Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

_._._._._._._._._._.. Desert a ert By Russ Sanford SACRAMENTO, CA . APR. 19 In a move that was obviously designed to allay the fears of off-road vehicle enthusiasts, the California State Office of the Bureau of Land Management conducted a meeting to outline their plans for establishing "wildemess areas" on public la nds d thei d . . t ti . . un er err a rmrns ra rve JUTlS diction . 30 While off-readers have more or less lea rned to live with wilderness areas on public lands administered by the U .S. Fo rest Service , they are up in arms over the latest proposals to remove even more lands from their use by havi ng the BLM declare such lands as to tally wilderness areas. thereby elimin a ting any further use by off· road vehi cles . T he BLM estim a tes that o nly a relatively small porti on of th e 16 .5 million ac res which th ey ad m inis ter will be classified as wild erness a reas, h o we ve r . seve r a l org a niz a t io ns (incl ud ing AMA District 37 a nd the Cal ifo rn ia Association of Four-Wheel Drive Clubs) anticipate that 98 % of the Ca lifornia Desert will be closed to off-road vehicle use . It was learned today th at the hea rt of the problem ste ms from a draft copy of th e BLM W ild erness R evi ew Procedures, being distributed nationwid e b y the BLM . While t his document clearly states that it is merel y a proposal ' that will be amended in accordance 'with public in p u t. it does conta in several statements and definitions that cause sudden panic and alarm , especially when viewed by the off-roading fraternity wh ich has come to view all such BLM programs with more than a little suspicion. and rightfully sot The items that raise these suspicions are the . revised definition of what constitutes a road . . The document states: 'Ro ad - For the purpose of the wild erness inventory , a road is de fined as and must meet all of th e following : An access route which has been im pro ved a nd maintain ed by using ha nd or pow er machinery or tool s to insure rel atively regular and con ti nuo us use . A way m a intained solely by the pass age of vehicles does. not constitute a road. W ords and phrases used in the above defini tion of " ro a d " are also defi ned . . 'Improved and maintained: Where ac tion s have been and will continue to be d irected to physically keep the road open to traffic. 'Relati vely regular and continuous use': Use by vehicles having fou r or more wheels which has occurred and will continue to occur on a recurring basis, for a predetermined. planned, or in ten ded purpose. (An exa m p le would be access for eq u ip m ent to ma intain a stock water' tank . Casual or random use by off-road vehicles or recreationists does not qualify) . The for egoing definition has little im pac t until on e realizes that this same definition is used. as the bas is for determining "road!ess areas ," whi ch to th e BLM is one r- of the major conside ra tio ns i'n deciding which areas sho uld be ' classified as wilderness areas . Under ·the ..proposed BLM criteria . an area must be ro adless for consideration as a wilderness area . And the BLM 's proposed de fini tion of a road wou ld , in essence ._qu ali fy m ost of the public Ian~ administere,d by the BLM to ~e cO'.Sldered for wl l dern~ l a rea classifica tion . W hat makes th is situation ' even worse , is tha t t he proposed procedures allow the BLM to put a n im m ed ia te stop to any use th at m ight degrade a ny of the areas under co nsideration for wild erness a rea cla ssification . Much of today's m eeting was spent by th e BLM 's attem p ting to reassu re th e off-roade rs that this would not happen . However , t he off-reade rs never lost sigh t for a m om ent th at once th e prop osed proc ed ures are fin ali zed , the BLM can do pretty much as they d a m n well please and th ere will be nothing that we ca n do about itl W hat we can do . . . wha t we must do . is to make su re that the BL M's proposed procedures must be changed so that we can be assured of getting a n honest b re ak! And the on ly way tha t we can d o that is to write some lett er s. 'Now don 't say it won't d o any good. Remember last yea r whe n President Ca rt er wa nted to close all of the pu blic lands to off-road vehi cles. a nd we put 86 .000 letters and m essages o n his desk in protest ? W ell . it worked th en a nd it will work agai n. if we all do our own part. But first . before we tell you what and to whom you write those letter s. let's exami ne the situation a little further . These are points that you m a y wish to include in your letters . Or you may wish to se nd the briefer message that follows. W e must recognize tha t there a re some areas of public land tha t sho u ld be protect ed , and wild erness a re a cla ssification is a good way of providing th is protection . Everyon e kn ows th is. so ' we m igh t as well concede this point if o nly to esta bl ish our cr edibility. However. by definit ion , a wilderness area must show no evidence of human habita tion . so this te nds to el imi nate those a reas wher ein developmen t (power transm ission lines. build ings , etc.) has occ urred . T he mere p resen ce of a primitive road or trail leadin g to. o r throu g h . the area u nder considera tion for wilderness area classification . shou ld not in itse lf be reason for not the . a rea for such consideri ng cl assifica tion . There fo re , the decision . m aking cri teria for esta bl ishi ng Wil derness Area sho u ld be based upo n fa ctors ot he r than whether the area has roads, or is roadless. If th e criteria were 'roads/roadless ' th e W ilderness el iminated from Review Procedures , and realistic cri teria substituted in its place. we cou ld probably live with and support the BLM effort. Su ch criteria is difficult to set forth , but perh aps th e following should be co nside re d: 1. Areas whi ch do not reflect man's pr esen ce, ei the r in the pa st or at the present time sho u ld be co nside re d for wilderness area cl assification . provided th at other criteria (suc h as social. economic , need . etc.) are met. 2 . Areas of specia l value (sce nic . h isto ric, erc.) whi ch do reflect m an 's prese nce in th e past . present , and/ Western hot or future, either th rough buildings. roads , trails, structures, etc . , should be protected to th e extent necessary but should not be closed to continued use of vehicular roads or trails. Such access could be lim ited to 'design ated roads and trails' , thus allowing th e casual off- road vehicle enthusi ast to visit and enjoy th ese areas in the same manner as the horseman who visits the area on horseback. Competition events probably should not be allowed in such areas if they would crea te a conflict with other use rs and uses. 3. With the exception of haza rd ou s are as caused by m an's intrusion. a ll of the remaining public lands sho uld be open to off-r oad vehicle use . whether for cas ua l riding or sa ne tioned co m petition events. If you don't wish to go into th a t much d etail. t he n send thi s bri ef messag e to t he three per son s listed bel ow : " I (o ur famil y) d isagree(s) wit h th e portion of th e BLM 's d ra ft W ilderness Review Procedures th at defi nes a 'road' a nd 'road less areas' as this defi nition on ly serves to furt he r limit o ur access to o ur his to ric and continued use of th e . public lands. If the BLM must define a road. then the definition shou ld be as follows: " Ro ads are t hose esta blis he d before November I . 1973 , with significa nt surface evide nce of prior vehicle travel an d a m in imum width of two feet. W iden ing or extendi ng of these rou tes is prohibited . If nature eli mi na tes portio ns . it does not excl ude vehi cle use. " (Your name and address)" Send those three letters to the followi ng people: President Jimmy Carter T he White Hou se W ashington. D.C. 20500 Hon orable Ce cil Andrus Secretary. Dept. of Interior Washington . D.C . 20240 Frank R. Gregg, Director U.S. Bureau of Land Ma ngement W ash ington, D.C . 20240 During today's m eet ing . th e BLM announced th at following th e finaliza tion of the d ra ft Wildern ess Review P rocedures (d ue abo ut July I: co mments nee d to be registered be fore Ma y 15 . th ey wou ld co nduct a series of nationwid e workshops for th e pu rpose of o btai ni ng publ ic in put. However , with resp ec t to the Ca lifornia Desert . there will be 17 worksho ps in sou the rn Ca lifo rn ia d uring th e m on th of May in order to m eet t he established deadlines for submitting the fina l pla n for the Cal iforn ia Desert Program . which is ' a lread y under way and whic h must also set asid e wilde rness areas. T he d at es a nd times of th e first two worksho ps are listed below , whi le the exact location s of the su bse q ue nt m eet ings is unknown at th is time. W e will carry thi s addit ional informa tion in Cycle N ews. It is imperative tha t all off-re a de rs attend at least one of these worksh ops and then furnish th e information that is If we don't , then we stand an excelle nt chance of losing th e California Desert for off- readi ng . May 2: Anaheim High Sch ool Aud ito r ium. 811 W est Lin coln , An aheim 8-10 :30 p .m. Ma y 3: Kenned y Junior Hi gh Sch ool Auditorium, 1000 Armory Road . Barstow. 7:00 -10:30 p .m . Att en d o ne of th ose meeti ngs! Write • those letters, today! Vegas hosts OTHG Invitational By Devil Don Fisher LAS VEGAS . NV , APR . 8-9 The Las ·Vegas Over the Hill Gang held a two -day event, a desert Grand Prix on Saturday and a motocross on Sunday (naturally). The desert layout was a 10 .2-mile course with plenty of dust. dirt , rock wash , uphill , gully-jumps and the like but not enough wind . The Experts and Amateurs had the first shot. W e had a Grand Prix type start - riders were on a line a bou t 20 yards behind their bikes. When the flag dropped Put-Put Pete Dill (Mai) got the holeshot followed by Kinky Ken Hodgson (Yam). Phast Phil Koliske (Suz) , and Pineapple Dan Purdy (Ma i). Pineapple Dan took th e lead a t th e halfway point on th e first lap o n ly to di scover th at h is front wh eel no lon ge r had spo kes enoug h to co n ti nue. Throu gh th e finish chec k poi nt on the first lap Vegas fa ns ha d their hopes - for a wh ile a nywa y - on Phast Ph il an d Ka reful Ken H amm ann (Ya m): they ca me through thi rd and fou rth . Ra th ole Rock y Huish (Ya m) and PutPut Pet e ' Dill ca me thro ugh one and two . T he event was to bec ome a three man race be tween Pu t -Put Pete , Kinky Ken H odgson ( Ya m) and Rathole Rocky. and that was to be the order at the checkered flag . In the Am a teu r class , Las Vegas' Loco Larry J ensen (Ma i) copped the honors , followed b y· Jumbo Jim Chandler (Yam) and Majesti c Craig Mojeski . W e had an excell ent turnout over a ll, but the Intermed iate and Nov ice class wer e by far the largest. The hol esh ot ' went to Durnpin ' Dan Pike (Yam ). who led the race wire -to wir e . Come-on Chuck Nation (M ai ) was right there in th e front - runners among the Intermediate bunch and he took the checke re d flag in second place . Third pl ace went to Munch in' Mik e Hughs (Suz). In the N ov ice cl a ss Meek Mik e T uc ke r (H us) was the win ne r , followed by Chincy Co rky Ball (H us) a nd Burly Bill Ba iley. On th e second d ay everybody was o u t to the W illi ams R a ce wa y Mot ocross track. Put -P u t Pe te Dill reall y romped ove r th ese ' boys from Vegas a nd o n th eir ow n tu rf yet. Ea ch cla ss ra n two 20 -mi nu te motes separa te ly. T he Novice class took th e first flag for the d a y's eve nts and Burly Bill Ba iley (Suz) took to the lea d before the dust had a chance to clear. Burly Bill is one of o ur elder sta tes man in the Las Vegas cha p ter, but he looked like one oft hose you ng kids ou t there Sunday . Mr . Bail ey to ok the overall win o n his RM 400 in th e Novice cla ss. Me anwhile, Beep -Beep Bob Osborn (Ma i) a n d Gory Glen W est (Ya m) fought it out for second and th ird wh ile Just J im Mill s (Suz ) took fourth . The Int ermedia te class was the hardest fou ght rac e of the day. The battle was b etween tw o rea l com peti tors, Co m e -on Chu ck N ation (Mai) and Durn p in' Dan Pike (Yam) with Buffal o Bill N orman ( Ma i) fi ~ i.shing third . Durnpin' Dan won the first moto, but Co me-on ca me on to win the seco nd m oto and the overa ll. Jum bo J im Chandl er (Yam) had to batt le H onky H erb Townsend to

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