Waitin out the snow blog

Its another week in the bottle. Here I sit, at Bradley, waiting out the snow. Heading into Vegas today. Not sure when this will actually get posted.

I’ll tellya… I’ve been saying this for about a year and no one wants to believe me but in comparison to when I first started wheeling, there are at least 3 times the places to wheel than there was back then. The part that people are not seeing is that many of the places we went to back then were and still are illegal. We were wheeling along powerlines and on private property and just didn’t realize it was wrong…Until we started getting “busted” by the landowners/authorities.

Today, we are on the cusp of even more legal roads and properties. There is a lot of excitement! There is a new crop of clubs and enthusiastic wheelers out there who are chaffing at the bit to get out and explore, do trail cuts, clean ups, etc. We have been able to produce lists of unmaintained/unimproved roads that are being researched. We have private properties that need work; we even have private public places that are in need of work, research and planning.

In order for our sport to survive, we will NEED to increase the number of places to go legally because our numbers are increasing. When Eastern 4 Wheelers came into being 20 years ago, there were but a handful of 4x4 clubs here in New England and we struggled to get 30members. Now there are at least 30 organized groups, each with 20-30 members MINIMUM. Some have upwards of 80. That doesn’t include the forum clubs and the forums that aren’t clubs. There are easily thousands of people from Boston to NY who want to be out wheeling each weekend and maybe 30 places for us all to go.

With all the above in mind we have begun scouting the lists of roads and doing work researching other properties. I’d like to thank Cape Cod Jeep Club and JT4x4 for being the first two to step up and volunteer. There are currently two lists published on the EC4WDA Northeast Region forums of the roads in MA and CT. If you and your club would be interested in helping the scouting cause, let me know and I’ll will make sure that everyone is coordinated as to what roads have already been checked, what was found to be good or no good. We will be establishing those lists on the EC4WDA Northeast forum as well. I would like to use that forum as the place to also let people know when you and your club is heading out. These groups need to be small. It’s not a great idea to have 10 rigs out scouting at one location. So, if there are 10 people who want to go on a particular weekend, then we’ll need to coordinate who goes where.

Last week I mentioned that Aili and I had met with Sen Meyer of Guilford. Most of the verbiage that Aili submitted was used in the bill. As soon as I get the go ahead, I’ll be posting who to contact, the bill number, etc. Looking good.

In Ohio, they have finally got their reciprocity bill passed. That means that OH residents can ride in neighboring states with their registrations and other states can ride in OH with theirs.

OTHER NATIONAL NEWS:

*BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!*

*Michigan Department of Natural Resources Seeks Public Comment on Revised ORV Management Plan*

*Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,*

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources in cooperation with the Off-Road Vehicle Trails Advisory Board just announced the release of a revised draft management plan for ORV use in Michigan. A copy of the news release is pasted below.

Please take a couple of minute to check it out. Please pass this information along to other recreationists.

*Thanks in advance for your support,*
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107

______________________________________________________

*DNR Seeks Public Comment on Revised ORV Management Plan*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 13, 2008

CONTACT: Steve DeBrabander 517-241-3687 or Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014
Agency: Natural Resources

State recreation officials today announced the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Off-Road Vehicle Trails Advisory Board, has released a revised draft management plan for ORV use in Michigan.

Revisions to the plan were made in response to public comments on the initial draft plan that was presented to the public in August 2005. The plan provides strategic direction for management of ORV use on public lands administered by the DNR.

The substantive changes to the 2005 draft plan are the inclusion of actions the DNR will take to address illegal ORV use. This includes actions and recommendations from the ORV strategy task force that was established as a result of forest certification, which Michigan achieved from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council in 2006.

The new plan also addresses other influences that have come into play since 2005, such as legislative boilerplate language regarding trail expansion and pending legislation concerning ORV operation on public roadways.

The revised draft plan can be viewed online by going to www.michigan.gov/dnr <http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3016&MID=916&LID=42>, then clicking on the Recreation, Camping & Boating link to locate the ORV/ATV page.

Public comment on the revised plan, which may be submitted via e-mail at DNR-ORVPlanComments@Michigan.gov <mailto:DNR-ORVPlanComments@Michigan.gov>, has been extended until midnight EST, Feb. 25, 2008.

The DNR will present the revised draft plan to the Natural Resources Commission for information in April, at which time there will be additional opportunity for public comment. Final approval of the plan is scheduled for the NRC monthly meeting in May.

"Public review and comment are integral to the planning process," said Lynne Boyd, DNR Forest, Mineral and Fire Management chief. "All public comments will be taken into consideration as we finalize the plan."

BRC NATION-WIDE ACTION ALERT
PRIORITY LEVEL: CRITICAL

UPDATE! NEW COMMENT DEADLINE ON U.S. FOREST SERVICE ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT AN UNLAWFUL "DE-FACTO WILDERNESS" POLICY.

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

A few years ago, a small select group of employees in the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Montana developed an unlawful, de-facto Wilderness policy designed to close 1.3 million acres to all mountain bike, snowmobile and OHV use.

1.3 million acres of de-facto Wilderness established in the dead of the night, with a stroke of a pen, and without any public involvement.

Idaho's Clearwater National Forest is the first individual Forest in Region 1 (in northern Idaho and Montana) that has attempted site-specific implementation of the de-facto Wilderness policy. But it won't be the last.

We need your help. Please read the Action Alert below and take action today!

SITUATION:
The comment period deadline on the draft winter and summer Travel Plan for the Clearwater National Forest is set for February 29, 2008. This is the first time a National Forest in Region 1 has attempted site-specific implementation of their new (and unlawful) de-facto Wilderness policy. COMMENTS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED!

What De-Facto Wilderness Means to You:

Clearwater NF RWA: 200,000 acres
Number of acres of snowmobiling closed = 200,000 acres
Miles of single track motorcycle trails closed = 140 miles
Miles of mountain bike trails closed = UNKNOWN

Beaverhead-Deerlodge RWA: 174,000 acres
Gallatin NF RWA: 180,000 acres
Lewis & Clark RWA: 56,000 acres
Lolo NF RWA: 216,000 acres
Kooteni NF RWA: 117,000 acres
Idaho Panhandle NF RWA: 138,000 acres
Helena NF RWA: 34,000 acres
Flathead NF RWA: 93,000 acres
Custer NF RWA: 19.000 acres
Bitterroot NF RWA: 76,000 acres

TOTAL CLOSED = 1,303,000 ACRES
Warning: Information above is estimated. Actual acreage figures are likely to increase when new Forest Plans become final.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
Send a simple email comment to the Clearwater.
Here is a link to Clearwater's Travel Plan webpage: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/clearwater/Projects/TravPlan/ClwTravel.htm

The email address is: comments-northern-clearwater@fs.fed.us

IMPORTANT: Put "Comments on Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan" in the subject line and be certain to include your name and address at the end of the comments. A return email address is NOT sufficient! (FS often discards "anonymous" email comments.) Copy the text below and paste into your email.

Lois Foster, Travel Plan Interdisciplinary Team Leader
Lochsa Ranger District, Kamiah Ranger Station
Rt. 2 Box 191
Kamiah, ID 83536

I would like to make the following comments on the Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan. The comment is made using the "issues in the form of questions" format. Please consider these questions in the Alternative development and please also include a full discussion of each question in the EIS. I also request the EIS include a discussion and brief analysis of previous Congressional Wilderness designations so the public may understand how the existence of motorized uses actually impacts Congress's ability to designate Wilderness. I also request that the Clearwater provide a true range of management Alternatives, including one "action" alternative that, at the very minimum, does not reduce the current motorized and mountain bike opportunity.

Question 1) In Montana Wilderness Assoc. v. U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. District Court of Montana found that Congress required the Forest Service to strike--and maintain--a balance between wilderness character and motorized use in WSAs established by that Act. Given that Congress envisioned motorized uses in Wilderness Study Areas they established, what is the Forest Service's rationale for excluding motorized uses in Recommended Wilderness Areas (RWAs)?

Question 2) If the existence of motorized uses does not preclude an area from being designated as an RWA, then what is the Forest Service's rationale for eliminating motorized uses in RWAs?

Question 3) What level of motorized or mountain bike use would disqualify an area from being a RWA?

Question 4) In the Eastern Wilderness Act, Congress designated areas Wilderness that contained motorized uses, structures, maintained roads and even sections of paved roads. Has the Forest Service studied the level of motorized uses that actually precludes Congress from designating an area as Wilderness?

YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS

I think that’s it for this week.

Talk soon,

Dave Brill

EC4WDA National Land Use Chair.

EC4WDA Northeast Region Land Use Chair.

This Land Use Thing

Hey its that time again. Sittin writing land use stuff. You do realize that when the summer hits and I'm out every weekend on the trails, cutting new ones, doing clean ups, land Use seminars, etc, that you won't have this wonderful literary masterpiece to look forward to each week. HaHaHa.


Anyway... what do we have going this week?


As I have mentioned previously, we have a situation where, between the clubs in NEA and our EC4WDA Northeast Region clubs, and those unaffiliated with either, there are well over 25 groups out wheeling every month, mostly on the public roads that they find by surfing the web, going over maps, etc. The most popular ones (like OFR, OCR and even quasi private ones like MaBell and Gutter) get massive use every weekend.


Well, far be it for us to sit idly by and fuss over it. By joining forces, we are generating lists of other old town roads, listed as unmaintained on the town records in both CT, MA and NH currently. The Map6 program in NH was up and running with NEA but I haven't heard any new news as to whether its usable yet. I believe there are still lots of class 6 roads that need to scouted in southern NH. The same holds true for CT and MA. The first club to step up and volunteer has been Cape Cod Jeep Club. I have been working with them to get them out to these locations to check out whether this road or that is actually something one needs 4WD for or if its simply a grated dirt road. JT4x4 has also volunteered.



I am puting the CT list together this weekend to get to them both. They have been "educated" on how to scout, what to do if someone meets up with them and confronts them, mapping and GPS ideas, etc. Hopefully, this will help decrease the amount of travel taking place on our more popular roads as hopefully at least a few more will be found that will suite our brand of wheeling.


The same landowner that owns Gutter makes mention on their website that their property is open for use for everyone to use and share. Hikers, ATVs, horses, etc. They do not give out locations of their properties. Overuse/abuse of the privileges given will get the land taken away. The owners used to be members of a New England 4x4 club years ago and the original contacts are still there. We are currently working to scout the known properties for more possible locations. If anything is found, please, contact me and I will make sure that the original contacts are made fully aware of the location and what was found. I am purposely being vague because we need to keep this organized and we can't have a whole bunch of people out looking, bumping into each other, doing twice the work, etc. We also don't want to get the landowners confused by having to deal with lots of people instead of just one Point of Contact (POC).


That brings up another quick point. Each piece of property that our clubs have established have POCs. For DeadFall, its me; for the Ranch its Steve Alheim; for Crazy 8s, its Paul Taranto; etc. We would ask that if you are interested in running a property or attending a ride that is already taking place on the land, that you contact the POC for that property.


On to some good news. Aili and I met Saturday with my senator, Ed Meyer, who represents the CT 12th District; Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison & North Branford. I will simply post both Aili's and my own "report" of the meeting: Aili's:

This morning Dave B and I sat down for breakfast with Senator Ed Meyer, co-chair of the Environment Committee. It was very insightful. He asked many questions, in particular we touched on universal registration. We reitterated the fact that universal reg will not solve the problems that its proponents think it will. Getting trails is the important task, that once trails are open, riders will willingly register. . He noted that he was pretty sure they got last year's bill out of Enviro and that it got stuck in Trans., and we stated that if we keep any mention of registration out of this bill, we won't have to take it to Trans. He has concerns about opposition without a registration component, but understood that with a short session there's just no time to shuffle it through both committees.


A few other topics we discussed was the internal workings of the Governor's office, issues with budget and funding to the DEP, internal workings of the DEP and things of similar nature. The Governor is being very stingy with money this year and has already rejected a few proposals. We may need to do some letter writing to her office, and we may request a meeting with her chief of staff. Sen. Meyer has met with Gina McCarthy. He actually said the DEP is "in shambles" since Gov. Rowland's cuts back in 2000.


The meeting was brief -- his grandson is in the hospital and he was on the phone several times -- we actually talked for perhaps 20 minutes. It was an excellent opportunity for Dave in particular to establish a relationship with his senator, and it was fun for me to have Dave buy me breakfast (that doesn't happen very often).

If anyone would set up a meeting with their legislators, I'd be happy to come along or if not, give you a set of our position papers for them. Even without getting outright support, I'm sure Sen. Meyer has a better understanding of what we're looking for and now has faces to attach to the issue.
Contact Ali at: defygravity@snet.net

and my take on the meeting:

We met up my Senator (Ed Meyer) at a diner. Reasoning we found out was because our state senators and representatives don't have regional/district offices. The state doesn't have the money to fund district offices for all of them and have their offices at the state capitol. So, many meet up with their constituents at diners or other public places. This made it difficult to play the DVD but combined with the other info we gave him including the video, he was VERY impressed. We definitely enlightened him to many aspects of our use he was not aware of.

We truly believe the he was expecting us to be dressed in jeans and sweatshirt, and sit down and complain. We had glossy printed material, stuff from Tread Lightly!, NOHVCC; our own position papers, tucked into a professionally printed folder and of course, the DVD. VERY professional indeed. With all this "slick" PR stuff, he outright asked us.."Just how many people are we talking about here.. because this doesn't seem like the PR of a small grassroots CT organization." When we said that in CT alone, he is looking well over 50,000 ATV enthusiasts, 25,000 OHM enthusiasts and 5000+ 4WD enthusiasts, he nearly choked on his eggs. He was also totally unaware that the ATV law, on the books right now, stating that the Commissioner of DEP shall make land available for OHV use, has been a law for 21 years and nothing has been done about it.

He has invited us to take part in the bill writing process with his Environmental Committee secretary (yeah, here in CT citizens don't write the bills. Ideas are submitted to the committee chairs and are written by those committees' secretaries.) So, getting invited to actually be part of that writing process is a big deal.
We have a short session so we'll see how well this bill gets moving or if it dies in committee.

I have a promise from the Senator that he is going to show the video to his fellow enviro comm members. Seeing as he lives a mere five minutes away from me, I will pick up the video within the next couple of weeks.


Speaking of the video, I have rec'd 15 copies of the DVD. It is very slick. Glossy photo cover, plastic jacket. Looks just like something you'd buy at Best Buys. I got enough for a copy for each club, please notify me of who you would like to receive it in yours. I will keep the extras and use for the rest of EC4WDA's regions.

From the "what we are up against" files:
Wildlands CPR is a national organization formed to fight road building. Not just paved roads mind you, ALL roads, dirt, etc. Not only are they against building roads of any kind but they actively work to get roads decommissioned/destroyed.

Here is a link to a page from their site "Roads Impacts on Ecology,Wildlife, etc"

Another page from the same site: OHV's Impacts. Wildlife, Social, etc

If you just want to peruse their site you can see that what we feel is over the edge is rather commonplace for extreme anti-access folks:
WildlandsCPR

and to finish up. Here is a recent article written on the Center for Biological Diversity, the same group who has just expanded to VT.

Group a force of nature for endangered species

Center has won hundreds of lawsuits vs. feds B. POOLE From a cluttered, borrowed warehouse in an industrial neighborhood on Tucson's near North Side, a small group of environmentalists is changing the world - one lawsuit at a time.

The Center for Biological Diversity staff brandishes the Endangered Species Act like a blunt-force instrument. Leverage from its petitions and lawsuits - more than 500 in 18 years - helped gain protection for nearly a fourth of the 1,351 endangered or threatened plants and animals in the United States.

The nonprofit organization that started in 1989 as three idealists in a Phoenix apartment, two of them on unemployment after being fired by the U.S. Forest Service, has grown to more than 40,000 members with 11 offices in six states. The center's budget grew tenfold in the past decade.

In southern Arizona alone, center petitions helped add the Mexican spotted owl, cactus ferruginous pygmy owl and jaguar to the list of endangered species (The pygmy owl was de-listed in 2006 but the center is trying to get it back on the list).
Its lawsuits forced the government to protect habitat for spotted owls, Pacific pocket mice and northern right whales. Dozens of plants the center helped protect are so rare they have no common names. In 2005, the center petitioned Fish & Wildlife to list polar bears as threatened. It is the center's attempt to show that global warming is affecting wildlife. A listing decision is due in coming weeks.

Critics accuse the center of helping to hobble Fish & Wildlife, the federal agency with the task of protecting the nation's endangered species. Since 2000, the agency has spent nearly all of its endangered species listing budget complying with court orders arising from lawsuits such as the center's. But the lawsuits are only to force the federal government to follow its own laws...
Continued here

If we could garner a third of the fervor these extreme groups have, we would have OHV parks in every state and plenty of public land to use.

Thats it for this week.
Any questions, please contact me at E4WBrill@aol.com

Talk soon,

Land Use this week.

It seems as though I'll be pushed even further into the 21st century now. Posting to a blog, that will eventually be set up as an rss feed that will link live, directly into club websites and into their email folders.

What I have done in the past and will continue to do, is post info out to email lists too. So, if you are subscribed to this, you may very well get this in other forms via the EC4WDA Land Use list or via my personal land use list.

A lot has been happening spread out over several forums and I'm not sure where to start of if I even should start.

First, I'll let everyone know that there is a video available from Trails In Trouble. org aka Friends of the Sequoias Chris Horgan heads up those groups and we met him at the NAMRC meeting this past November.

This video is being made available to us for FREE. Although it can also be purchased as a way to help support the Trails In Trouble organization out in Cali. It can be viewed HERE. I am ordering one for every club in our Northeast Region. I am also going to order some to be available for at least every other region within EC4WDA. I would like to make a donation to this cause for nothing else but to help support the efforts put into producing this DVD.

Next up is another in the "what were up against" dept. Throughout our dealings with the JQ Public and our legislators, we feel very strongly that everything thing we say is truth. That always isn't the case with the antis. They feel so strongly that motorized use shouldn't be allowed in the forests, that they will simply outright lie in order to make their points. The same holds true for their position on other agendas too.

Here is an article showing that in action:

Earthjustice's Clean Water Poll Comes Up Short

Peyton Knight takes a close look at Earthjustice polling on the Clean Water Act:

Last month, the environmental activists at Earthjustice breathlessly released the results of a poll the group had commissioned that supposedly reveals rural voters' feelings on the Clean Water Act. The purpose of this classic push poll is to give the impression that rural voting districts support a vast expansion of the Clean Water Act, and therefore, would support the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421 and S. 1870), a bill designed to bring federal regulatory authority to every field drainage ditch, pond and prairie pothole in the nation. However, a look at the actual polling data reveals a different story than the group presents in its press release.

For example, in its press release, Earthjustice claims: "Results from the survey of 300 randomly selected rural voters in each of three congressional districts in Illinois (15th), Ohio (18th) and Tennessee (4th), polled in mid-December, show that more than three-fourths of those polled
indicated they were very concerned about pollution of lakes, rivers and streams."

This simply is not true. The poll results clearly show that an average of only 55 percent of those polled responded that they were "very concerned" about "pollution of lakes, rivers and streams." Thus, Earthjustice inflated the poll's actual results by over 20 percent. In addition, the results show that a clear majority of those polled (roughly 63 percent) do not have ANY concerns about drinking water straight from the tap. This bit of inconvenient truth failed to make it into the Earthjustice press release. Christine Matthews, president of the firm that conducted the poll for Earthjustice, states in the press release: "The notion that farmers might view environmental regulations as excessive was absolutely not in evidence here."

This may be true, however, only because Matthews' company didn't bother to ask many farmers. The polling data shows that a whopping 77 percent of those polled do not "currently own, operate, or work on a farm."

Earthjustice also trumpets that 55 percent of those polled agreed with the poll interviewer that "the government has not gone far enough with laws to protect the environment and to keep our water free from pollution." But considering the usual one-sided nature of push polls, this particular poll's 5.6 percent margin of error and the fact that those likely to be most affected by federal clean water regulations (i.e., farmers) weren't truly represented, this number is hardly impressive. In fact, nearly half of those questioned either responded that "the government has gone too far with laws regulating environmental protection which has hurt businesses and landowners," or didn't care enough to have an opinion.

To contact author Peyton Knight directly, write him at pknight@nationalcenter.org

On a national level, thats all I have in this week.

On to regional issues:

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the EC4WDA's Northeast Region's activity schedule for 2008 - http://www.undergroundjeeps.net/EC_Schedule.html

There are well over 100 events on this list, with an easy way to contact each and every club. That means that as EC4WDA Northeast Region members, you can attend any of those rides as long as the host club has room for you. One can easily be out wheeling every weekend of the year and then some.
This massive amount of rail riding however, has its downfalls. It means that a LOT of trucks will be out on our roads, trails and private lands.

In this end, we would ask that as clubs, we try to take it easy on the roads and trails we drive. Simply put, follow the Tread Lightly! principles. Keep attempts at getting over an obstacle to a minimum. Try to keep from doing "pick up runs" to the trails local to you on a regular basis and hook up with one of the rides that is going on the same weekend.

Lastly, I'm not even sure if I should get into this...

The roads at Coy Hill.

For the background, head over to http://www.friendsofcoyhill.org/forums/index.php Look around and read.
OK, now that you've done that, it has been agreed upon by both the NEA and EC4WDA that despite the fact that the town roads are not closed, we as organized associations will not drive in the area until all matters are settled.
For the record, the only part of that area that was EVER legal was the road. All the other great wheeling was not legal, only allowed due to a state WMA manager looking the other way.
Recently, Rich B. decided to go against what even he had previously agreed with and planned a ride with certain members of his club on the town roads in that area. This despite pleadings from those in the organized wheeling world to not do this. It was supposed to take place today. I have not yet heard whether he went through with his plans. Obviously in doing so, he would hurt the credibility of those who have worked closely with the town and state to make things smooth out.

I think thats it. At least for now...

Talk soon,