Film Permitting

The public lands have long been a popular location for the motion picture industry. The western deserts, dry lakebeds, and mountain terrain are strong attractions to national and international television and film production companies. Many major motion pictures and television commercials have been filmed on public lands.

The variety of landscapes within a 20-mile radius of Moab has made the Moab area a popular filming area since the late 1940s. Filming of western films has now been replaced by 30 to 40 BLM authorizations each year for television programs or commercials and commercial still photography for magazine advertisements and billboards.  Click here for additional information on film permitting.

Rights-of-Way across Public Lands

Each year, thousands of individuals and companies apply to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to obtain a right-of-way (ROW) on public land.  A ROW grant is an authorization to use a specific piece of public land for a certain project, such as roads, pipelines, transmission lines, and communication sites. A ROW grant authorizes rights and privileges for a specific use of the land for a specific period of time. Generally, a BLM ROW is granted for a term appropriate for the life of the project.

Click here for more information on obtaining a right-of-way on public lands.

Threatened and Endangered Species

The BLM manages threatened and endangered (T&E) species and their habitats in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. There are six animal and one plant species listed as T&E in the Moab Field Office area: Mexican spotted owl, southwestern willow flycatcher, Colorado squawfish, razorback sucker, humpback chub, bonytail, and Jones' cycladenia. The black-footed ferret was found in the area historically, and the Cisco Desert is being considered for a transplant site. Click here for more information on T&E species in the Moab Field Office.