US
Comments must be submitted by September 13
I received an
alert for this from none other than the Winter Wildlands
The announcement is
pretty old, and is posted on
As some of you
know, the US Forest Service is updating their Off-Road Vehicle rules. One part
of the proposal involves treating snowmobile use differently than ATV's and
motorcycles by adding a definition for snowmobiles to their travel planning
process. This proposed change has the anti-snowmobiling
groups up in arms.
Why?
In January of this
year, US Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth outlined four major threats to the
health of our national forests. They were Wildfire and Fuels, Invasive
Species (noxious weeds), Loss of Open Space, and Motorized Recreation. He
said “The day(s) we can take off-highway vehicles cross-country across the
national forests are over.”
The
anti-snowmobiling groups would like nothing more than to see snowmobiles
included in this policy. But common sense says that snowmobiles by their
very nature do not impact the forest in a manner even close to OHV
cross-country travel when there is no snow.
Please contact the
forest service and let them know that snowmobiles should have a definition
added to their travel management policies. Different points that could be
made include:
o
Because snowmobiles are operated on a
layer of snow, their environmental impacts are different than wheeled off-road
vehicles, including erosion and spread of invasive species.
o
With the exception of winter range,
there is no sound reasoning from a scientific standpoint that
snowmobiles should be restricted to designated trails.
o
Every spring the snow melts, taking
with it all evidence of prior presence of snowmobiles.
Please send your
comments to the Forest Service:
Subject: Proposed
Rule for Designated Routes and Areas for Motor Vehicle Use.
Thank you for
taking the time to care about keeping open the areas we ride.
Scott
Snowmobile Alliance of Western States
Copyright © 2004 Snowmobile
Permission is granted to distribute this
information in whole or in part, as long as Snowmobile Alliance of Western States (
http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org.
***************
Optional
Section For Your Information
The full text of the proposed rules,
entitled “Travel Management; Designated Routes and Areas for Motor Vehicle
Use", is linked here: http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/ohv/ and is available in PDF or HTML format.
The text is really long (65 pages), so let's just deal with
how it affects snowmobiles. The section of the travel regulations that is
important states:
"The proposed rule would add a definition for snowmobiles
because, as explained in the description of proposed §§212.51 and 212.81,
snowmobiles would be exempted from the mandatory designations in 36
"All but one of these exemptions, the exemption for
snowmobiles, are found in
E.O. 11644, E.O. 11989, and 36
***************
Here is what some of the
anti-snowmobiling groups are saying. I won't post what they are saying
about ATV's, as it would take up too much space.
Tell the Forest Service to protect the
places you traditionally go to enjoy peace and solitude during your visits to
public lands in winter, and urge them to ensure that a final rule requires each
National Forest to... "Include snowmobiles in the rulemaking and require
establishment of non-motorized areas for cross-country and backcountry skiers
and snowshoers."
Snowmobiles must be included in all ATV management rules!
More information can be found at www.naturaltrails.org, www.fs.fed.us,
or www.winterwildlands.org.
Winter Wildlands
www.winterwildlands.org
Please
write to the Forest Service and let them know what you think about the proposed
regulations. Please consider including the following points in your letter,
e-mail, fax, or web submission:
o
Snowmobiles should not have different
rules than other motor vehicles because they, too, can harm the environment.
The air pollution, water pollution, noise, and compaction of the snow surface
are physical effects that must be regulated. Executive Order 11644, which
mandated a system of designated areas and trails for off-road motor vehicle
use, did not exempt snowmobiles, and neither should the Forest Service. The
Forest Service should designate areas and trails for snowmobile use and
prohibit them everywhere else, just like other OHVs.
Snowlands Network
http://snowlands.org/who/index.html
Although the proposed changes are a
step in the right direction, the FS must strengthen the rule if it has a hope
of beginning to get a handle on this serious problem. To strengthen the rule,
the Forest Service should:
o
Address the problem of unmanaged winter
recreation. This proposed rule does not apply to snowmobile
recreation, which, increasingly, is conflicting with cross-country skiing and
potentially impacting water quality and wildlife.
http://www.cmc.org/cmc/conservation/index.htm