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As a S. Utah commissioner, he led a protest ride against closing an ATV trail. Now, as a legislator, Phil Lyman wants to outlaw blocking such routes.

That’s the upshot of Rep. Phil Lyman’s first foray into state legislating with his HB179, which would impose criminal sanctions on anyone who “knowingly places or authorizes the placement of a temporary or permanent barricade” on any public road, including disputed routes claimed by Utah counties across public lands.

The bill mirrors the stunt for which the former San Juan County commissioner is most famous — or, depending on whom you ask, infamous: organizing an illegal ride through an archaeologically delicate southern Utah canyon that the Bureau of Land Management had closed to motorized use.