Subject: ORV's Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 19:39:24 +1100 From: "Brian Everingham">From America ... just to be alert to opposition here ... Brian Wreckreation 02/22/00 On April 7-12 members of over a hundred national and grassroots environmental organizations will gather in Washington, DC, "to raise national awareness of the threat of ORVs, take the message to Washington about the need for strong action, and be a part of an exciting campaign that can make a difference for wildlife and wild places." They have invited Congressional and federal agency staffers to attend their conference, after which they will visit Congressmen and agency decision-makers. They will find agency leaders receptive. Off-road vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles, swamp buggies, four-wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and watercraft have become a fast-mounting problem on public lands, chiefly those managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. For example, a lead article in High Country News reports a crisis in Colorado's White River National Forest: "Sightseers and mountain bikers have shooed off the lumbermen and appropriated old logging roads. And every hunting season all-terrain vehicles blaze new trails into the land. Hikers, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers every year make it more of a year-round playground, while downhill skiers account for 7.5 million visits a year. All this recreation is beating up the White River, which covers almost 4 percent of Colorado. "Now, instead of accommodating every request that walks in the door, the Forest Service's Proposed Revised Land and Resource Management Plan seeks to reassert loyalty to the land itself." The U.S. Forest Service has had policies on ORV management, but Washington left the more than 130 Forest Supervisors on their own to interpret and apply them. Under heavy pressure from commercial and ORV forces, most were hesitant. Similarly, the Bureau of Land Management has had policy papers since the 1970s, but little effort was made to apply regulations on BLM's 264 million acres. Now that the damaging effects on forests, fields, wetlands, waterways, plants, and wildlife are conspicuous and widespread, both agencies recognize the need for change. To see a sample of the opposition they face, go to http://www.off-road.com. Here is everything you might want to know about ORVs: trail guides, racing news, ads for the latest models, technical tips, and editorials. The January issue has an Action Alert headed "Enviros Call for ORV Ban!" "Folks, it's not over yet!!! We must speak out as a collective voice against the tyranny of the enviro elite. "Since the dawn of the environmental movement, environmentalists have shown that they will never, ever relent on removing ORVs from society. A group of 67 Environmental Organizations backed by $20,000,000 dollars in funding from the Pew Charitable Trust (Sun Oil Family Money), have called for a BAN on ORV access ON ALL PUBLIC LANDS to include National Parks, US Forest Service and BLM Managed Lands." That rallying cry is more than slightly exaggerated. The real question is whether the agencies will adopt and enforce regulations requiring ORVs to stay on existing roads and trails, not create scars by driving cross-country. The draft plan for the White River National Forest would keep 1,500 miles of roads and nearly 1,700 miles of trails open to ORV use. "There's a place for ORVs on the roaded portions of the national forests," said a spokesman for The Wilderness Society. "The current management regime allows for degradation of soil, water and vegetation. It causes wildlife displacement and user conflicts." User conflicts are intensifying the demand for controls. More than once your editor, backpacking in National Forests, has been forced off a trail by an ORV. Canoeing on once-quiet streams he has barely escaped being hit by air boats roaring around bends. A hunter sitting silent in a deer stand is enraged when a noisy ORV cuts through the woods, scaring off the game. Once upon a time the National Forests seemed an almost untouched resource. A citizen could get a permit to build a weekend cottage on the public's land. Clusters of such cottages still exist. One could camp anywhere. The network of unpaved roads expanded gradually as logging dictated. The Civilian Conservation Corps built trails. Over the years, more and more of the public's land has been made available for lodges, fish camps, ski resorts and other purposes. By some accounts, recreation now generates more for the economy than logging. The Bureau of Land Management administers what's left of the public domain after land grants to states, railroad builders, settlers, and veterans. It was not inconsistent with BLM's mission to make land available to ranchers, miners, and others. On a typical large western ranch, the cattleman has title to a small fraction of his spread; the rest he leases from BLM. In theory, visitors have a right to enter this leased land for such purposes as hiking and fishing. It was and is difficult for a visitor to know whether or not he's on leased land. Indeed, even private land is not always posted. That caused few problems in the past. Now increased population, suburban sprawl, and an expanded road network is increasing the recreational use of BLM land. The rancher doesn't want ORV intruders spooking his herds. But chances are he uses ORVs instead of horses in managing his ranch. BLM calls them Off Highway Vehicles, OHVs, instead of ORVs. "The strategy we will develop is aimed at recognizing the interests of OHV users while protecting the environmentally sensitive areas on the public lands," said BLM acting director Tom Fry. "The strategy will also enable the BLM to spend scarce funding resources on managing OHV use rather than on OHV-related litigation, protests, appeals and Freedom of Information Act requests." The number of endangered plant and animal species on BLM land increased from 50 in 1982 to nearly 300 in 1997. "The debate over forest management continues to be driven by outdated models from a bygone era," said Mike Dombeck, Chief of the Forest Service. "We should be talking about the conditions we want on the land. We should be talking about what we leave rather than what we take." Both agencies are moving in the direction of rules and regulations that would restrict ORVs to existing roads and trails, prohibiting cross-country travel. Could such regulations be enforced? Neither agency has enough manpower to patrol their vast holdings. Would they themselves use ORVs to seek out and apprehend violators? What could a ranger on foot do if he spotted a violator across a valley? What could and would he do if he confronted a mounted violator? Wilderness Areas, by law, are roadless and closed to all motorized vehicles, but violations occur. It has been proposed that all ORVs be licensed and, in addition, each be required to obtain a permit for operation in a National Forest or on BLM land, just as back-packers must obtain back-country permits. Hikers don't object; it's a safety measure. The off-road vehicle lobby assuredly would.
| Back to the NPANSW scrapbook | National Parks Association of NSW, Australia |