Congressman to Join New Mexico Rally Against FS Road Closures on March 5

For several years, The Recreation HQ has posted numerous examples of where the Forest Service’s 2005 Travel Management Rule has been misused by the agency to effect landscape level closures in California and elsewhere.


OHVers in Oregon had over 2,300 miles of jeep roads closed to non-street legal use in a recent travel decision. BRC, MIC, MTVRA, and other groups sued and won to reopen closed OHV trails and campsites in Montana

See News Release on Montana victory
http://www.mic.org/news070210.cfm

In another case, BRC, Del Norte County, and user groups had to file suit to stop the agency from using travel decisions to illegal rip up historic roads.

Blog on Miracle in Del Norte County
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2010/12/ohv-christmas-miracle-case-study-in.html

Now it seems the fight against unreasonable closures has moved south to New Mexico where Congressman Steve Pearce is joining a rally against road closures on March 5

News Release from Congressman Steve Pearce on March 5 Rally Against FS Road Closures
http://pearce.house.gov/press-release/southern-new-mexicans-rally-keep-gila-roads-open

HQ remembers when the modern version of TMR was born. That event -- which has turned into a land-use version (circa 2002-2003) of “Rosemary’s Baby” -- came out of an idea hatched between wilderness advocates (who were in charge of the CA OHV Commission at the time), the FS, and even some in the OHV community.

TMR even in its early stages was never sold to the OHV community as a program to effect landscape level closures. Yet it somehow morphed into plans that on some Forests have resulted in 100 percent closures or closures of thousands of miles of historic roads and trails on other units.

HQ applauds Congressman Steve Pearce and the public land access interests in New Mexico for standing up against a program that has really nothing to do with “land management” but in many cases is simply a political decision made to champion the closure agenda of extreme environmental groups.