Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125829
October 9,1973 Page 8 The Feds and dirt riding: You haven't seen anything yet Part two By John D. Ulrich • Ray ~. Housley, Jr. IS the Associate Deputy Chief of the Forest Service. In that capacity, he is directly involved in the FOR THE BEST IN MOTORCYCLE ACCESSOR IES 1201A EAST BALL ROAP. ANAHEIM. CALIF 714·776-1250 CALL COLLECT .Expanding. reliable. Atlanta based Firm. in the booming motorcycle industry. now offering exclusive territories to ambitious individuals. Unlimited income potentials. Small investment required. Call Mr. Lee P.O. Box 846 Smyrna, GA 30080 (404) 432·9301 Molorcycte Corporation 172 Freedom Avenue Anaheim. C.ulornla lI2801 making of Forest Service policy on the Federal level. Many ORV enthusiasts feel that government agencies with public comment programs actuaUy are set in their course before public comment is made, and just encourage the public comments to pacify the masses. I asked Housley, at the Forest Service offices in Washington, just how much affect public comment actually had on 'Forest Service policy determination. "It plays an important part. We do not so much count votes, or the volume, as we do the substance.· If people make constructive, valid poin ts. we give these points a good deal of weight. This is an important part of the decision making process, increasingly so. We progressively receive public input, sometimes from the very formalized means of legal process, when we publish proposals, cau for comment, and evaulate those comments, and sometimes on the local level, in the course of formulating policy. I'm sure your readers will be seeinll: this when we implement our (EO 11644) regulations. Each National Forest will determine which areas will be open and under what circumstances of off-road travel. Informal kindS of public involvement meetings on local levels, the National Forest level, will be held. People can come in and give their views, in a dialog process. We seek public involvement, and we consider it pretty heavily." One thing that disturbs many ORV represen talives is the seemingly failure of some government agencies involved in ORV regulation to realize and recognize the extreme diversity and specialization among ORV enthusiast groups. For example, a research group may go out into an ORV use area consisting of both sand dunes and rocky desert terrain in close proximity. This research team may approach a sand dragster fan and ask him if he objects to the closure of a part of the rocky terrain section of the area. The man they are talking to, who has a heavy investment in machine usable only on sand dunes, might wen say "no", in the hopes that they will leave him and his dunes alone. The research group then may go back to its headquarters and state, in aU sincerity, that OR V enthusiasts surveyed did not· object to closure of part of the area. However, trail riders and enduro fans using the rocky terrain part of the area might, obviously, view the whole situation differently. I asked Housley how the Forest Service sought to avoid this problem in administering the type of lands they dealt wi tho "I would have to admit that we have some things to learn about this specialized sport. We can't be expert in aU things, but we are interested. We have had some opportunity, and have· perhaps made some progress, because the Forest Service is a user of several types of off-road equipmen t. For travel in some areas we do use ORVs, and in fact, we've developed some in San Dimas, California. We have some awareness of the field, but I wouldn't penonaUy claim to be an expert and knowledgeable on aU the specialized . types. We are aware of the need to consider these, but that. doem't mean we are going to be able to accommodate every kind of machine in every place. But we do have some things to learn and are receptive to being instructed." Would Housley like a subscription to Cycle News to help fill the gaps in their experience with ORVs? "It would sure be nice to have one coming into the office," he replied. "It would be helpful for us to have access to a good source of information here." Is the Forest Service more interested in helping Americans utilize their public lands without destroying them or in hampering use of public lands by certain segments of the population? "Our recreation program in the National Forests is aimed at providing a wide spectrum of recreation opportunities all the way from a wilderness type of experience which depends on totaUy undeveloped country with a primitive means of travel and living, all the way , down to highly developed aCtivities such as you might rmd at a resort, or a campground, or anything in between. We see a place within this spectrum of recreation opportunities for off·road vehicles. and lots of other things. We have been directed to provide places for off-road vehicles (by EO 11644). In doing this, we have to be certain to avoid conflicts between kindS of recreation users. Not aU kinds of recreational activities can take place at aU locations. We have to avoid conflicts in usage and area. Another thing we have to watch for in providing this spectrum of recreational opportunity , including off-road vehicle use, we cannot aUow use in circumstances that would depreciate the basic resource, such as vegetation and soil. These are the things we're looking at, avoidance of conflict between users, and depreciation of basic resource values. "We consider the latter very, very seriously," continued Housley, "because we are dealing in many cases with soils and vegetation mantles in rather delicate ecological situations, where damage takes an awful long time to repair, in geologic time. We have to be awful careful, and this results in some of the conservatism that you see in our application of some of the requiremen ts for determining land use." When talking about resource degradation, I asked, was Housley talking about "degree" of degradation, or just degradation? It seemed impossible that any entrance of man would not result in some degradation. ''There's a need to manage horse and pedestrian use as wen as -ORVs," Housley said. ''TechnicaUy, any activity of man, even the most careful, gentle kind, will have some impact. The que~tion is, how much can we tolerate, and still maintain an acceptable resource condition." In the recreational field, the Forest Service is very much conservation oriented. They are never going to just let people jump on their motorcycles and decide for themselves where they are going to ride in areas under Forest Service jurisdiction. Their "basic resource consciouSness" is probably always going to be the primary consideration in any land use decision they make pertaining to recreation (mining and lumber interests have a way around such concerns, caUed big bucks in Washington). Perhaps this is not a bad idea, and perhaps their concern that they must have this orientation to ensure future generations can walk or ride among forests is justified. What remains to be seen is how the Forest· Service, and each National Forest, reaches the balance point between preservation of basic resource values and providing a fun spectrum of recreational opportunities, including ORV use. More important still, what kind of balance point between what they want, and what the people want, will they come up with for speciIlC areas? 'What effect will public participation actually have on the Forest Service program? Could it be that what the people want is the same as what the Forest Service wants for a given area? We don't have the answers yet, but because of those questions, the Forest Service moves to implement EO 11644, while they may not affect as many bikers as the BLM activiti~, may wen prove to make up the most in teresting arena in the politics of motorcycling circus in the· next few years. Next week: The BLM and EO 11644. ToBLM Or not ToBLM By Larry Langley When the proposed desert plan hit a few weeks ago it caused an immediate uproar. Checking further into the plan I discovered there We"Te some errors and misunderstandings about the plan which I felt needed clarifying. So I traveled to the Riverside BLM and interviewed Bill Templeton, Range Cons.ervationist of the Desert Plan, and Wes Chambers, Assistavt Director of the Desert PIon, (subbing for Director Neil Pfulb, who is on vacation.) CN: I understand there. were some errors on the proposed plan map. What were they? BLM: The biggest error was that some of the competition areas were left off the map. Areas not marked for competition which should have been are area 28, Stoddard VaUey area; area 29, Melville Lake: are 41, Palen· Ford Dry Lake area: area 47, Shavers VaUey: area 53, San Felipe Hills: area 54, Superstition Hills: and area 62, Pinto Wash. The last three areas, 53, 54 and 62 were marked special design but we want to work competition events into these areas. These were the major errors in the original draft. CN: There was quite a bit of confusion on the Statistical Summary which appeared on the map. For example, you proposed four enduro courses with 400 miles of course. Could you explain what this means? BLM: This 400 miles and four enduro courses does not mean only four enduros will be run. It means there are approximately 400 .miles of trail devoted exclusivly to enduro trails with no other type of event also running on the same trails. There will be many more than four enduros run, as many of the enduro courses also take in hare and hound trails and vice versa. CN: Will competition events be anowed in just the competition areas or will