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/125885
Opinion ...... The outdoor recreational people get the runaround while ecology-cult gets the action. Several y ears ago during the h eight of the ecology craze, one of my Senate colle agues joked, "Two years ago I could not .spell 'ecology', now I are one." He was not alone. The ecology fad was on, and the political bandwagon was covered with bumper stickers ca lling for all o f us to "Save the ...'ยท - pup fish, se a o tters , co ast , desert, mountains, gullies. ri vers, swamps and delta ; plus kangar o o ra ts , salamanders, sea gu lls, garter sn ak es a nd assorted c ritters. Whenever a nyo ne questi oned th e wisdom or the fa cts presen ted b y the ecology-advocates, he was looked upon as a n insensitive clod - a simplet on whose intent was t o d es troy the e n v ir o n m e n t . man kind and motherhood. They have also applied pressure on the government and have a ready group of lawmakers willing to carry legisl ation to implement their programs. One program technique is to d eclare a land area "wilderness" or "primitive." When this happens, al l motor-driven veh icles ar e prohibited. Over the last ten years they have been eminently su ccessful. Whil e m o st of those wh o enjoy the outdoors were o u t doing so , th e ec ology -gan g was pounding the legisl ative halls, attend ing B.L .1\1. meetings, o r lobbying their lo cal politico. An organized minority is push ing the disorgani zed m ajority a ro un d , a majority that has great streng th if it State Se nator Bill Richards on (right) was jo ined rece n t ly by T ex as Se nat o r J ohn Tower d u ring his u phill d rive t o unseat incumbent Alan Cra nston . 18 The ecological movement became an "in" fad and its vocal advocates had a field day. Under th e protective coveri ng of conserving our natu ral re sources, the ecology-advocates have been ab'le" to politically bulldoze a wealth of laws, ru les and regulations which have severely rest ricted the legitim ate enjoyment of pub lic lands fo r m illions of Americans . Under the blanket of eco logy , social reformers have tu rned t he ecological movem en t in t o one of t he largest land grabs in h istory . Righ ts of individua ls and the majority of Americans have suffered because of it. The eco logy-advocates have worked themselves into positions of power within the Burea u o f Land Management (B.L.M .) or have been able to coerce the B.L.M . into d o ing what they desire. would ever organize. O utdoor recreation vehicles rep resent family recreation - Mom, Dad and the kids . In a day when the family unit is under a ttack you would think that recreation which keeps the family together would be encouraged b y those in politics. It is lo gical to think that government would be m oving t o create new opportunities for families to enjoy the great ou tdoors . Is th at the case ? No, the di rec ti o n is the opposite way. !\lore and more public land is being taken from th ose who can only enjoy it from a rec reational vehicle . Ninety-five percent of all visitor day-use of the B.L.M . la nds in California are reliant upon some type of motor vehicle. Eve n t he five percent who hike must use a vehicle of so me kind to ge t to the place whe re they start their hike. After all, yo u can't bike into the Mojave Desert o r cl imb Mo unt Whit ney all th e way from dow ntown Los Ange les or San Francisco. The' nat io nal parks, fo rest lands and game refu ges resp o nd by closing out people fro m millions of acres ex cept to hikers , backpackers and horseback riders. By 1968, ' outdoor rec reatio nalists were aware that whole sections of desert and mountain were being closed off to their use. With the passage of months and years. the outdoor groups be came alarmed at the scope and power o f the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service and the ultimate plot to ban any and all tr ansportation except hikers and horseback riders from millions of ac res of California's wilds became evident. Any relevant or definit e information was , and stilI is, almost impossible to come by . The outdoor recrea t io nal vehicle people got the run-around while th e ecology-cult got the ac t io n . Out of o u r 20 million acres of California national forests, 1,595,000 ac re s are classified "wilderness" and 3 5 6 ,60 0 more acres classified " p rim itive ," wh ich means rIo motorized vehicles whatsoever! By December of 1973 , nine and one half percent of national fo rest land in California was wilderness classification, wit h more being added every day . If approves the proposed Congress acreages for that class ification, the percen rage will rise to 25 percen t. That's a piece of lan d 625 mil es on each of fo u r sides. As o f last November ( 1973) 93 percent o f 12 million acres of the Ca lifornia desert, which had furn ished 11 million visitor-days for recreat io n in 1972. were added as forbidden territory to the three a nd a half million acres of off-limit desert virtually unto uched and unused by humans. Congress is now being asked to include another 2,600,587 acres in 75 areas of western America into prohibited land for mo tor vehicles. Thirty-one (31) of these areas, comprising 1.260,535 acres , are in California, most of it in the desert area under B.L. M. control. Fo r instance in the eastern Moj ave desert around Need les, there are 1,1 10 m iles of ro ad s and trai ls o n the cou nty map which cover 1,600,000 acres . The B.L.M. rest ricti o n of camping allowed within 300 feet of "designated" roads covers only 256 miles of roads. The damning part of most o f th is "wilderness" hassle is tha t o u tdoor vaca tioners an d club groups are, in the main, conservationists in the p u rest sense of t he wo rd . You don't destroy what yo u p lan to return'to nex t year on vacation . The outdoor rec rea t io n vehicle people have been extremely act ive in drives to clean up the o ut doo rs , an d right up front demand ing stronger laws to punish those who litter, d est ro y and vandalize . No sensible person wants to see destructio n of our great outdoors . The proper course is to usc our outdoors rat io nally. It ma kes littl e sense to iso late areas fro m co n tem porary use when we can both use and p reserve it for future generatio ns : The B.L.M. has lost sight of the fact that they are public servants, not masters of the American public. They have the responsibility to protect and manage the land under their jurisdiction but never forgetting the land belongs to all Americans, not just a vocal, organized few . Outdoor recreational vehicle owners better stand u p for t hei r righ ts, becau se the battle is far from being over. Those who want to isolate more federal lands ar e hard at work. They are p resent, th ough rarely identified as such, at eve ry Bureau of Land Man agem en t m ee t in g in an affected area. They add bi ts and pieces of property to be ad ded to the acres of wilderness already banning the presence of m an . T hey are two-b itting to deat h th e desert and mo untains which J oh n Muir loved to roam so freely . One a t a ti me they rise in m eetings on lan d use age , each o ne advocating a d if fere nt b lock of 15 , 25, or 100 acres to be given wild ern ess classificatio n, a nd by th e t im e it's all ove r, another 1,000 acres o f publ ic land will b e lost to 93 percen t of Am ericans. It is difficult to unders tand the motivation of those who want to de ny access to our great ou tdoors. The vast majori ty of Americans love the wilderness and want to preserve its beauty and at the same ti me, they would rather see it than view it from the pages of National Geographic. It isn't fair to families with young ch ild re n , the retirees, or those who can ' t afford the time from wo rk to p rohibit them from enjoying our wild areas. We recognize the need for some p rotected areas, but 1 think we 've gone far enough in California. Let's let all Cal ifornians have a slice of the action. Senat or Bill Richardson 34 East Huntington Drive Arcadia, CA. 9 1006 (213) 445-5760 If you 're anyth ing close to an a verage American, you think everyone in government is either hopel essly inept, thoro ughly corrupt, or bo th. T he fact that a few who are both inept and co rru pt have now lost the ir j o bs an d been ligh t1 y slapped doesn't mak e yo u feel very hopeful. You feel no warmth over the fact tha t we now ha ve a Presiden t who can't "wal k an d chew gum at the same time " b ut is very adept tal king out of both sides of his face. No area o f governm en t is real ly clean . At the S tate level , th e Lt. Go vern o r has been convic te d of perjury. The legislatu re had 10 be cal led back in to session whe n they were ca ugh t w i th their hands in th e till. The Los A ngeles Co unty S he riff h a s burglar-p ro o fe d th e h o uses of his frie n ds and r elatives at Co unty expense a nd th e S u pervisor s made an ill-co nsid ered attem pt to p ut a stop, not to th e th ef t , but to the in vestigat io n. In spi te of every thing, however, th ere will be an election, b ut m an y , or pe rhaps mos t of yo u wh o are reading this will no t attend. O ne candida te has tr ied to appeal directly t o moto rc ycl ists , as o ne segment of a bloc k of people o ne migh t call th e "mo to r rec rea t io n gro up. n Th is fellow, a ca ndidate fo r the Senate , named IL L. "B ill" R ich ard so n, found so me so lid su ppor t in th e fo rm of Hilda Mae Vo ug ht, the d rivi ng fo rce behind t he Ca lifornia Ou td oo r Re creat ion Lea gue. Hilda Mae p ut the en t ire