 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
|||
 |
 |
|||
|
Natural
Trails & Waters Coaliton Forest Service Prepares to Tackle Off-road Vehicle Problem Will Effort Result in Real Reform or More
Hollow Rhetoric?
Washington, DC - The U. S. Forest Service is initiating an effort to rewrite regulations governing the use of dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and other off-road vehicles on National Forests and Grasslands. Chief Dale Bosworth has identified unmanaged recreation, particularly off-road vehicle use, as one of the four great threats to National Forests. "We applaud Chief Dale Bosworth for acknowledging the magnitude of the off-road vehicle problem and the need for a stronger approach to managing this form of recreation," said Scott Kovarovics, Director of the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition. "The Forest Service has an opportunity to better protect the land, wildlife, private property and varied recreational opportunities for all Americans by applying common sense limits to uncontrolled off-road vehicle use." "Dirt bikes, ATVs and other off-road vehicles have been a serious problem for a long time in virtually every National Forest," said former Forest Service Deputy Chief Jim Furnish. "Rarely have agency leaders had the guts to tackle the problems head on, even though they have the tools. While the regulations can and should be strengthened, strong leadership is even more important." The failure to effectively manage high-impact off-road vehicle use is causing serious problems across National Forests. For example: · Renegade ATV and dirt bike tracks spread out like spider webs across many forests. In April 2003, Chief Bosworth described the problem as follows: "For example, the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana has more than a thousand unplanned roads and trails reaching for almost 650 miles. That's pretty typical for a lot of national forests, and it's only going to get worse." · Dirt bikes and ATVs are causing erosion, clogging streams with sediment and damaging critical wetlands and riparian areas. · Cross-country travel is splintering valuable wildlife habitat with particularly harmful impacts on large mammals, including elk and bear. · Uncontrolled off-road vehicle use is adversely affecting other users of National Forests, including ranchers, outfitters and guides, hikers, cross-country skiers, and hunters and anglers. · The effectiveness of existing rules is undermined in part because the Forest Service has a woefully inadequate number of law enforcement officers to respond to burgeoning demands. The average law enforcement ranger is responsible for more than 461,000 acres - an area more than half the size of the State of Delaware (776,960 acres). "Traditional hunters want a quality experience, but they are faced with ever-increasing negative impacts brought about by unmanaged ATV use on our public lands," said Stan Rauch, a lifelong hunter from Montana. "As ATV use grows unchecked, many hunters are being displaced from their most pristine and productive hunting areas on their National Forests and critical wildlife habitat is being sliced into smaller and smaller pieces." Based on information on the agency's website, the Forest Service will propose new rules prohibiting cross-country motorized travel except under limited circumstances and restricting dirt bikes and ATVs to designated roads and off-road vehicle routes. While these policy changes could be beneficial, it is critical that the Forest Service take additional steps to ensure basic protections for public land, wildlife and other types of recreation. These steps include: · Limiting off-road vehicle use to a manageable systems of roads and specifically designed off-road vehicle routes. The Forest Service must not use this process to simply give the official stamp of approval to every renegade dirt bike or ATV track that currently exists on the ground. · Establishing a clear, short-term and enforceable timeframe in which roads and routes must be designated for off-road vehicle use. Failure to do so will only perpetuate the problem. · Issuing a uniform national policy of marking roads and routes available for off-road vehicle use with signs stating they are open for such use. Under this approach, tracks on the ground not so marked are closed. · Requiring decisions about which routes are appropriate for off-road vehicles to be made based on sound science, site-specific analysis and balanced public participation. · Addressing winter recreation, including user-conflicts and wildlife impacts. "Chief Bosworth has rightly explained that this problem must be addressed 'now,'" said Vera Smith, Conservation Director of the Colorado Mountain Club. "If the Forest Service does not set clear deadlines for action, the problem will go from bad to worse, and countless hikers and other quiet recreationists will continue to lose access to their National Forests." -30- Contacts:
|
