April 16, 2002

Rollbacks in Congress
Over the last 18 months, the Bush Administration has aggressively moved to reverse or undermine protection for national parks, forests, monuments, and other public lands and waters from the damage caused by dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, jet skis and other off-road vehicles. Now, there are attempts within Congress to rollback protection for these places as several bills have been introduced in the House that are backed by the off-road vehicle industry. These bills, if passed, would allow rampant off-road vehicle use would continue on our nation's public lands and waters.

H.R. 3936 sponsored by Representative Hansen
House Resources Committee Chairman Jim Hansen (R-Utah) is attempting to establish an off-road vehicle route system covering more than 500 miles of routes in northern Utah. Although the legislation is vague, the proposed motorized trail system, called the Shoshone National Recreational Trail, would go through roadless areas in the Wasatch Cache National Forest and convert about 150 miles of dedicated non-motorized trails to motorized routes. Under the bill, human-powered recreation would only be allowed on this trail if it is "compatible with motorized use." The House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands held a hearing on H.R. 3936 today, and has tentatively scheduled a mark-up on Thursday April 18, 2002.

View our testimony

View the maps detailing critical environmental and wildlife impacts associated with the proposed Shoshone National Recreation Trail.

H.R. 3853 sponsored by Representative Radanovich
On March 20, 2002, the House Resources Committee approved a parks technical corrections bill that contains a provision to keep jet skis in National Parks for at least 2 more years. Under a current Park Service rule and the provisions of a court-approved settlement between the agency and Bluewater Network, 21 park units must issue formal rules to authorize continued jet ski use. If rules are not issued by either April 22 or September 15 of this year, personal watercraft use will be prohibited until such rules are issued.

During Subcommittee and full Committee consideration, Representative Rush Holt (NJ) offered an amendment to strike this provision from the bill. Unfortunately, the Holt amendment was narrowly defeated. This bill has been fast-tracked through the House, and there has been no oversight hearing because the jet ski provision is in a technical corrections bill. In another move to halt the Park Service's current process, the personal watercraft industry filed a preliminary injunction on March 28, 2002 to postpone the April 22, 2002 deadline. A hearing on the injunction will be taking place in the Federal District court in Texas on April 17, 2002.

H.R. 4076 sponsored by Representative Stump
This bill weakens environmental protections put in place by a Presidential proclamation that designated the Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona. The bill guts the proclamation's prohibition on vehicular travel off roads by allowing such use for "any other purpose authorized by the Secretary [of Interior]." In addition, it would expand off-road vehicle use beyond the parameters established in the proclamation by directing the Secretary to allow vehicles on "trails" as well as roads.

CRITICAL DATES TO WATCH

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Hearing on preliminary injunction filed by the personal watercraft industry to stop a nationwide ban on jet skis in national parks scheduled to take place April 22, 2002.

Thursday, April 18, 2002

Mark-up on H.R. 3936. 2PM

Monday, April 22, 2002

Earth Day

For more information contact:

Alix Rauschman, Communications Specialist
Natural Trails and Waters Coalition
(202) 429-2672 phone
(202) 549-2860 cell
alix_rauschman@tws.org

To recieve this report by e-mail, please e-mail media@naturaltrails.org.