Group accuses Utah agency of ruining ancient dinosaur tracks

Ancient dinosaur tracks are seen at a site in Moab, Utah, that conservationists say has been damaged by the state's Bureau of Land Management. Photo courtesy of Center for Biological Diversity

Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday warned Utah's Bureau of Land Management that it has damaged one of the most significant and earliest Cretaceous track sites in the world and urged the agency to cease its work in eastern Utah.

According to Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the organization, the site features more than 200 dinosaur tracks that have been preserved in sedimentary rock, representing 10 distinct species of dinosaur.

"We were shocked and appalled to see reports on January 30th that significant damage had occurred at Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracks site near Moab, Utah, as a part of a BLM project to reconstruct visitor use trails there," Patrick Donnelly, the Great Basin director for the organization, said Wednesday in a letter to the bureau.

Donnelly said that the land management's construction equipment, which included a backhoe left on site, had driven directly over the fossil dinosaur tracks, permanently destroying as much as 30% of the site.

"The BLM must immediately halt the destruction of the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite and take steps to stabilize the site, protect these prehistoric treasures and prevent further harm," Donnelly in a separate press release on Wednesday.

"Paleontological resources are a critical link to the past that help scientists shed light on today's biodiversity. It's essential that our land managers do everything possible to protect them for future generations," he said.

A statement from the bureau's Moab field office denied using "heavy" construction equipment in a statement, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"The Moab Field Office is working to improve safe public access with an updated boardwalk that is designed to protect the natural resources of this site," the statement said.

"During that effort, heavy equipment is on location, but it is absolutely not used in the protected area," the Moab field office said.