Wildlands CPR Article

[Grumpy]

Congressional Hearings Address Off-Road Vehicle Damage
Author:Franklin Seal
Road-RIPorter Issue:Summer Solstice 2008, Volume 13 # 2
Article Type:Cover Story




The damage that off-road vehicle use inflicts on our public forests, deserts, grasslands and wetlands is certainly no secret. Even many off-road vehicle advocates admit concerns about the growing problem, fearing that the increasing degradation of public resources will further poison public opinion against them and cause land management agencies to clamp down.

But while the problem is no secret, it has never gained the full attention of Congress — until now.

Earlier this spring, the off-road vehicle problem moved into the public spotlight when a US House of Representatives committee held oversight hearings on the issue. That hearing was a first step in long-absent congressional oversight regarding failed off-road vehicle management on federal lands. Unfortunately, the testimony from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) representatives was less than informative about the scope of the problem and the challenges these agencies face in bringing rampant off-road vehicle abuse under control. However, testimony from several other key witnesses was very helpful in articulating the scope of the problem and making key recommendations.

It was clear from the agency and from the off-road vehicle industry representatives that their mantra about a few bad apples has not changed. Fortunately there were speakers who pointed out the profound enormity of this problem, and that real regulatory changes are needed if we are to develop a culture of responsibility. Those changes include the protection of special places, the adoption and implementation of tough, strict rules for motorized recreation on public lands, and the swift and consistent enforcement of those rules.

More recently, on June 5, the Senate followed suit with its own hearing on off-road vehicle damage to public lands. For the first time in perhaps a decade, members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee grilled leaders of the Forest Service and the BLM about why off-road vehicle use is being allowed to damage America’s national treasures.

The Senate committee hearing was convened for the purpose of finding out why the agencies are failing to grapple with the negative impacts of off-road vehicle use on America’s public lands and what the agencies might need to start doing differently. Taking center stage in the discussion was the “travel planning processâ€

[Grumpy]

Off Road-Vehicles
The pollution and habitat degradation associated with Off-Road Vehicles has made a variety of controls on their use necessary for the protection of wild places. Wildlands CPR fights for these protections in a variety of ways.

Dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles drown out the peace and quiet of nature

They're often driven recklessly, posing a physical threat to hikers & horseback riders

Their inefficient two-stroke engines dump unburned fuel into the air, ground and water

They frequently trespass on private land

Off-roaders violate the rights of other forest users

Off-road vehicles go everywhere, killing and harassing wildlife

They rip up our most fragile and remote lands


What you can do
Support our off-road vehicle efforts with a donation or membership
Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay updated on all the latest off-road vehicle news (on sidebar to the right)

Write to your state and national elected officials, telling them that you care about regulating off-road vehicle use

[Grumpy]

Roads On Our Public Lands
When noted conservation biologists Michael Soul and Reed Noss were asked recently what three current policy issues are most important to the re-wilding of North America, they both responded simultaneously: "Roads, Roads, and Roads." While there were other issues that were on their list to be sure, the emphasis that these two prominent scientists placed on roads is significant. Roads, they know, fragment wildlife habitat, cause stream sedimentation through erosion (choking trout and salmon), and allow overuse and abuse by motorized recreation.


Champion International (Plum Creek) land, Gold Creek, MT Photo by Mark Alan Wilson
Motorized recreation also has disastrous ecological impacts. Off-road vehicle use causes soil displacement and compaction, erosion and stream sedimentation, significant air and water pollution, increased wildlife mortality, habitat disturbance, and more. Sensitive streams and riparian areas are often targeted by motorized recreationists for the "wet and wild" experience. But agency response to these problems continues to be inadequate. For example, policy is being proposed in the Tri-State (MT, SD, ND) ORV Plan which would grandfather in any user-created off-road vehicle routes, effectively legitimizing the creation and use of these pioneered routes. Regardless of what the agencies call them, or whether they were created by users or bulldozers, these "routes" are linear barriers that, in most instances, effectively act just like roads.


ATV driving upstream. Photo by Mark Aronson
In addition, authorized roads continue to be built, either for standard resource extraction, or under the guise of "forest restoration" to access thinning projects. Roads are even "temporarily" built for fire breaks, but most remain on the land, opening the forest to more access, potential poaching problems, invasive weeds, and off-road vehicle use. Assessing the varied impacts of these different types of roads and trails is just one project that our expanded science program intends to undertake. Goals Wildlands CPR incorporates conservation biology, law, and activism to:

Define and implement cutting edge public policy strategies to prevent, close and revegetate roads and limit motorized recreation;
Link and coordinate networks of activists and activist groups, helping form and organize effective coalitions;
Train citizens to prevent, close, and revegetate wildland roads and limit motorized recreation using sound biological and legal information;
Be a national clearinghouse, providing citizens with the tools, research and activist strategies needed to prevent, close or remove environmentally damaging roads and limit motorized recreation in wildland ecosystems;
Inform the public about the environmental damage caused by roads and motorized recreation and how to influence public land management decisions; and
Promote scientific research on the ecology of roads, road removal and ORVs.
Volunteer to study the effectiveness of road decommissioning

[Grumpy]

Anybody see a pattern here? I can come up with more if you want

[sams88]

Funny how irate all the greenies, Congress, et al get over the ORV issue and the "damage" yet the system totally turns the other cheek about all the damage caused by the white colar related damage.... ie how many lives ruined by the Enron fiasco and retirement/savings/etc trashed down the drain with no recorse for people to get it back. The difference is that the ORV community doesn't have the economic clout nor is organized well enough to hire all the big gun lawyers and lobbyists to counter the greenies lawyers and lobbyists.

No mention of the other "damage" caused on Federal Lands by govt agencies, military, logging, mining, hunters (evidently didn't want to disturb the gun lobby), etc. They can set aside areas for lots of stuff, but it seems that they don't want to set aside anything for the ORV as areas that have been set aside are under attack with mega efforts aimed at getting those areas taken away.

Everyone in this country has heard of the NRA. Where is the ORV/4x4 counterpart? Here in the Northwest we have PNW. Yet if you walked out in the street and asked all the soccer moms what the PNW is, they'd just give you the look... Mention the NRA to them and you get acknowledgment. Same with the Sierra Club. Even "Ducks Unlimited."

Reality is the the ORV/4x4 community are the little kids on the block, and all the other groups can kick and beat on it without encountering any opposition of note. And this problem is really getting very very serious folks. Look at the issues landowners have in this state with being regulated regarding what they can do with their own land....... the greenies are totally organized and rolling over everything.

The saying "time to $h!t or get off the pot" is quickly coming to roost for the ORV/4x4 community because we will be regulated totally out of existence before we ever get organized to the point of being able to put up any creditable defense. And like it or not, we will have regulation crammed down our throat. So we might as well get to the forefront of getting some realistic and reasonable regulation efforts going. Otherwise, I'd be willing to bet within 20 years there isn't going to be any "offroading" out there except for the police and military. The efforts going now just aren't cutting it cause we are quickly losing ground.

[Grumpy]

So, where have you been hiding?? You're saying things I sometimes have trouble getting said in the right way. Mind if I move this over to the PNW thread?

[sams88]

Go ahead and move it, but what got it going was the original post you put in this thread, as that's the context for it.

The point here I was trying to go go in a round a bout way is that the *only* recognition the ORV community has is a collective one that only brings "destruction" to people's minds unless of course they happen to be in the 4x4 world and know of the efforts some people are making to correct it. The first really good press I've seen was the story in the Yakima paper regarding the outgrowing of efforts by peanut regarding the Naches thing. Basically everything else just rolls around damage done, and none of the good stuff like all the trail repair and clean-up efforts that many many of the people and clubs are constantly doing.

The greenies weren't always the power house they are now. But the point they are at, is when they call senators and congressmen/women or the NRA calls, those congressmen/women give them their undivided attention because they know there is a very substantial powerhouse behind them. Well there are histories behind the greenies and the NRA, and we should be studying the dickens out of them and learning.

When I was a kid I loved duck hunting. The state/fed legislatures used to get hammered about all those nasty old hunters and how they were exterminating the birds. Well along comes Ducks Unlimited. A major push behind protecting and improving breeding grounds for them. There's been a noticeable reversal of public opinion and actions within state/fed legislatures regarding migratory bird hunting. Again, more lessons to learn and emulate. Look at the huge obstacles they had to overcome, and are still working like the dickens to change.

Well my brain really started ticking away on stuff the other day when I was reading all the comments regarding WOW and PNW on the NW-Wheelers forum. What one of the primary argument factors was/is that PNW has been doing this for a while. And while I thoroughly respect all the efforts they have been doing, those efforts totally pale when compared with the momentum of the greenies. Maybe the WOW people will help, maybe not. Who knows at this point in the game. No matter what though, it just flat isn't enough. We have to get our hands around the problem. One of the major initial problems is that we have a ton of "free spirits" for lack of a better work at the moment, that are active wheelers. Some wear white hats, some wear black hats. The old wild wild west is gone. This isn't the same old world now that us old farts grew up in. Now days if you want to play in the sand you are going to have to play in *designated* sand boxes, or you ain't gonna be able to play much longer. Same goes for the mudders, and the trail riders, etc. And those snowmobiler fans are gonna get it shoved down their throats too --- just like what's happening with the "personal watercraft" issues.

One of the beefs regarding PNW goes with the "secrecy" thing, whether it is real or not, that is what the perception is, so it really doesn't matter what the "management" of PNW thinks. That's the way they are regarded. You can't be an "elitist" group and expect to get much from the "common masses". The management of PNW (or any other group for that matter really) are nothing but fellow members of the common masses really. The chain of command and secrecy thing is s-l-o-w, very very s-l-o-w. Gotta move faster. Gotta have money, gotta do a lot of stuff, gotta get out of the clique mindset.

One of the ideas mentioned was "required" special license plates for 4x4/off-road/orv.... well really it isn't a bad idea. It gets some money started in. It provides an instant method of identifying what vehicles are even allowed to be offroad. People gonna bitch about it, but something's gotta be done and done fast. We have to start changing the perception of the local land managers, ie "Ranger Mike" or whatever his name may be. If he isn't going to jump up and say that he has *documentable* heavy and ecellent support from the recognized 4x4/orv groups in the area, then we have lost the war before we have even started. The "independents" aren't going to like it, but that's just tough apples. Either we get a grip or it goes away for everyone. Either we get active in setting rules and regulations that the state and fed will live with, or we will get their versions crammed down our throats. And you can bet your bottom dollar that our version of rules would be much more palatable than theirs.

Is PNW gonna do it? Is WOW gonna do it? Or is it going to be some other group? But again, look at the laws that have been passed in this state in the last couple of years, and also the new wilderness area that was just declared, and all the hassles aobut getting any access to Juniper......... we are losing.

[sams88]

Oh, and no, I can't post on PNW yet. Takes time for them to grant permissions, unlike the majority of forums in the computer geek world.