(Note: This is from a group that exists to remove roads and access by the public from much of America, a splinter group of The Wildlands Project.)

December 3, 2003

From: (Kiffin Hope)

To: Skidmarks@

Skid Marks, Wildlands CPR's (roughly) biweekly e-mail newsletter, reports on activist efforts to challenge roads and motorized recreation nationwide. Skid Marks shares instructive and precedent-setting successes and failures in the campaign to halt the motorized abuse of wildland ecosystems.

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1. Wilson Canyon Closure Makes Federal Register 2. New Forest Service Policy Limiting Off-Road Vehicle Use On The Way 3. Vehicle-Wildlife Collisions Reaching Epidemic Proportions 4. No Snowmobile Speed Limit In Deschutes National Forest This Winter 5. Citizens Want Off-Road Vehicles Banned From Rocky Mountain Front 6. Supreme Court Takes Bush Administration Wilderness Case

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1. NEVADA - Wilson Canyon Closure Makes Federal Register

On November 30, 2003, the Federal Register listed the closure of an area along Walker River to camping and motorized use. The area, located within Northwest Nevada's Wilson Canyon, has suffered considerable resource damage in recent years, particularly due to motorized use. The Federal Register entry reads, "This closure is necessary in order to prevent further adverse effects to soils, vegetation, water resources, visual resources, wildlife, and wildlife habitat." The camping/motorized closure area encompasses nearly a mile on the north bank of the West Walker River with adjacent land that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimates at 51 acres.

Wilson Canyon Alliance co-founder and long-time local landowner, Larry O'Hanlon, states, "We're very pleased that the BLM has moved ahead on this, despite the fact that they have been facing a local misinformation campaign by people who either do not understand what's going on, or for some reason want to continue the rampant destruction. We are looking forward to seeing if this actually helps stop the destruction to the riverside trees, plants and the river itself. This is long overdue," he said. O'Hanlon and the Wilson Canyon Alliance were quick to point out that the closure does not block the riverside area to the public; that, on the contrary, the closure will actually allow more individuals to enjoy the public lands along the river since camping and motorized use are now prohibited. "We see this as a rare and ideal place to create a world-class regional park that will not only allow more people to use the area with less harmful impacts, but also attract visitors from all over the world who want to enjoy the novelty and beauty of a river flowing through the high desert of northern Nevada," said O'Hanlon.

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2. NATIONAL: New Forest Service Policy Limiting Off-Road Vehicle Use On The Way

Kristen Brengel with the Washington, D.C. office of the Wilderness Society recently commented that federal land managers have at last realized the 'era of going where you want is coming to an end.'

This follows a recently renewed U.S. Forest Service commitment to control the use of off-road vehicles in national forests, according to Mary Wagner, a spokesperson for Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth.

The new policy will seek to prohibit cross-country travel except under limited circumstances and [will] restrict dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to designated routes only.

Wagner states that Chief Bosworth's office has created two new teams to address the off-road vehicle issue.

The first team has been assigned to establish a nationwide off-road policy for all national forests to follow. The second team is to give each forest the tools required to complete the tough fieldwork ahead -- designating which roads to keep open and which ones to permanently close. Wagner stated, "The policy is maybe the easy part. It's the route designation that is a challenge."

Over the past 20 years, off-road vehicle use -- some legal, and an overwhelming amount illegal and highly damaging to natural resources -- has increased by an unforeseen and, as of yet, unmanageable degree. According to the Forest Service, since 1983 the estimated number of off-road vehicles owned in the U.S. went from 19.4 million to 35.9 million by the year 2000. Off-road vehicle use "grew so fast that it caught us off guard," says Raquel Poturalski, public affairs officer on the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. This growth is concurrent with an expanded trailblazing mentality displayed by some off-road enthusiasts. In Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest alone an estimated 1,000 unplanned, user-created trails have been carved within its 1.8 million acres, predominantly by off-road vehicles. Dick Schweke, travel planner for the Lewis and Clark National Forest says off-road enthusiasts "have been pioneering. And that's what we don't want."

The Forest Service is expected to release the nationwide off-road vehicle policy later this month and have it entered into the Federal Register by January 2004. The Forest Service is presently accepting public comments.

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3. NATIONAL: Vehicle-Wildlife Collisions Reaching Epidemic Proportions

Since 1999, reported auto accidents involving wildlife in Colorado have risen 83%, from 2,237 to 4,089 this past year, according to the state's Department of Transportation (CDOT). It is CDOT's contention, however, that far more accidents go unreported if vehicle damage is light. In the past decade, 20,767 vehicle-wildlife accidents were reported on Colorado highways, including collisions with elk, deer, black bear, cougar, and bighorn sheep. In total, these accidents have killed 22 persons and injured 1,998.

Master Trooper Ron Watkins of the Colorado State Patrol office views the drastic increase in accidents as a as a combination of factors including increased traffic volume, higher vehicle speeds, and high-country draught conditions which bring wildlife down to lower, often roaded and urbanized, elevations in search of food and water. Watkins states that whereas five years ago 10% of accidents handled by the State Patrol involved vehicle-wildlife collisions, the number presently stands at 13%.

Vehicle-deer collisions are the most predominant vehicle-wildlife encounters in Colorado. In the Denver-Boulder region alone an estimated 200 deer are killed each year. The Rocky Mountain Times reports that Colorado is not the only state with high incidents of vehicle-deer collisions. In Kansas and Indiana, there's an estimated 10,000 plus vehicle deer collisions each year. In 2002, Ohio saw 30,306 collisions that killed five persons and injured nearly 900. In 1997, Michigan had a staggering 65,451 reported vehicle-deer collisions, or one roughly every eight minutes.

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4. OREGON: No Snowmobile Speed Limit In Deschutes National Forest This Winter

The Forest Service will not impose mandatory snowmobile speed restrictions in Dutchman Flat Sno-Park in Oregon's Deschutes National Forest. The Forest Service announcement comes despite having internally decided that speed restrictions are needed. Mary Lang of the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District recently informed a group of trail users that speed restrictions will not take effect because the agency lacks the budget and personnel to enforce a limit. The entire district has only two law enforcement officers (LEOs) who are authorized to carry firearms and enforce rules and regulations. "We are backing off from our original intent (to impose a speed limit)," Lang said. "With only two LEOs on the district and with everything else going on during the winter months we cannot afford to be out there every day or every week or every weekend day." District Ranger Walt Schloer stated, 'if we're going to do it (implement a speed limit), we need to be able to enforce it."

Located about twenty miles southwest of Bend, Oregon, Dutchman Flat is a popular hub for both snowmobilers and skiers. Although user conflicts are not uncommon in the area, no serious accident has ever been reported between skiers and snowmobilers. For the time being, Forest Service officials will install new orange reflective signs cautioning snowmobilers to slow down, particularly in areas where ski and snowmobile trails intersect.

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5. MONTANA: Citizens Want Off-Road Vehicles Banned From Rocky Mountain Front

In late 2002, the U.S. Forest Service was inundated with public comments regarding its proposed travel plan for the Lewis and Clark National Forest within Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. The Forest Service's proposed travel plan would open nearly 80 percent of the Rocky Mountain Front to dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and snowmobiles. If implemented as proposed, the travel plan would affect an area that is rated in the 'top 1% of wildlife habitat in the nation,' according to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Superintendent Mike Aderhold. Led by The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front, outraged citizens and traditional users such as horseback riders, hunters, hikers, and outfitters launched a letter writing campaign to encourage the Forest Service to scrap the proposal and adopt a plan that favors traditional, nonmotorized use.

After a lengthy analysis of the comments that ended in late November 2003, The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front announced that 98 percent of respondents -- on a national level -- were opposed to off-road vehicle use on the Front and supported traditional uses. More than 92 percent of the total respondents from Montana opposed off-road vehicle use, as did 83 percent of the respondents who live along the Front.

Montana's Rocky Mountain Front is a 100-mile long stretch of wildlife habitat and spectacular views that borders both the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park. The Front harbors the healthiest grizzly population in the lower 48 states and is the only place south of Canada where grizzlies still freely venture onto the open prairies. Environmental groups claim that the Front is one of the few places in the West that remains as it was when Meriwether Lewis gazed upon it nearly 200 years ago.

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6. NATIONAL: Supreme Court Takes Bush Administration Wilderness Case

On November 4, the Supreme Court agreed to consider a Bush administration argument that counters efforts by environmental groups to protect the nation's remaining pristine western lands from off-road vehicle abuse. The court's decision threatens an earlier appeals court ruling [that was] sympathetic to the environmental groups. Steve Bloch, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) stated, "This is the latest step in the administration's plan to dismantle public lands protections and the protection of Americas most stunning and spectacular landscapes." The administration's case would potentially render ineffective any public input or law suit aimed at departments within the federal government for not fully and appropriately implementing congressional mandates, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) not meeting mandates in protecting public lands. Solicitor General Theodore Olson told justices reviewing the Bush case that the law does not allow courts to "entertain challenges to anything and everything that an agency may do, or fail to do, in the conduct of its business."

In 1999, SUWA along with several other environmental groups sued the Department of Interior, claiming the department had failed in protecting five areas being studied for wilderness designation: Parunuweap Canyon, Moquith Mountain, Sids Mountain, Behind the Rocks, and Indian Creek. The suit stated that off-road vehicles were severely damaging the area and that the department had failed in its Congressional directive to protect the wilderness areas.

The 10th Circuit of Appeals ruled that the department could be sued for knowingly allowing damage to the areas.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles came to a similar conclusion in a Montana case.

Jim Angell, an attorney with Denver-based Earthjustice, says that the implications of the Supreme Court considering the Bush case are far-reaching. Other critics of the Supreme Court decision agree.

If the court ultimately strikes down the 10th Circuit ruling, citizens and activists groups will find it more difficult to exercise their democratic right to sue government agencies for failing to comply with congressionally mandated programs, such housing and other social programs.

This month the Bureau of Land Management is scheduled to begin leasing land for gas and oil development on 2.6 million acres of potential wilderness in Utah and much more land elsewhere in the West.

The Bush administration case is expected to be reviewed by the Supreme Court next spring.

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"Skid Marks" comes to you compliments of Wildlands CPR. We're a non-profit conservation organization working to protect and restore wildland ecosystems by promoting road removal, preventing new wildland road construction, and limiting motorized recreation. If you're not already a member, consider joining Wildlands CPR's growing grassroots network. You'll find membership information and a wealth of road and off-road vehicle resources at our website, http://www.wildlandscpr.org  Please keep in touch with us about your roads and motorized recreation work. Questions about Skid Marks should be directed to Marnie Criley (Restoration Program Coordinator) or Kiffin Hope (Program Associate).

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