Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

motorcycling activity as it's discussed in the EIS's. The preliminary investigation that the MIC has done on this indicates that the states with the greatest possible impact are California, Colorado, Oregon, Montana and Washington .. These states could account as much as 65% of the total loss of acreage to off-road riding opportunities under RARE II, depending on which management alternativell, were selected. Within this, there is a brief discription of each management alternative and the impact as far as absoltue user days that would be affected and the total percentage of acreages .involved. It gives a .pretty good discussion of the various alternatives and what their impacts on preceived off-road motorcycling activity actually.are within the RARE II process. "It's been suggested that as much as 75% ofthe southern California desert could be defined or identified as roadless . .. 11 The off-road motorcyclist who is not involved with an AMA club - how does he deal with RARE II? We've tried to take that into consideration, recognizing that there are a lot of th~ out there who are not AMA members or affiliated WIth AMA clubs. One of the approaches we're taking is through these identified press releases that we're sending to all the motorcycle media, trying to get in some publication that the enthusiast will read. That's about the only avenue we have of really trying to communicate with the user. We're also working closely with the Motorcycle Dealers Association, mailing this same type of information to them in hopes that they'll post it within their dealerships so that riders coming into their shops will have an opportunity to review it also. Without question, this has to be one of the most difficult communication processes for a program of this magnitude that we've had to face, and that's one of the reasons why it's so important that we make every attempt. The rider, to get information, the EIS. goes through the Forest Service? That's right. If he has an interest in a particular forest, let's say in southern California, if it's the Cleveland National Forest or the Los Angeles National Forest, specific information about where he can get his regional supplement can be obtained from the Forest Headquarters there, or the regional Forest Service office that manages his area. In California, that office is in San Francisco. Other states or regions would have to be obtained also from a local Forest Service to get the actual regional supplement. If there are questions, the AMA would be happy to provide the addresses for a specific forest or specific area that a rider might be interested in. Once the rider gets the information he needs, how does he make his feedback moat effective? Each one of the supplemental EIS's discusses in detail the individual roadless areas which have been inventoried for potential wilderness. I think that it would be important for him to just briefly assess whether these areas include popular or traditional riding areas that he's utilized. That, I think, is the most critical issue that the off-road motorcyclist faces. If he determines that it does, it's important that he let the Forest Service know that this is a traditional motorcycling area, and that he values this opportunity and experience provided in this area, . and that he wants this opportunity preserved. He would just provide that in a letter and send it to the address within the EIS that he happens to be reviewing. We'd like him to send us a copy of his letter or communication so that we can incorporate his thoughts in the comments we make from the national office. And, hopefully with the comment from the local level and the national level, we can make specific points about specific areas that are of value to the individual rider. Is there anything else you would like to say about RARE II? Well, it's a very difficult process and it's been one of the most lengthy and most involved land planning processes any government agency has ever undertaken. It has come under a lot of criticism from recreationists, from the timber industry, and from the environmental organizations. It was designed originally as a be· all, end·all to wilderness inventory so that the other land management processes could continue without the normal conflict of lawsuits, etc., that we often see associated with wilderness proposals. Hopefully this will end it, but in all likelihood, it might not. So the motorcyclist, I think, will have to become increasingly attuned to those areas that he wants to utillie or is utilizing for recreation. He's going to have to develop a protective instinct, and that the RARE II process is a major opportunity for him to sharpen those protective or self-Preservation instincts that he's going to need. . Let's switch fields and go over the BLM program. In 1976 the BLM came under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Most of us know that as the Organic Act. Part of that, of course, required that all of the BLM lands, 450 million acres of them in the U.S. and Alaska, be inventoried for wilderness potential. Unlike the liberty the Forest Service has, the BLM doesn't have the authority to say an aTea cannot be wilderness, or kick it out. Only Congress has that authority once an area has been identified as roadless. So at the beginning of the process, the BLM came up with the definition of a road and incorporated it in our wilderness review procedure that they put out for public comment. The reaction of the recreation community motorcycling and all those together - is no secret. It outraged most people - the suggestion that they would specifically discriminate against the off·road vehicle and his driving back and forth, whether he did it regularly or not, wouldn't qualify as road. So the center-thrust of the opposition to the BLM Wilderness Review Procedure was the definition of roads. In addition to that, there were suggestions within the BLM Wilderness Review Procedure that their definition for wilderness was also somewhat relaxed. There were suggestions that rehabilitation might be utilized to make areas suitable for wilderness. There is no authorization for' rehabilitation in either the Wilderness Act of 1964 or the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. But at present, the time frame for wilderness inventories stretches through 1990, with the exception of the Southern California Desert Conservation Area,' which must complete its wilderness inventory by 1980. That puts sort of an accelerator on the ~lderness inventory and review procedures for the southern California area, where there's so much riding acitivity now. It's been suggested by some that as much as 75% of the southern California desert could be 'defined or identified as roadless, utilizing the definition the BLM came out with in their review procedures. We don't think that ultimately that's going to happen, but it's ce.rtainly a posibility with that definition. They also have a criteria called "wilderness values." Once an area has been identified as roadless, will it be held up or put off limits till they get around to deciding wilderness values? That's one of the real dangers in the. whole wilderness process. I think it would be fair to say that the AMA, and most motorcyclists are not diametrically opposed to the designation of wilderness as a resource. But the problem comes in with this wilderness value and the interim management procedures that are implemented when the aTea is first identified as a potentiill wilderness, and. occur between identification and actual designation by Oongress. It could be a period as long as two to seven or 15 years before it falls out of the interim management period and is actually made a wilderness or is thrown out. . The laws that the BLM is operating under say that it must be managed so as to preserve t~e wilderness values. That's a little bit of a loose statement, but I think we can all be pretty well assured that that statement could -drastically affect off-road vehicle activities because who's' to say that our use is not going to impair wilderness values. You say that the BLM is working on two levels. One is the California level and the other is for the rest of the country, which is just getting underway now. Well, the Wilderness Review procedures have not been finalized yet. They've been submitted to public comment and now the. BLM is massaging them to come out with the formal guidelines, or structure, or what Rrocedure they'll use to identify wilderness on their 450 million acres. Because of the time frame involved, however, they'll be going ahead with tentative inventories and identification of areas in southern California. If the review procedures are drastically changed from the draft proposals that we've all reviewed" then they'll have to re-evaluate those areas already inventoried. However, the rest of the United States, or those other remaining acres, will probably not begin their inventory until the actual fmalizing of the review procedures to be used. Has the BLM announced a date when they'll have the procedures finalized? . The final review procedures will be out, I think, at the end of September or the first part of October. That's when they're programmed to be finalized. Do you think the chances are good that the definition of a road will have been changed? It's difficult to say what any bureaucraq is going to do, or how they're going to react to public sentiment. It's easy to see that they've come under a good deal of pressure and criticism for the definition they are utilizing for a road. I would like to think that as a result of the input they have received and the criticism they have been subjected to, the definition will change. Realistically, we won't know until the final plans actually come out. If the definition of roads have not changed despite all the input, has the AMA considered any alternatives? Well, given the potential for impacting our recreation, and the amount of BLM land utilized by our members and motorcyclists in general, we would have to look real close at what the possibilities would be of a lawsuit involving that definition. We know that the BLM feels the definition is defensible. However, we think it departs drastically enough from the criteria established within the Wilderness Act and the guidelines of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, that it might be challengable. And that, 1 think, is one' of the more drastic alternatives we're looking at. But given the magnitude of the program and the potential impact of it, it's one that we're going to have to look real close at if the definition is not changed. E • ~ E 00 l' 0') "Congress is the one who is ultimately going to decz"de what is w'ilderness and what is not. 'We're now 'in an electz'on year... 11 Now we got back to the question of how the individual rider fights the BLM program. How does he save his riding land? Well, primarily at this point, the best thing he can do if he failed to comment or let somebody know how he felt about the wilderness review procedures, is to become closely attuned to the inventory process that each of the BLM districts will be conducting. And it is going to have to be an individual effort, though maybe it could be a club project. But once the inventory begins and continues, the rider is going to have to stay attuned. It's going to be a long·term 17

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