Re: Recreational Access
Eruption, you wrote:
"I would like to see links posted of reputable websites (news organizations) verifying that the above is a genuine effort - and not another fancy website. "
Check out
http://nohvcc.org/
Not a formal news organization, this rider-driven non-for-profit has toiled quietly for 10 years to preserve areas to ride. Their members are reps from riding clubs around the US who give up many weekends of riding to repair, rehab, and yes, even close off sensitive trail in cooperation with the USFS and BLM. They are recognized nationally as the voice OHV recreation.
Their members have participated in good faith with local and regional efforts to implement "Managed Use" rather than "No Use". These efforts included opponents and skeptics of OHV use. (You may be surprised to learn that many Sierra Club members support managed use.)
It is unfortunate that the Clinton Admin. politicized the process by throwing away years of effort, invalidating work on both sides. "No Use" extremists had the ear of the national policy-makers and last year the "debate" degenerated along polarized, political lines.
Now, if you want to ride responsibly off road, you are linked with efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic Refuge, relaxed drinking water standards, and the trashing of the Global Warming Treaty. Does this make any sense?
Responsible OHV riding is a legitimate use of public lands and non-threatened areas should be set aside and managed for this purpose. User fees are not unacceptable if applied fairly.
Sorry for the lecture, its just that if every place to ride is closed, off road riding will not go away, it will just become illegal. OHVs will still be ridden on private and public property, and since the feds put virtually no money into enforcement, a far greater harm to the environment can result from unmanaged use on public lands.