Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. ._ _ _ . .. __u _ . _ . . . ... HMf 1 • • I• I II ·Whadaya i E mean = ~ ~ i 1.0 "a trick bike?" I I-< CI.I ..c i CADIZ, KY., OCT. 16 "Trial Bikes and Land Use Planning - A Training Institute" was the formal name for the three day gathering of administrators charged with the responsibility of managing and controlling off-road vehicle use on public lands. In actuality it was, as one attendant described it, "a gathering of minds, an exchange of ideas. " The forum itself was not for policy making decisions but an informal attempt to educate and in turn be educated by the diversity of the people and agencies involved. President Nixon's Executive Order 11644 of February 9, 1972 was the common denominator that provided the bond between th,e parties attending. In short EO 11644 ordered the development and publication of regulations prescribing the management and use requirements for off-road vehicles on public lands; up to now very little has been done in this area simply because of the large number of agencies involved in the encompassing order. Eight months ago the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Traiping Institute for Park and Recreation Management and the AMA perceived the idea for the workshop, using the Turkey Bay off-road vehicle area, located in the TVA's Land Between The Lakes, as a model for what can be accomplished under the Executive Order. The objectives of the workshop were really three-fold: first to bring together the Federal recreational land managers and review both research and published data; secondly to impart an understanding of just what a trail bike is, who the people are that are considered trail bikers and thirdly the identification and examination of problems, programs, facilities and new concepts in the ORV field. • I n attendance were representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, the Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, represe n tatives of state motorcycle dealer associations along with manufacturer representatives of Honda and Kawasaki and various educators wh 0 presen ~ed research materials on ORV user aspects. The formal Tuesday workshop ( Land Between the Lakes research programs, a profJJe of the trail biker and other informative presentations ) atmosphere was dropped Wednesday to see just what a functioning ORV facility under EO 11644 is like. The TVA is continuously developing the 170,000 acre peninsula located between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley (west Ken tuck y and Tennessee) into an area--The Land Between The Lakes--to be used as a national demonstration in outdoor recreation and environmental education. One small part of the LBTL at Turkey Bay is designated the ORV riding area. A tract of 2,500 acres has bee n set aside to accomodate the offJroad enthusiast complete with staging areas and near-b~ camping ground; it was in this area that visual proof of a workable facility was observed. Supervisor Richard Cottrell of the LBTL Recreation Services Section and other TVA staffers explained their programs for wildlife, soil and vegetation monitoring as well as the mapping of trails and posting of boundries for the area. The group then moved on to a display of various models of motorcycles (street, trail bikes, Mini's, and enduro models) for familiarization with the. types of bikes that could be encountered in an ORV area. Sound, and the monitoring of levels, was the next demonstration by the AMA represen tatives using a number of different bikes as well as both portable , and stationary sound detection devices for checking noise levels. It is much easier to demonstrate and explain procedures that may be totally foreign to an administrator if he is part of a captive audience rather than confined to his office or a meeting room ingesting a lot of dull facts and figures. The Wednesday field demonstrations probably did more to communicate just what can and will work to the people who are entrusted with the power to make it work than any audio-visual or written presentation could do. Turkey Bay is the ultimate class room. Thursday's wrap-up included an enlightening and informative session with Dr. Shaun Bennett, author of the recently published book A Trail Riders Guide to the Environment. The Guide was written by Dr. Bennett in a consulting status to the AMA to explain the potential environmental impact of off-road riding and suggest ways to reduce and avoid such dangers. The humorous vein in which the book is written and illustrated is deliberate in that the goal of the publication' is "to get the information across in an accurate way so that it will be read-oil is not research but an attempt at communication." The books primary use is therefore of educational and not research value and as a good "first" reader to administrators who may not be familiar with the realm of off road biking. The positive note on which the entire workshop was conducted and the attention and genuine interest displayed by the participants made the workshop a success. A few of those involved will always be skeptics but, in one way or another, almost everyone involved came away with new ideas and ways to implement them or, at least, enlightened to the fact ORV areas can be made to work. The key figures in the planning--Richard Cottrell of the TVA, Dr. Marion _Clarke of the Training Institute for Park and Recreational Management and Gene Wirwahn of the AMA--put together an enlightening, informative and interesting presentation; lets hope that the people in attendance will carry the spark back to their respective offices. • CI.I ;> o Z I AMA-BLM-TVA: Getting it together By Gary Van Voorhis a ~ i I • I .i = ; I ,I • i I i I '~~ ~ 2'1 c~ Get a treat Subscribe now! ! I, ~ ~1111.111 .....IlIII.llllltllllllllllIIUUIIIIIIl....II..."IllIIIIlIll"II.. llll1I111l1"U"'II"llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIlIlIIIIIWW~1 111111111111111111"111 ..1 • illlllllllllllllUlIIlIIll......llllllllnllhlllllUlI....UllltlIIllIlIllIlIlUllllllllllllllIIllllllIIlIIllllllllllIlIIll1l1ll1l1l1l1ll1l1l1l1ll1ll1l1ll1ll1ll1ll11ll1l1lIlMllllIll1ll11ll111ll.......1l1llUlllll.......!i . I I i • • i DEPT. SUB. P.O. 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