Bike Week Radio Show - Don't Assume You Will Always Have OHV Trails!

Historic and Legal Single Track MC Trail Proposed for Closure

As riders prepare to celebrate the 4^th of July Holiday with family and friends, the Recreation HQ wanted to let you know that Don Amador was a guest on Bike Week Radio today.

Link to Bike Week Radio Interview (48:51-56:29)

http://www.bikeweekradioshow.com/sounds/BWRSwk105.mp3

Lots of off-road related topics were covered in that interview.  Those issues include the loss of historic single track trails via the 2005 TMR planning process, what riders can do to get those routes back, quality OHV programs require commitment to the collaborative process, obliteration of trails during the initial attack on wildfires, new single track trail machines such as the ST240, and off-road voters getting engaged in the 2014 midterm elections.

Here is a link to the “Loss of Historic Single Track Trails”

http://quietwarriorracing.blogspot.com/2014/05/post-tmr-single-track-motorcycle-trail.html

Comments welcome.  Have a great 4^th of July!

Essential for FS to Use Discretionary Authority in TMR Plans

Don Amador Reviewing Draft Smith River 

NRA Travel Plan with Local Access Leader

As BRC states in its June 9 comment letter on the Smith River NRA Draft Travel Plan,  it believes it is both legally necessary and pragmatically essential that the agency use its discretionary authority to formally establish a functional yet sustainable network of designated routes. 

June 9 BRC Comment Letter with Legal Citations

http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/smith_river_DEIS_comments_FINAL_June_2014.pdf

As both agency staff and recreationists know, various preservationist and anti-access special interests will always incant a litany of alleged legal violations that prevent adoption of an Alternative that designates any meaningful network of vehicle route.  They are certainly entitled to voice their opinions, but the agency should carefully evaluate any such claims and realize they are thinly veiled efforts to advance an agenda that includes significantly reducing, if not eliminating, recreational use of vehicles in the National Forest System. 

HQ believes the agency is empowered to reject these anti-access positions through correct interpretation of the law, as reflected in various recent court decisions cited in the aforementioned comment letter.

There is a growing body of legal decisions that debunk the notion that “minimization” means the elimination of OHV recreation on Forest Service lands.