Some have complained that the activity is also wearing away fragile arches that have withstood wind and rain for eons, scoring them with bolt-holes and rope marks. So now, the Bureau of Land Management is weighing whether to bar swingers, jumpers and other participants in aerial rope sports from Corona Arch and Gemini Bridges, another towering arch formation in the area.

It is a new problem for the bureau, whose responsibility for millions of acres of land and mineral rights has long made it a target for populist anger in the West. This spring, the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy led a standoff with the bureau over grazing fees that exploded into an ideological battle over the federal government’s role in managing open spaces. In Texas, the agency is embroiled in an ownership dispute over 90,000 acres along the Red River. And around Moab, environmental groups have criticized the agency over plans to drill for oil and gas in the canyon lands and a new natural-gas pipeline that crosses federal land.

Here, the fate of the arches has touched off a heated debate about the limits of outdoor play on public lands in an age when X Games daredevils and popular stunt videos beckon more and more weekend adventurers to seek out the same thrills.

One such adventurer was Kyle Stocking, 22, a former Marine from West Jordan, Utah. He had been a rock climber for about five years and, after watching videos of people hurtling down from the arch, he knew what his next adventure would be.