Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

October 2, 1973 Page 16 . The Feds and dirt riding: You haven',t seen anything yet Part 'One By John D. Ulrich A lot of people are very upset about the' newly released Bureau of Land Management California' Desert Plan Proposal. The ~rom~·ad. CTCLE~~W~ rGR~eVEs:,oSSA-.HODAKAl I I CARABELA - STEEN Sales 8< Serv ;ce I , I NICK NICHOLSON MOTORS, 11573 VANOWEN ! NO. HOLLYWOOD, CA. STREET (213) 764·8674 , .~~~~,,~~~~~""""JI'~ propOsal would "close about 93% of the California Desert to competition events", in the words of Russ Sanford. While this interpretation is highly controversial, it reflects the frame of mind many people are in concerning the plan. Charges and counter charges are b e i n g flu n g a r 0 u n d , wit h conservationists threatening in some cases to sue, bikers threatening to demonstrate, and anxiety generally permeating the whole affair. It seems that, with the BLM California Desert Plan, you're just starting to see the nose of what 'could well tum out to be a monsterous ogre asc ending from the administrative depths. All the agencies responsible for the implementation of Executive Order 11644 will soon Tclease their plans for doing just that. Where will you be able to ride? What lands will be open or closed? What will be the general attitudes of the agencies" in question (under the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Defense, and the Tennessee Valley Authority) towards ORV use? What can you expect? No one in the agencies involved is going to tell a newspaper reporter exactly what the final draft of their plan will contain, due to the restrictions of the Administrative Procedures Act, However, a little help from "reliable inside sources", a look at the proposals, and the reactions of key officials to a long haired biker referred to them in late August, 1973 by David N. Parker, Special Assistant to the Presiden t, may 'provide a few suggestions. The Forest Service is the branch of the Department of Agricul ture that will handle that Department's role' in the implementation of the infamous Executive Order. Alan J. Lamb is the Assistant Director of Recreation for the Forest Service. Lamb talked with me about the proposed regulation the Forest Service released about March of this year. "It was subject to public comment, and after the first of May, we made an analysis of the five or six hundred letters we received from the public on the .regulation, Having evaluated those public comments, we are now in the process of incorporating a few minor changes into the draft ,regulation that we proposed. Our timetable is geared for a September release of the final regulation and also a draft environment statement we are preparing. This will depend on a certain amount of review at the higher levels of this organization and also on the Office of Management and Budget level. "The Forest Service," continued Lamb, "has for many years had the authority to conttol ORVs, usually motorcycles within the National Forests. We have exercised this authority in places where the resources were being damaged to an intolerable level or public safety was a factor. "For example, .if we had an area whe~ Elk calving normally took place in the spring arid early summer, we mightclosetheareatotheuseofORVs during those certain periods of time. In Southern California we close much of the watershed areas almost half a year because of the f"U'C danger. We have closed much of the Sierra Neval!a, in areas of extremely erosive granite soils, to ORV use except on trails.' "Over the years we've closed about 10% of our trails system outside of wilderness areas, about 8,000 miles closed out of 80,000 miles of trails. We have also closed about seven million acres of open land to either ORVs or mowmobiles." "Basic policy in the past has been that the use of off road vehicles arc valid recreational experiences for many people. This is a legitimate use of public landS. Therefore our approach has been that Forest Service lands are' open to ORV use until they are specifically closed for some reason," The Bureau' of Land Management, it has developed, has a serious problem with semantic slant in reports and studies having to due with the question of ORV use in specific areas, This may not seem too important to some people, Indeed, many people pass off the study of seman tics as missing ~he forest in favor of the trees, However, words and their selection can profoundly influence the reactions of a listener/reader to a report, and can show where the researcher's heart and sympathies really lie. In the case of the BLM semantics problem, one report that was made by the University of California on the Algodones Dunes area of the desert comes to mind. It speaks of ORV use as a "problem", This sets up the reader for the "solution", which is of course to eliminate ORV use. While this type of thing may be fine when talking about the litter trouble at UCR, such biases should a) not surface in reports prepared by what is considered an expert source for a government that is to represent an entire populace and respect the viewpoints contained within that populace, or b) be made entirely explicit at the beginning of the report. I asked Lamb if the Forest Service shared this problem with its bureaucratic brother, the BLM, "I guess a person's biases do come out," answered Lamb, "from time to time. Our studies are open to public comment. If our biases are showing, they can be identified and pointed out by people who are interested. It is a rather difficult thing to eliminate biases . in relationship to motorcycles and other off·road vehicles. Some people have a deep seated bias against. Other people have a bias for. We try to make our environmental reports objective. I hestitate to say that all our biases ar.e against ORVs, Some of our adminis.trators use ORVs, and -the department itself uses ORVs, "People themselves destroy resources, n Lamb continued. "Horses at times can be as damaging to meadows and vegetation as off-road vehicles. Our administrators tend to be oriented towards protecting resources. We have to reach a balance point where use doesn't damage 'intolerably the resources we are entrusted to protect." Reports filter in to us at Cycle News every once in awhjJe alleging that this or that government agency closed off a bunch of prime riding land without so much as a pubJic notice. Docs the Forest Service, I asked Lamb, hold public hearings, and will it continue to 'hold public hearings before making any regulation or restriction concerning ORV operation on lands under their jurisdiction? "I wouldn't say public hearings," Lamb said, backing off from that terminology. "A t least there would be an opportunity for public comment. In some cases there would be public meetings, I'm not saying that there will be a public hearing on each opening and closure. There will be public notice, and an opportunity for public comment, This may not apply in certain situations of emergency nature, such as in the case of areas after wildfires, to allow seeding of the areas. In emergency cases there may be times and places when we must act immediately without public comment." This sounds pretty reas,suring and it could, taken at face value, constitute a good pro gram to ensure public participation in Forest Service decisions affecting ORV usc. Unfortunately, it is not quite so simple. A brief notice in the legal notice section of a local newspaper could fulf"ill the requirement for public notice, and. an available post office box would fulfill the requirement of public comment opportunity. Say for example, a Forest Service unit wished to close the East Cowbungaland National Forest to all ORV use due to strong anti-ORV agitation by preservationists. They could list a public notice in the legal notice section of the East CowbungaJand Village Gazette, Tuesday edition, circulation 1237, and solicit public comment before a date three weeks later, submitted in the form of letters sent to a post office bOJ<. Many urban dwellers from a megOpolis two hundred miles away might usc the East Cowbungaland National Forest for ORV related recreation, but probably few of those users read the East CowbungaJand Gazette, Tuesday edition. By the time they figure out what is going on, the place could already be closed to their snort. This is not to say that this will happen, This is merely to point out the possibilities that could arise quite legally and to the letter of the Forest Service, outside and also self-imposed reguJau', Ins on procedures for land manage! nen t. The tric k is to applaud the fair i 1tent of tbe regulations, procedures, and accompanying ~hetoric, but keep a wary eye on the actual implementation. and who is doing the implementing Speaking of the actual implementation of EO 11644. to the point of land usc determination for specific areas, Lamb addressed himself to the system to be used in that process. "What is anticipated is that each Na,tional Forest, or the planning unit, will· make its examination, (of its situation in regard to ORV usc there), and make a proposal for usc management. This proposal will be made public, and people will have the opportunity to comment, There will be public meetings on the proposal, and public input will be evaluated and analyzed before final designation of areas that will be closed and open, and those areas that will have restrictions on them. It is interesting to note that the Executive Order deals not just with closures, and it really doesn't emphasize closures. It says that each, agency should develop regulations that derive places that are open to usc by off-road vehicles, then it goes on to areas and trails that are closed to off-road vehicles. I think we have to add a third category, areas and trails where use by off-road vehicles is restricted, perhaps by time of the year, by certain types of vehicles, etc., etc." What will hap'pen then, is that the Forest Service, ·Iike other involved governmental agencies fonowing the dictates of EO 11644, will soon release its final general regulations and rules, (or policies), concerning ORV use. After these arc released, each unit of Forest

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