This is the kind of thing I want to avoid. I know what you are saying has some logic but realistically it is dishonest because we really are all gathering together with the purpose of running the trails at the same time. While the impact on each individual trail may be less that 25 people, we are still bringing in 120+ people on a given day that likely would not have been in the Moab area otherwise. And just a point of clarification, it's the number of people they are really concerned with not the number vehicles. Our permit fee is based on a per person per day fee regardless of the number of vehicles.
There are other reasons to register as an official event besides just following the rules. By submitting our attendance numbers to the BLM it gives them a more accurate picture of the usage of the trails in the Moab area. If no one ever registers with the BLM for their events, then organizations like SUWA can say things like this:
and get away with it when the reality may be way more than 7% of the visitors are of the ORV variety. Without the data to disprove the referenced survey, how can anyone argue against it.
I feel the more cooperative we are with the BLM the more cooperative they will be with us. And so far they have been very helpful and cooperative with the permitting process.
I appreciate your perspective and I understand where you're coming from, but I like that we can come into Moab and be proud of our event and not hide hoping no one figures out we are all there together.