Snowmobile Alliance of Western States (SAWS)
 
 
(Note: Readers, this is a two-in-one email -- there is also information, including a map, about Oregon's Deschutes National Forest and BLM OHV Recreation Trails 2003 - OHV Recreational Trail System adjoining The Badlands wilderness.)
 
"Cutting Through Deceptions and Perceptions To Protect YOUR RIGHT to Ride!"
 
Protecting the right to ride for the owners of 247,864 registered snowmobiles (2004) in the western United States.

 

SAWS is proud to have the Idaho State Snowmobile Association, the Montana Snowmobile Association, the Utah Snowmobile Association, and just recently the Alaska State Snowmobile Association as affiliate state snowmobile associations of SAWS. We collaborate with the Blue Ribbon Coalition on some land use issues, too.
 
Why did we start SAWS? The future of snowmobiling is under constant attack by the extreme preservationists who would like nothing more than to see our sport relinquished to the history books of yesterday. Through their misinformation and outright lies, they will stop at nothing to achieve their self-serving goal. 
 
Why should you join SAWS? You have a choice. We can bury our collective heads in the snow, and pretend this problem is not occurring, or we can band together and fight for our right to snowmobile. 
 

SAWS will not charge a membership fee. Our goal is numbers, so that we can represent enough snowmobilers to have an impact on future land use decisions. We will gladly accept donations to offset our costs.
 
Would you like to continue to ride to your favorite spot in the forest? SAWS thinks you would.
 
Would you like to be able to have your children enjoy these same special places by snowmobile? SAWS thinks you would.
 
Do you know that we already have close to 106 million acres of Wilderness in the United States as of today? And there are plans to increase this substantially? SAWS is concerned and does not support ANY new wilderness proposal. 
 
Join SAWS today here, to help us do something to stop this madness to increase wilderness areas that are off limits to snowmobiling.
 
Help us fight for our rights for access to our public lands, for not only us, but also for those that will follow.
 
SAWS, with your help can make a difference. And most important, NO MORE WILDERNESS!!!
 
 
This is a very important page to visit while you are at the SAWS website -- you may wish to bookmark it, also, for future/regular reference:
 
 
 
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Deschutes National Forest and BLM OHV Recreation Trails 2003 - OHV Recreational Trail System adjoining The Badlands wilderness
 

(Excerpted)

This map shows the elaborate 643-mile system of OHV trails that are installed, marked, mapped and maintained by the Deschutes National Forest and Prineville BLM [Bureau of Land Management] for the sole benefit of motorcycles and other ATVs.

This 200,000-acre trail system is being maintained at public expense exclusively for those who wish to ride a machine and who also can afford to buy and ride expensive ATVs in the desert, forest and native grasslands east of Bend, Oregon.

A few OHV-gas-tax funded industry lobbyists oppose the conversion of The Badlands Wilderness Study Area (a long time de-facto wilderness) to a Congressionally designated Wilderness of 37,112 acres for quiet, non-motorized use. While maintaining de-facto ATV control of 200,000 acres of public land with mechanized thunder and speed, they exclude the hiker, horseman, wanderer, explorer, backpacker, birder and others along with the critters large and small who used to live a quiet life in natural desert, beautiful ponderosa forests and native grasslands. (emphasis/italics at originating website URL)

We do hope the majority of OHV enthusiasts will actively support a Congressionally mandated Wilderness designation for this small bit of quiet desert called The Badlands.

http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/Maps_OHVTrails_sm.htm

 
This map was produced from federal land management agency data by Craig Miller for the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA).
 
OHV Trail System and Proposed Badlands Wilderness Map: