Sunday, January 3, 2010

OHV Legal Fights in 2010


Over the course of the last several weeks, the Recreation HQ has received a lot of emails from riders who were shocked into the real world of OHV politics by the Carnegie saga.

Some of those OHVers have asked The General what he thinks are the top land-use challenges that off-roaders will face in 2010?

One thing I can tell you is that we will be facing a plethora of anti-OHV lawsuits that are either based on the Roadless Rule, the Travel Management Rule, and/or Water Quality. For almost 10 years, the BRC Legal Team (and partners) has been in various legal venues to challenge efforts by certain enviro groups to have the courts – in both the 9th and 10th Circuit Court of Appeals - validate the Roadless Rule as a tool to restrict or ban OHV use (mostly single-track dirt bike trails and motorized trails used by ATVs and Jeeps) on inventoried and uninventoried roadless areas on Forest Service lands.

Currently, the BRC legal team and clients are fighting efforts by the State of California to have courts set aside forest plans that don’t propose enough Wilderness areas or other land classifications where OHV use is prohibited.

See So Cal Roadless Issue (we are still in court on this case)
http://www.sharetrails.org/magazine/article.php?id=1594



Regarding the 10th Circuit Roadless Case, BRC should have an update on its legal efforts later this week. The General is glad to see his good friends from the Mountain States Legal Foundation have joined the roadless fight. I believe various mining associations and the western business roundtable have also filed an amicus brief on this case.

See Article on MSLF joining roadless fight
http://www.trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_18cad187-2bc7-5795-9330-75eacba16d78.html




Some may ask what does the roadless issue have to do with OHV since those areas are “roadless?” The term roadless is an unfortunate and inaccurate term that has worked its way into the land use lexicon. Actually, most roadless areas have a lot of FS roads and legal OHV trails. Some of my favorite single-track motorcycle riding is in a roadless area at Downieville on the Tahoe National Forest.

Enviros have and will continue to try and use the roadless issue as a way to ban OHV use. A current real-time example is up on the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

See my update on the Riley Ranch Issue in OR
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2009/12/coos-county-ohvers-face-day-of-infamy.html



The General and Recreation HQ wants to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that you got some time to rest with your family over the holiday season as 2010 promises to be one of the most active and challenging time-periods in the battle for access to public lands.

Note: If you want to join BRC’s effort to protect OHV recreation not only in California but nationwide, consider going online today and become a member and/or make a donation at: https://www.sharetrails.org/secure/join_or_contribute/


If you want to send The General a snail mail note. the Recreation HQ address is:

Don Amador
Recreation HQ
555 Honey Lane
Oakley, CA 94561
Thanks for your service!!!

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