Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.; M '" • ~ Opinion t lr'l 1" O"l ~ ~ >- ~ 100--) By Lynn and Staci Heusinkveld As closing arguments are submitted in the EDF (Environmental The-thing is done ... Defense Fund) v. BLM lawsuit, we who have known and long enjoyed It's official. As 0 f J uly 9 , 1975, riding the desert are becoming the Fe deral government will enaware of the en ormous po te n tial imp act o f EDF v. R ogers C. B. force a n ationwide 55 mph speed Morton , et at. Succinctl y, the EDF limit using the same Federal-aid con tends th at until th e BLM an d Depart me nt o f In terior tak e cer t ain ac tio ns (whic h the U.S . Attorn ey esti ma ted will req u ire 20 years ), defendants (BLM an d Interior ) should be "enjoi ned fro m allo wing off-ro ad driving in th e Program area (all 25,0 00 square miles of th e California desert) . " Th e ED F and Sie rra Club ur ge th at they have demonstrat ed th at permitting the sta ging o f co mpe titive even ts in t he de sert, the BLM's enco urage me n t of unrestricted driving in the " Open Areas " o f th e desert, and its use of unenforcible regu latory co nc ep ts su ch as " designate d road s an d tr ails" an d " existing ro ads and tr ails " co n stit u te en c ourag ement of "irre parable environmen tal dam age" to th e Californ ia des ert. To allow the "irre tri evable co m mitments of resource s to c o n tin ue , under the guise of an ' in terim • a mean ingful choice concerning potential environmental d isaster. " Anyone seen an yth in g lik e th at out in the desert? St ill looks OK to me. As a matter of fact it seems to me th at cy clists, four-wheelers, ro c kho un d s and other enemies of the Sierra Club and ED F are go ing to great len gths to preserve and cle an up the de sert . Over spring vac atio n my wife an d I were trying to find the route o f th e Barsto w to Vegas motorcycle race . Fro m the Interstate we couldn't see it at all. With a map we co uld find it on o ur bikes - a very sm all mark through th e wide expanses of th e desert . Here 's how the ED F des crib ed th e route o f th e Barstow to Veg as race to th e Jud ge presiding o ver th e EDF v, BLM law su it: • 44 The dam age to Desert resou rces of high or low value, threaten ed by co m p etitive eve nts unde r th e Program is illustrated in the environ men tal impact state men t prepared by Defendants f or the Barstow-Las Vegas Motorcy cle Race and th e post race analys is . . . . Th e resulting damage was massive. Th e details as set f orth in th e Evalu ation Report admit that co mpeti tors did n ot restrict th emselves to th e "ex isting roads and trails" increasing substantially the track ed area of th e raceco urse. Moreover, th e total area of influence of th e race increased by over 1, 9 0 0 ac res , cu tting a 6,8 00 acre swath of destruc tio n. In su m mary , th e race Evaluation Rep ort ind icates that th e even t caused: widespread destruction of surf ace pavem en ts, heavy impact on vegetation in a nu m ber of areas in cluding th e in troductio n of 90 % of th e ex otic plan tlife and ex tinc tio n of small mam mal populatio n through direct mo rtality and habitat-destruction, th e ob literatio n of irreplaceable cult ural reso urces, inv olving 'he avy impact' to two sites de term ined eligible fo r inclusion on the National Register of Historic Sites, 'signific an t' im pact on tw o others, an d greate r tha n 10 % 'd ist urbances' to 1 2 other cu ltu ral o r archaeological sites in the race area. The fac t th at su ch d isto rt ions have been pre sented to th e Co ur ts as unre butable truth should po int o u t a number o f things to co nce rned motorcyclists an d race organi zers: the tr em endou s impo r ta n ce th at impact st at ements enviro n me ntal acc ura te ly report th e t rue effect and societa l ben efits o f ORV even ts and u se, the fact t ha t despite o ur number, o ur disun ity gives us no effec tive voi ce o n issues o f vita l co nc ern , and th e general impo rt an ce of gett in g involved no w . . .. What ever th e re al truth is, the Federal Court in Los Angeles will de cide our future in the Califo rnia desert upon the fact s pre sented by the ED F, Sierr a Club and cohorts and the ou tgun ned , understaffed Defe n dan t BLM. Th e real co n troversy regardin g desert use is no t be t wee n th e BLM and th e Sierra Club b ut bet ween O RV users an d th e Sierra Club - so don 't hold out much h ope for a fa vo ra b le o u tc o me on th is one . The ED F urge s th at "Allowan ce o f co m pe tit ive, or gan ized events in the Program area is no t consi ste nt with th e co nservatio n an d enhancement o f the natu ral and cult ural resources o f th e ar eas affected. " (An d in o t her p orti on s o f the ED F Closing Brief mak es th e same ar gument with respe ct to all o t he r mo torcyclin g in the California desert. ) " Ra ther it is th e au thorizatio n fo r th e free cons um p t io n o f irreplacea ble resources with no co un tervailing benefits to the are a .. . . To insure th at this will not o ccur pl aintiffs o r de r p ro hi bi t ing see k : . . . . an defendants from authorizing any motorized vehi cle to d rive an y whe re in Pro gr am area o t he r th an o n a ro ad, highway o r th oroughfare maintain ed by an y fed eral sta te o r lo cal pu bli c agency. " Goodbye California desert. We ho pe this ma kes all who read it mad en o ugh to d o all th ey possibl y can to oppose the e ffo rts of e nviro n me ntal extre m ists an d p romo te respons ib le enjoy me nt of o ur spo rt. " blackm ail" they've been usin g in the helmet law issue. As published in the Federal Register (V.40, No. 111, June 9 , 1975) th e Federal High way Ad mi nis trat io n sayeth unto us: " In order to obtain ap proval of Federal-aid projects under 23 USC 10 6, each St ate sh all ado p t o r maintain maximum speed limi ts as follows : a ) .. . 55 mph o r less, ex cept th at eme rge ncy and police motor veh icle s may be authori zed at higher sp eeds .. . " Th er e 's mo re . In fac t , it seems th ere 's no limit to t he verbiage sin ce they did away with stone table ts. Th ey will not o nly require th a t each Sta te en act 5 5 mph speed laws , bu t also that each St at e cer t ify , over th e go vern or's signature, th at they are en forcing th e limit; plus they 'll have to ba ck it up with speed surv ey d at a and n umbe rs of cit ati o ns issue d eac h month . And al l th e whil e , the Fed eral D.O .T. maintains that they p lan no takeover of lo cal en fo rce me n t. No , they 'r e just going to tell th e locals wh at th ey want done an d how t o do it, or down co mes the st ick on th eir Fed eral-aid h ighway mone y . Oh, yeah as a m agnanimous ges t ure, th ey will rei m burse th e States for th e cost o f pu tting up new speed limi t signs . This is no proposal. It 's done be yond an ybo d y 's capabili t y to undo it (ou tside of Congress, wh o gave D.O .T . the au th ority to do th is in the first pl ace) . Th e only thing .o pen to publ ic di scus sion no w is the details of how the States must ce rt ify th eir co mpliance. In reviewin g some of the published obje ct ions to the proposal (made b ack when it was a proposal ) I n ote that the Wash ington, D.C . chap ter o f Sp o rts Car Club o f America o bjected to th e exe m p tion fo r poli ce and emergen cy vehi cle s. My God, SCCA! Are you ca r people so beaten do wn that this is all yo u ca n object to ? Or were yo u being cu te , figuri ng " if t hey can' t spe ed, th en th ey ca n 't ca tc h us?" It 's ca m p , fell as, b u t it 's not a solution . When m y fa the r was m y .age , th ey wo u ld ha ve tarred and feat he red any po litician wh o sugges te d th e Federal go vern me n t co uld fo rce su ch condi ti ons o n t he several states so off-hande d ly, I m us t be ge tti ng o ld . Well, let th e co ns ti t u tio na l law yers che w o n th at bone aw hi le, le t ' s lo ok at so me of the p rac tical outcomes. As one fa cet of the "cert ifica tion" program , th e vari ous st ate fu zz will scatter pl ain clothes cars in conven ien t hid ey-h oles here and th ere, to t ake passive radar surveys of the traffic going by . Passive means no busts, just watch and count car s, bikes, trucks, what-have-you. Each day, they'll add it all up and say "Well, we counted 15,000 motorists today, and o f those. 30 percent were doing 55, 25 percent were doin g 60 , 30 p ercent were doing 65, 12 percent were doing 70, two percent were doing 75, and o ne pe rcent blew the needle off th e chart. This looks like a go od sp o t fo r rigorous en forcement. Then we'll co un t 'em again and there'd better be some improvement in co mp lianc e, or the Feds will take aw ay our money ." Th ey will turn in to the Feds each month, st atewide su m maries of all these surveys, showing the percentile profile o f drivers going vario us speeds. In ad d ition , they will tum in monthly summari es of ci tatio ns issu ed for speedin g. Now you tell me - when any bureau crat has to tum in a report to a higher authority , what does he do with th e figure s? Right, he do es anything he can wi th th e figures that make him and his o u tfi t lo ok good. So you'll have one bunch saying to the guys in the Smo key h ats " Th ose cita t ion tota ls better in crease ste adily every month . or it 's go ing to look lik e we 're not doing our job . n And then , in states lik e California, a goodly per cent age of the take fro m traffic fin es ge ts raked o ff fo r worthy purposes like sch o ol funds. So you can im agine t he coal iti on forming behind the scenes to kee p th ose citat ion quotas high and wowing, can ' t you? . If you can ' t imagi ne it , you either have no im agination, o r you've never worked within th e system long eno ugh to reali ze how it oper ates. So , road riders and van dri vers, how d o you like the new law o f the land? Trick, huh ? So , wh at are your alte rnat ives? Well, yo u can buy a CB unit (they eve n mak e th em fo r motorcycles now ) and co n tinu e to speed, whil e keying in to th e Sm okey reports. But th e co ps are ge tting so phis ti ca te d - they are bu ying CB un its o f their o wn and broadcasting phony " All clears." Fun and games.

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