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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126326
( 00 r-- 0') ..... Rob Rasor and the AMA Leading the fight for motorcyclists' right to land By Dille Brown 16 Wuh the threat of whole-scale land closures on the horizon, motorcyclists mwt band together and fight. Heading the fight is the Government Relations Department of the American Motorcyclist Association, led by land· we specialist Rob Rasor and Department head Ed Youngblood. Rasor tool time off from a successUm of meetings in the western United States to discws the problems facing motorcyclists in the form of two 1IIILSSit.oe wilderness inventories. We have two .-cia that are goiDg through a review plOCaI to declare their land, or portions of their land, wildernciI. WoWd you clarify that? wen, first of an, the two agencies involved are the United States Forest Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management, which is an agency of the Department of Interior. The programs are entirely separate. with different criteria for identifying what will be studied as wildcmelS and what will ultimately be included as Wlldcmcss. The Forest Service program, called RARE II, which is an acronym for Roadless Area Review and Evaluation - .second time around - is much further along in its program development than is the BLM Wildcmess Review process. RARE II baa been in existence since March of 1977 and win conclude at the end of September, 1978 when they have completed their inventories and received public comment on thOle inventory areas. From there they win then go and determine one of three catcgoljes for the lands studied. They'n either be designated wilderness and will be included in the administration recommendations to Congress; or they'll be identified for funher study and son of remain in a holding pattern similar to wilderness study classification, in that they will have a different interim management applied to them. Finally, those lands found not to be suitable will be released for multiple-usc management. The BLM's program, which was just begun this year, went through the elaborate Wilderness Review Procedure public comment period. This is the procedure that had a very broad definition of roads that greatly affected the southern California descn. It now is waiting for evaluation of the public comments received on their wilderness review procedures. From that they will then determine a measuring program on what lands of the 450 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management will actually be identified as wilderness. Those are the two programs _'re really talking about, each of which has a pretty broad potential for affecting the off·road motorcyclist. "For RARE II we've developed a program outline to commumcate the signzftcance ofthe program to the motorcyclist . .. We've developed a nat,:onallregz'onal map that we're distributing with a comprehenstvefact sheet. " Doa the A.MA have an organized ICIpCtIIR plan for IlAllE II? Yes. For RARE II we've developed a program outline to communicate the significance of the program to the motorcyclist. The nature of RARE II is such that the criteria for wildemcss is somewhat relaxed to make sure that all areas that could be potentially defined as wilderness wiII be included. Some of the things that we're utilizing to spread the word on what RARE II is, and the areas that are affected. are regional bulletins which define specific areas that are incluaed in the environmental impact statements for RARE II. There are 20 of these EIS's that require public comment in addition to the draft environmental impact statement. We'vc developed a national/regional map that wc're distributi~ with a comprehensive fact sheet on RARE II that basically draws a line around all 20 of the regions. So if someone baa an interest area other than the one they perhaps live in, they will know where and how to go about getting hold of the regional supplement for that area. , In addition, _ are utilizing special paper to identify the RARE II news releuc - to separate them from the normal AMA news releases - and draw more attention to it. These are being distributed to our 1500 clubs around the country so that they become more tuned in to what the problem is. RARE II n!quires specific information on each of the proposals. That makes it extremely difficult for a national association to do more than make general commcots. We arc- increasingly more dependent upon the individual rider to givc us feedback. And the Forest Service is dependent on the individual rider to gai!t feedback on areas that are important to their particular activities. Obviously _ can't be familiar with every area within the 20 regional supplements. . IlAllE II IiIU 10 alternatives, ranging from no action, which would be a holding paaern, to total non-wilderncu allocation to total wilderncu allocatioD with ICVcral shades of gray in hctween. Have you given thil much auentioD? In most cases, the Forcsl Service, or whatever agency is putting out the EIS, has a recommended management alternative that they would prefer. In this instance. they've chosen not to do that. so that they would not bias the input. W~ havc not formulated what I would call the best altemativc for motorcycling in reviewing the various alternatives at this juncture. One of the things we're hoping for is some feedback from riders on some of the critical areas to tell us what they think is the best alternative for thrir location. Motorcycle Industry Council did an interesting correlation between the various management alternatives and their impact on potential off· road