Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Enviros Write New FS OHV Guidebook?

 CPR/FS OHV Mang.Tool - Closure


Sometimes in the land of OHV recreation, you will find an issue that makes you scratch your head and ask – what were those guys thinking?



The most recent example of that comes to us in the form of a 318-page guide apparently published by the Forest Service called "A Comprehensive Framework for Off-Highway Vehicle Trail Maintenance."


It appears that “Guide” was pulled off the agency website last week after they received a sharply worded letter on March 9 from the following organizations; the AMA, the All-Terrain Vehicle Association, the BlueRibbon Coalition, the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition, the Colorado Snowmobile Association, Trails Preservation Alliance, and the Utah Shared Access Alliance.

March 9 Group Protest Letter to the Forest Service
http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Libraries/Rights_Documents_Federal/USDA_OHV_letter_Final.sflb.ashx?download=true.

HQ has reviewed the letter and a summary of the Guide. We too are astonished that the agency would publish a document on OHV management where most of the management prescriptions are based on proposals from the Wildlands Center for the Prevention of Road (CPR). CPR is one of the most anti-OHV groups in the country!


Summary of the Guide (note CPR credits)
http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/Wildlands_CPR_FS_Handbook_Summary_2012.pdf

HQ is currently in the process of trying to obtain the full report. If the concerns mentioned in the group letter to the FS are correct… this may be one of the biggest agency PR blunders in OHV history.


Stay tuned.

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