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/126256
Bow much land does the federal government own? o CN 30% 87% 66% 43% 34% 10% ALASKA-96% HAWAII-10 % (These Figures Are Approximate.) The Federal Government Owns O....Tltlrd of All U.S. landi . Ever wonder how big an impact the proposed ban on off-road vehicle use on federal lands would have 7 One way to look at the situation is to consider how much of the United States land area is under the control of the federal government. Reader Clayton Finch of Midland. Texas sent us this map. which indicates the percentages of total land area of each stata owned by the federal government. Official admits initial plans were to close all federal lands i t i o n Public pressure altered p os . . LONG BEACH. CA. APR. 8 The man responsible for initiating the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) plan to ban off-road vehicles (ORV) from all federal lands admitted that the original CEQ position was 14 modified by public pressure. Cycle News has learned. In a telephone conversation on April 5. Mr . Eisenberg of CEQ. told reader Rick Hoyt that he had originally had bad information, and had prepared proposed amendments to Executive Order 11644 that would have closed all federal lands to ORV use immediately. The incredible flood of letters. mailgrams, telegrams, and telephone calls that followed "leaks" of the plan set the CEQ. on its ear. forced reconsideration of the proposal, and sent Eisenberg into official silence . Eisenberg continues to refuse to talk to news media representatives. but spoke to Hoyt for almost 20 minutes after Hoyt identified himself simply as "a concerned ORV enthusiast." Eisenberg's Washington office number is (202) 382-1235. A white house spokesman who declined to identify himself in a separate conversation with Hoyt said that President Caner had reviewed the proposals and made a decision to close to ORV use federal lands already damaged. The spokesman refused to comment on who will mak'e the decision on what lands will be closed. or what the areas planned for closure will be . . Carter's expected April 7 ORV policy announcement turned out to concern the banning of breeder reactors and related nuclear fuels , and did not mention ORV use. It was unknown at press time when Carter will reveal his plan, which some theorists now speculate may be designed to pacify environmentalists and to lessen expected heavy opposition to Caner's energy plans. including increased strip mining of coal. The reactions of several lawmakers to the proposed amendments to E.O . 11644 and the handling of inquiries about those amendments follow. Law m ak e rs comment on ORVban proposals Senator James A. McClure (Idaho) "I am deeply concerned that this type of proposal. may reverse the long standing policy of allowing wide public use of the public lands, to a policy of shutting the public out of its lands. unless public access is specifically permitted. I will fight tooth and nail against any such proposal to ban the use of off-road or recreational vehicles. This smacks of typical bureaucratic thinking coming from the marbeled halls of Washington . D.C . If the -President goes ahead with this ban. then we must stop it in Congress, and I am prepared to do just that. " Senator Frank Church (Idaho): (T o President Caner) "T he more I have sought to find the answer, the more varied the answers have become. I have been told , alternately, that yes, there is a proposed executive order; no , there is no pending order, I have been told that the executive order could be interpreted to constitute a flat ban on off-road vehicles, and I've been told (again) that any new rules would merely designate certain endangered areas for protection. In all of this I have met a stone wall in my attempts to secure a copy of the proposed language in order that I might judge the matter on its merits. . . . my immediate concern is that the public have an opportunity to know precisely what is being considered. Such an order from you would be in keeping with your pledges of an open government. and I urge you to take this action so . that the public might judge for itself what is under consideration." (Continued on page 40)