Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ a ~ AMA Vice President of Government Relations Robert RasOr (left) and Dealernews trade magazine Publisher Don Emde testified on behalf of the motorcycle/ATV industry and off-road riders during U.S. Senate Public Lands Subcommittee hearings on 57. held last week in Washington D.C. u.s. Senate Public Lands Subcommittee hearings on 57 Desert battle begins in U.S. Senate By Farren Williams WASHINGTON, DC, JULYZI-23 The first U.S. Senate hearings on S7, held this week in the Public Lands Subcommittee of the Energy and NaturalResources Committee, pittedrecreationalists and business interests against conservationists over the fate of ' I d . th Cal'f . pu blIC an s 10 e 1 orma desert. 16 The subcommmittee heard two days of testimony which featured pleas from the Sierra Club and other conservationists, including actresses Shelley Duvall and Morgan Fairchild, 10 approve the California Desert Protection Act in order to preserve the "fragile" desert landscape. Opponents of the bill, mostly representatives of recreationalists and business interests. testified that the measure would "lock up" millions of dollars in minerals vital to national securi ty and would close millions of acres of land to grazing and recreatiOl"\al use, including offroad riding. Testifying on behalf of off-road riders were Robert Rasor, vice president of government relations for the AMA, and Don Emde, publisher of Dealernews, a trade magazine which serves motorcycle! ATV dealers. Emde was representing the American Coalition of Outdoor Recreation Publishers, an informal press group made up of editors and publishers who work in the motorcycle!ATV media. Senate .Bill 7, which wa.s authored by the Sierra Club and mtroduced early this year by Senator Alan Cranston (D-California), would set aside as national park lands or wilderness more than eight million of the 12.1 million acres of public lands in the California desert Once subcommittee hearings have concluded, the measure will go to the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee where members will either "mark up" the legislation and send it to the full Senate, or. allow the measure to die. The mark-up process will give each of the 19 senators on the Energy Committee an opportunity to discuss the bill, suggest changes and actually write modifications into the proposal. S7 has not been placed on the full committee's agenda and may not be heard for some time. During subcommittee hearings, Chairman Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) hinted that the subcommittee may conduct fi~ld hearings in the California desert before sending the bill to a markup session. . Capitol Hill insiders, while not willing to comment for the record, indicated privately that some sort of compromise legislation probably will be passed by Congress and sent to President Reagan for his signa- ture. Those insiders insist the bill almost certainly will reach the Senate floor. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel has voiced Reagan Administration opposition to S7, but the president has yet to indicate whether he will veto the bill if it is approved by Congress. Tuesday. July 21 "It doesn't take a smart man to see what's wrong, but it'll take a smart man to fix it." Chairman Bumpers used that quote from an East Mojave rancher, taken from a recent article in National Geographic magazine, to open Senate hearings on S7, then turned the hearings over to the first witness, Senator Cranston. "Last April and May, I made two trips to the California desert with a group of naturalists, environmentalists and scientists to look at some of the areas described in our legislation," said Cranston. "We saw scores of flowers and plants, including an 1l,OOO-year-old creosote bush which may be the oldest living organism on the planet earth. An ORV had driven through the middle of it with destructi ve consequences. "My legislation is committed to these principles," said Cranston. " ational park designation is urgently required for maintaining the integrity of Death Valley, Joshua Tree and the East Mojave area; designation of wilderrness areas is essential to preserve very special places; recreational, mining and grazing uses must be - . and shall be - provided for in the desert. "We are not locking up the desert," claimed Cranston. "We are unlocking it. We are ensuring multip.le use and enviromental protection. "This legislation is necessary because of the breach of trust of Secretary Hodel - Mr. Environment Buster - in failing to protect the desert," Cranston said. "His opposition to our bill is unfortunate but not surprising. From the mountains to the deserts, from the oceans to the ozone, Hodel has aided and abetted a creeping destruction, degradation and devastation of our environment Hodel almost makes one yearn for the good old days of (former Jnterior Secretary) James Watt." Cranston strongly criticized the California Desert Plan, which was mandated by Congress through the Federal band Management Policy Act of 1976 and finalized in 1980. He described the plan as, "defective from the outset because of a heavy bias (hy the Bureau of Land Management) toward resources-consumptive interest" Opponents argue that the Desert plan is a compromise between all desert users - inCluding environmentalists - which established BLM priorities for overseeing public lands in the desert. Cranston attacked the plan by pointing to off-road vehicle use in the desert, citing ORVs as a prime example of alleged mismanagement by the BLM. "The plan has been weakened by pro-development and ORV amendments, lax enforcement and flawed implementation by the BLM," Cranston said. "This was a breach of faith. ''In 1982, the BLM amended the desert plan to open the ecologically fragile Panamint Dunes to off-road vehicles," said the senator. "Through a plan amendment the BLM also reactivated the Barstowto-Vegas motorcycle race, a race previously halted in 1975 when the BLM determined it was too damaging to desert resources. Not only did the BLM reinstate the race but also allowed over 1000 motorcycle participants to speed across a BLMdesignated Wilderne~s Study Area and the East Mojave National Scenic Area. "I flatly disagree that ORV use has been carefully managed," said Cranston. "While S7 would deny ORV enthusiastS access to some parts of the desert, the fact is the areas receiving the heaviest ORV· use at present would not be affected by the biU."

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