Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

and approve which State Park System projects it will recommend for funding under the California Parklands Bond Act of 1980. The purpose of the meeting is to determine a statewide list of projects to be funded from $l!85 million contained in the 1980 Bond Act for the State Park System. The meeting will stan at 9:00 a.m. at the Westchester Municipal Building, 7166 West Manchester Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. Project nominations may be prnented by memben of the public. Jimmy Weinert and Marty Tripes . . riding for Wheelsmlth Meleo in the DG Golden Stllte Series, and reportedly, Wheelsmith has also signed Rich Eierstedt. Carol Yoshimura reports that Yoshimura R &. D will be moving to new quaners on Jan. 15. They are buying larger office facilities and a new warehouse with over' 10,000 square feet. The new location will be closer to the race tracks in Ontario and Riverside and Carol says the larger facilities will make them better able to serve their customen more efficiently. The new address is 4555 Caner Coun, Chino, CA 91710. The new telephone number is 714/6l!8-472l! and the new Telex number is 66l! -481. seca Yamaha Virago and models have shown up on the dealers' showroom floors earlier than 0riginally announced. Gerrit Wolsinlt has signed with the Honda imponer in Holland to ride the 500cc World Championship MX Series. Got your entry In for the 11th AnnueI Moepe to Vegea Here and HouncI7 The Groundahllkers M.e. have pIott8d out a 13O-mile 0naway course that begins just out*Ie on Moapa. and they'. be ready to send you on your way at 9 Lm. on Jan. 18. Info? Give C-y Folks a cal at 10214&7~. Correction: In the Dueling Wrenches story last week (last yea1;f), it should have been Elliott Shultz, not Allen Shultz in the Shell Thuet interview. WASltiNGTON, DisCLoSEd Public land policy has always been mired in a quagmire of federal agency initiatives, suggestions to Congress, conflicting programs, various acts and legislative measures to the extent that it is no longer clear who takes the lead in wilderness and desertification reviews. As discussed in previous columns. at any given time the same agency may be finalizing a multi-million dollar program to control access to a tract of federal land while working on similar projects also costing the taxpayers millions of dollars that would achieve the same results, only in a revised form. And meanwhile, up on Capitol Hill, the legislators have their own pet bills on line either to lock-up or release the same lands an agency like the Bureau of Land Management is studying. All this is enough to make even the most politically astute citizen throw his hands up in despair and content himself with riding around a pre-mapped, pre-planned "multi-land use" area the size of an average backyard. However, when many of us realize tha.t the money being used for these projects is coming out of our pockets, is being spent by people who supposedly represent our interests and may ultimately form a threat to our way of life, that old fashioned democratic instinct takes hold and forces us to seek to understand the various governmental measures and to take action in what is commonly termed the "public comment perind." For this reason, many of us become indignant when legislators and regulators assume "public comment" is nothing but a nuisance, an obligatory but bothersome pan of the democratic way of life. Yet, people who subscribe to this philosophy never last long: they get taken to court or are voted out of office. Thus, the Repulicans found a large degree of suppon last election because the people of this country were fed up with the policies of the last group of bureaucrats and politicians. In essence, the new administration has a mandate from the American people to repudiate much of the policies fanned over the last fOUT yean. The regulation of public lands is a prime example. Let's take a look at the public lands scorecard as of December 1980. On the legislative end, whell the 96th Congress disbanded, Rep. Phil Burton's California Wilderness bill had passed the House but was not considered in the Senate. Bunon wanted !l.8 million acres of California set aside as wilderness. In the Senate, Sam Hayakawa's California wilderness legislation would have created I.!l million acres of national forest wilderness. This bill was stalled in the Energy Committee because private groups fought like the devil against its passa~_ Meanwhile, the Senate passed a package put together by Gary Han and WiUiam Armstrong that would create 1. 4 million acres of California wilderness. But in the House, Thomas Foley . was working on legislation that would have released RARE 11 lands from wilderness consideration. While all this was going on, the boys downtown at the BLM were plowing ahead on their withdrawal review program while continuing work on wilderness review initiatives. Mid-way through a national desenification assessment program, they implemented the California Desen Plan which put onefourth of California under a Conservation Area for the rest of this century. This plan alone took four yean and $8 million to complete and will cost the taxpayers $18 million a year for the next 10 yean. Legislatively, when the new Congress convenes in January. the scorecard is erased giving new congress. men the chance to enter their own bills while the old hands get a second chance to reintroduce legislation that didn't make it the ftrst time around. BLM is a different story. While tbe head honchos there may be replaced, because of the current civil serVice laws, tbe new administration will be hard· presaed to make quick changes in regulatory policy. We should be seeing the completion of tbe BLM's resource management plans during the 19805. Under the law, by 1991!. Due to public .pressure and economics, the trend should be toward opening land to multiple use. In other words, greater access to public land by the public. Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources Guy Manin recently remarked that wilderness withdrawal review, a program that will free hundreds of thousands of acres for multiple use, will be a priority with the depanment. In addition, he claimed that BLM's wilderness review will free even more land. Martin hit the current problem on the nose when he said: "I have real confidence that the completion of the BLM resource management plans ... will give our resource managers credible information about the lands they manage. That will enable them with confidence to o.pen increas· ing amount of land to multiple uses." Why this change in regulatory philosophies? Martin said it is because of "pressure from diverse interest groups_ " And there you have it. Off-road ve· hicle groups managed to open up certain areas which originally would have been off limits in the California Desert Plan. Secretary of. the Interior Cecil Andrus now says he concurs with those changes that provide for more off-road vehicle "free-play." Andrus noted that the "human environment" must be considered. So don't get taken by what appears to be an overwhelming log of federal public land studies, bills and initiatives. Just as you would pull your bike out of a mud-hole and hose away the grime, the same should be done with those various federal measures which will affect your spon. • Jim Zoia 3

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