint George, it is great to see so many people getting out and enjoying the great weather we've been experiencing. That being said, Moe's Valley lies on SITLA lands, i.e. trust lands that can and will be sold off to developers who write enough zeroes on a check. They would love to see a bunch of climbers breaking rules to quickly resection the land into housing.

The rules that have been put in place are: 

1. No off-leash dogs. A big part of this land getting to remain public is the presence of the Mojave Desert Tortoise. The folks who manage this land want us to prove we are stewards of the land and having dogs run around and chase a threatened species is worst-case scenario yet totally plausible. We get it, your dog is the best behaved dog that has ever existed just like everyone else at the crag. Put em on leashes please.

2. NO CAMPING. There are signs everywhere saying not to camp around Moe's. Go to the BLM office and ask where you can camp legally. LEOs are starting to patrol and will give you expensive tickets.

3. Pick up your garbage. I get it, we all lose the corners of clif bar wrappers on windy days, tape falls out of our pockets, or we forget gear, but this weekend an ungodly amount of trash was left at the boulders and is unacceptable. We are here to represent a group of people who are stewards of the land and most of us are presenting a terrible case for ourselves. 

I am by no means the "Gatekeeper of Moe's" but it is really unfortunate seeing people from all over the country come and disrespect a bouldering landmine. I enjoy Moe's and would like to be able to boulder there in the future.

Wise words said in a very respectful way Austin. For anyone who donates to SUCA or the Access Fund, establishes routes at Moe’s or anywhere in southwest Utah, volunteers their time to clean up after others when they see dirty crags or bouldering areas; you all have my deepest gratitude. But to be a steward of our amazing climbing areas does not mean one even needs to go this far. Whether you are a new climber, or have been crushing it since they were wearing logging boots and Chuck Ts to climb in, leaving a climbing area in the same, or better, shape from whence you arrived should be at the least the minimal expectation as a climber utilizing Mother Nature for our pleasure. The real question is how can we get everyone to this baseline? What is the reasoning behind individuals being unable to accomplish even such a minimal task, cleaning up after oneself and respecting their surroundings? Is it a lack of awareness, consideration, education or a combination of lacking many attributes such as these? For what my words are worth, I’d discern the biggest reasoning behind this is the lack of education. When people understand their actions have consequences, although those consequences may not directly affect them, I would like to think the human in them reconsiders how they go about their business. And although that sounds obvious, many humans don’t consider the consequences of their actions; such as littering or having canines off leash in areas where they shouldn’t. When climbers and nature lovers alike can reach out to people in a respectful manner when they see them degrading an area they care about, a lot of positivity can come from it. As crazy as it sounds, some people do not realize the impact of their litter, or their loud music at a crag, etc and so they continue these practices ignorant to their wrongdoings. Having those conversations with good and constructive intentions when one sees these situations happening can go a long way. I hope as a community we are able to maintain our access to these areas, find and develop new areas with a LNT ethic in mind, and see these areas undergo minimal to no change over the course of our lifetimes and future generations by becoming better stewards of our land and creating new stewards through conversation and education. Something compelled me to share this and I’m not sure what for, but I hope I am sound enough in mind and spirit to continue to heed my own advice and hopefully this helps some of you out there as well, most importantly Mother Nature though. 

Good PSA. Nearly every time I visit Moe's, I see people camped in the parking lot and dogs running wild. Moe's could easily get sold off to the highest bidder and climbers need to realize that.

Zacharya Fisher wrote:

For what my words are worth, I’d discern the biggest reasoning behind this is the lack of education. When people understand their actions have consequences, although those consequences may not directly affect them, I would like to think the human in them reconsiders how they go about their business.

The problem is that there have been numerous attempts at educating the public, this post being one of them. All the guidebooks explain the ethics, the community has been vying for keeping Moe's in public domain for more than a decade and the outreach and efforts have been widely publicized, there are literally like 5 No Camping signs on the road to the crag, etc. At a certain point it is ignorance that is getting in the way of people's self-education. It is frustrating for those of us who have made efforts to be educated on these issues and will be dealt the consequences when "the dark hour" of rezoning land trusts happens.

Austin Freking wrote:

The problem is that there have been numerous attempts at educating the public, this post being one of them. All the guidebooks explain the ethics, the community has been vying for keeping Moe's in public domain for more than a decade and the outreach and efforts have been widely publicized, there are literally like 5 No Camping signs on the road to the crag, etc. At a certain point it is ignorance that is getting in the way of people's self-education. It is frustrating for those of us who have made efforts to be educated on these issues and will be dealt the consequences when "the dark hour" of rezoning land trusts happens.

One of the huge problems we see here on MP (as well as other social media) is that almost without fail, whenever something is posted about not doing something or going somewhere or accessing something, eventually, sometimes immediately, come a flurry of posts seeking ways around the restrictions. Often there is no attempt to understand the issues. This thread, the covid threads, and the fire zone closures threads are all prime examples.

Marc801 C wrote:

...seeking ways around the restrictions. Often there is no attempt to understand the issues. 

I agree, I am just hoping that this message falls on respectful ears. If all goes well with the current land acquisition process, Moe's could be BLM land in just a matter of a couple years, but the current land holders are trying to find any way to make climbers the bad guys and show that we won't treat the land any better than a bunch of excavators. The less strikes we can get on our metaphorical "permanent record" the better.

Austin Freking wrote:

Moe's could be BLM land in just a matter of a couple years, but the current land holders are trying to find any way to make climbers the bad guys and show that we won't treat the land any better than a bunch of excavators. 

SITLA is trying to make climbers out to be the bad guys? Is this so that they can sell off that parcel to developers instead of to the BLM? Is the state proposing to hand that parcel over to BLM?

This link may better explain it than I can. Basically it is currently being processed into BLM ownership and in this grace period, we as climbers need to get our stuff together before law enforcement starts recognizing how many violations climbers are currently contributing to this particular section of land.

In this transitionary phase SITLA can still sell the land and if enough eyebrows get raised, they may just decide to sell the land instead of making it the BLMs problem. They aren't "out to get" the climbers, however they are looking for infractions to their rules to find reasons to sell the land instead of manage it, if that makes sense.