Background
information:
On
April 1st and 2nd of 2004, the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger
District in the
On
Between
the summit and posted closure, the ranger’s office and Portland Regional Forest
Service office were inundated with cards, letters, e-mail and telephone calls,
most all pushing for the closure of Tumalo Mountain
by non-motorized groups.
As
motorized users ran across the posting on some internet forums, a tremendous
uproar forced the Forest Service to hold a public meeting, two weeks after
announcing the closure. Motorized users
came out in force, by some estimates outnumbering the non-motorized users three
to one. I am told that the meeting was a
facade and that there was never any intention of using the meeting to initiate
any change in the policy.
Through
numerous FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests (if you would like scanned
copies of the information provided in these requests, simply e-mail katies-OR@Snowmobile-Alliance.org and I
will send them to you as soon as they are all scanned) it became clear that the
safety claims against snowmobilers were
unfounded. We all know that there are
bad apples in every group, however, law enforcement found no legitimate
conflicts and issued no citations to snowmobilers for
a conflict with a non-motorized user; at
least not that the Forest Service has provided through FOIA requests.
A
2005
Proposal:
There is only one equitable answer to
the perceived "user conflicts."
Plowing
The remaining non-wilderness areas in
this national forest are then reopened
(excluding currently leased lands for downhill skiing) and made
available to shared use recreation, which includes those non-motorized users
who do not have a problem sharing with motorized users.
Any additional fees required to plow
and maintain the road would be raised by user fees collected from those using
the newly plowed area or simply raising the snowpark
fees for the non-motorized users by $5 each.
This would resolve most, if not all, user conflicts and allow
non-motorized users to enjoy the land set aside especially for their pursuits.
It
is anticipated that many of the radical non-motorized users will oppose any
proposal that allows snowmobilers more areas to
recreate than are currently allowed.
In fact the organized campaign to ban motorized use was, and is, being
led by the Wild Wilderness organization. This is an extremist
organization campaigning to ban all motorized recreation on all public
lands. This campaign is not about safety. It is about
eradicating motorized use.
To
quote one of their founders, Mr. Neubauer,
"Areas that, like Dutchman Flat, have had much of their former redeeming
values of peace, tranquility, solitude, and silence, effectively destroyed by
the intrusive and chaotic behavior that accompanies motorized
recreation." He also admits, "It is likely the area
actually has fewer non-motorized visitors than a decade ago, a displacement
caused by the growing incompatibility of the two user groups." Mr. Neubauer is
correct when he states, "The Forest Service is obligated to take action to
resolve these longstanding and ever increasing problems." We believe our proposal serves all user
groups. Why is it that
snowmobilers are always the group sustaining more
restrictions and closed areas?
Requested action:
Please
attend the
Kristin
Bail kbail@fs.fed.us Leslie
Weldon lweldon@fs.fed.us
Acting
Ranger
Katie
Sharkey
Snowmobile
Protecting the right to ride for the owners of 247,864
registered snowmobiles (2004) in the western
Copyright © 2005 Snowmobile
Permission
is granted to distribute this information in whole or in part, as long as
Snowmobile