Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Did you ever wonder ho w the Sierra Club and other organizations of their ilk are able to be pres~nt in such numbers at every ,hea ring , m eet ing or gathering whe re Our futu re is a t stake? It has been something of a cu riosity to us how a small minority of fanatics is able to maintain the level of rep resenta tion whi ch they so oft en displa y. Recently it has become mo re and mo re evident that we a re fin ancing a large portion of t his rep resen ta tion aga inst ou r interests . That's right! You and I are paying som e of the bill for these fa na tics to rant and ra ve about th e "rape of the des ert." An inter esting a rt icle a ppeared in the Contra Costa T im es last Aug. II , whic h documents som e of the methods used by th e Sierra Club and others to obtain tax dollars to try to enforce upon all of us their own particular brand of utopia. According to this article. the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington contracted with th e State's Air Resources Board to provide a public information program on the evils of air pollution. Fine so far; .the dissemina tion of thi s. type of inform a tion seems somewhat legiti mate in light of the m ission of the two tax- supported age ncie s. However, it begi ns to get a lit tle shadi er after we learn that the Californ ia Air Resources Board then proceed ed to contrac t with the Sierra Club and the Lung Associa tion to "sp read the word" for them . We don't know what particular quali fications these two organizations hav e in the field of pu blic relations, but thcy got the contracts. How these two organizat ions spe nt their share of the money is perha ps the most interest ing part of thi s tale. Did they mount a mass ive multi-media ad vertising campaign? Apparently not . What they did was send a steady barrage of lobbyists to Sacramento to lobb y for a mandatory motor vehi cle inspection program. Together their contracts amounted to something like $325 ,000 out of which they paid their representatives to twist arms of the legislators to pass a law which will require you and I to pay to have someone make sure all of our smog equipment is working once a year. We have long suspected that a la rge number of our tax dollars a re being misspent when we see "re present atives" of the Un iversit y of California and the U.S. Geological Survey and others publicly bemoaning the so-called destruction of the deserts and forests by motorcycles. However, with the award of these public dollars being spent to pa y for an organization such as the Sierra Club to lobby their particular poin t of view, we ha ve seen a new low. We are no t the onl y ones who have been outraged by this malappropriation of public funds. Assemblyman Dan Boatright from Concord, CA , has publicly announced that he is asking the Attorney General of the state to fully investiga te this incident, and to make criminal prosecutions as necessary. It looks, like the 1980s m ight hold some p re tty rough times for th e Sie rra Clubbers and their friends . If Boa trigh t is successful in getti ng a few of the leaders convicted of criminal activity, and maybe even do a little time for their sins , th ey will be a litt le more careful and reso nab le. Last week ' the Pha nt om Duck announced that he was attacking on an othe r front . The " Migh ty Malla rd " is suing the BLM, the Sierr a Clu b and ot hers for personal pr ejudi ce. The BLM spe nt a n unknown amount of p u blic funds to prosecu te the Duck in th e federal court a nd wh o knows how m uch additional tax m oney to run a media ca m pa ign to pu blicl y defame him as a "crim ina l." Well, as we all kn ow th e Du ck ende d up on top : he was cleared of any wrongdoing , Now some peo ple would let it die there . Fortunately for us, The Phantom Duck is not some people. Loui e, it seems , heard of a n even t which th e Sierra Club was holdin g in th e des ert. They had adve rt ised th at they wer e going to go sni ff th e posies, or what ever it is th at they do ou t th er e. T hey wer e also go ing to use vehicles, a nd charge ~ oney for thi s event. Well . af ter ha vmg been dragged through th e cou rts for all edgedly holding a n unauthorized event in the desert, th e Du ck beca me pretty familiar with th e BLM 's requirements for this type of event. When he checked and no on e could produce the Special Land Use Permit for the event - let alone the En vironmental Impact Statem ent he began to wond er whet her ' th e Bureau pla ys favorites. When it tu rned ou t that the BLM m ust ha ve been aware of the event (one of the key BLM officials was along as a non -pa ying gu est), the Duck got all of his documentation together and filed suit for personal prejudice. It looks like th e Sierra Club, the BLM a nd othe rs like them a re going to find out that desert rid ers ha ve civil rights too . More importantly, we are learning how to p rotect t hem , a nd if a Fed er al official tries to use his position to take those rights awa y from us , he's going to j ai l. As off-roade rs, we ha ve attended hearings, writt en letters, compromised , filed applications , paid fees, reh abili tated th e lands , cooperated until we are blu e in the face. Now some a re trying a new tactic, it's ca lled a ttack. W e a re a majority who has been mistreated, we have been pushed until our / ba cks are to th e wall . Ma ybe those days a re over , if the bu rea ucra ts discover that if they act illegally, we will prosecute, we can carry the sting tha t may be necessary to get reaso na ble decisions out of them. And while we are attempting to elicit som e reasonable decisions. we should / again tum our attention to what is perhaps our im med ia te problem: the Desert Plan. In about a week , the final plan will be on its way to the p rinter, AMA , CORVA, and some others are trying to see to it that off road riders ha ve every opportunity to fully participate in the final comment process. That's rightl One more "get out th e ca rds and letters" session . I know it seems like a non- productive exercise at times, but these letters are important. If only to set up a stronger case if we have to drag them int o the courts for ignoring us . W e don't have much of a case if you don't write your lett er . By the last week of September, th e final plans will be in the mail. We have 30 daysto figure out wha t th ey say and then to get our comments ba ck to BLM . Chuck Hollingsworth , Presi dent of the Ventura Ridge Ride rs Trail M.C. and a muckey-muck in CORVA , has put together a meet ing with th e BLM on the last Saturda y in September, the 27th, to give us a sort of adva nce presentat ion of what is in th e plan. The m eet ing will be a joint affai r be tween COR VA, AMA and an yone else who is interested. T he purpose is to get as m an y people as possible inform ed about what is in this plan as ea rly as possible. Hopefully , this will assist in getting the written com ments within the 30-day period. If you are interested in riding the Desert in the future , it might be a good ide a to sho w up. T he meet ing will sta rt a t 10 a. rn. a nd will be held in Du a rt e (nea r th e 605 and 210 free ways) a t the VFW hall a t 1664 E. Huntington Drive. Lunch will be served . Ca ll Chu ck for de tails at 805/ 646-6515 . • C. N. Deepthroat WAsltiNGTON, DisCLOSEd Sagebrush Rebellion: Two bills in the hopper The seeds of rebellion are being planted and nutured throughout the West. Just as the country was founded on rebellion. the grow· ing rift between the federal government and Western states over land use is brewing what has been termed the Sagebrush Rebellion. Vast areas of the West are controlled by the Bureau of Land Management within the United States Department of th e Interior. The • BLM , in essenc e, locks up the land for various reasons - usually environmental - and prevents the states from getting any use out of it. This action concerns ranchers , m iners , loggers and off-road motorcyclists. Thus, the Sagebrush Rebellion. Western states are beginning to .fight for what they feel is their innate right to control land within th eir boundaries. And as the federal government continues to lock-up more land through legislation which places vast treks under laws governing wilderness, national forest and desert regions, th e states lose that much more for development and recreation usage. For by most accounts, a state will allow more land to be used rather than have it lie idle. This is a states' righ ts issue in the most classic sense . Rebellion advocates cite Constitutional and early congressional quaranrees that all states in the union would be equal. They say that federal management of great amounu of land in Western states (two-thi rds of Idaho is owned by the feds ) gives the states less power over their destinies than Eastern states have. State legislatures in New Mexico, Arizona , Utah , Colorado , Wyoming, Idaho , Nevada and Cali ornia have taken the matter into their own hands - or at least, attemped to . Bills supporting th e Sagebrush Rebellion are making th eir way through th ese sta te legislatu res while Neva da and Arizona (and now Caufomia...Editor.) ha ve actually passed such legislation . However, the federal government ign ored the meaning behind the Nevada and Arizona sta tu tes . Last spring, the Interior Department invited Nevada to acc ept its challenge to litiga te its Sagebrush Rebellion claims in court. The state de clined the invita tion. saying it was not the time to litigate the validity of its law which says Nevada and no t th e BLM owns lands within the state. "We think their legal claim to ownership of BLM , land is flimsy ," sa id Interior Secretary Ce cil Andrus at the tim e. "Until they persuade the Supreme Court they are right , we will continue as custodian and manager of the lands ." Because of this type of th inking on the part of the federal government , any action by state legislatures at this time remains symbolic . AB LMofficial explained that when the Western states joined the union. they accepted in their constitutions language which relinguished certain land to the federal government. And the BLM has no int en tion of granting that la nd back - regardless of the premise that changing times bring on changing needs. While the states may not be having much luck dealing with federal laws through their own legislatures, certain members of the Un ited States Senate and House of Representatives believe they ha ve a better chance. Presently two bills are in the congressional hopper which , if passed, would achieve the same 'en ds the Western state legislatures adhere. Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep . James Santini (D-Nev.) both have introduced legislation that would tum federally owned land over to the states. These bills , S. 1680 and H .R. 7837 , deserve th e full support of the motorcycling community. Hatch's bill is. in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Santini's measure in the House Interior and Insular Affairs' Subcommittee on Public Lands. No hearings have been held for either. Write your senators and represenratives and tell them to push for t he passage of these bills . . Remember, as the federal government continues to exert control over Western lands, areas for recreation will soon dry up. And there is no reason to believe BLM will back off. The next Washington DisClosed will drive this ~int home by examining the CalIfornia wilderness bill. which may have been passed by the full House by time you read this column. o 00 0') .....-c Jim lois Motorcycle driHteem. Lea Motna... will soon be performing In the U.S. 3

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