BLM crafting a national
off-road vehicle strategy
This is the year for national land management strategies. Not to be outdone by the Forest Service’s national roadless area protection strategy and its roads policy, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is developing a national off-road vehicle (ORV) strategy to address the issue of burgeoning and uncontrolled ORV use on BLM lands.
The BLM is seeking ideas and comments from the public on how best to insure environmentally responsible ORV use on the public lands. The BLM will develop a strategy based on public input to address land-management issues prompted by the growing popularity of ORV use.
“We need the public’s help to find ways to keep pace with the growing use of ORVs while conserving our natural resources,” BLM director Tom Fry said.
Over the summer, the BLM held a series of public meetings around the nation asking for the public to provide constructive ideas on how the agency can manage this increasingly problematic form of recreation.
In Colorado, hearings were held in Lakewood and Grand Junction. At each, the BLM began the meeting by asking three people representing different constituencies to share their ideas. The Colorado Mountain Club represented the environmental community in Lakewood.
Vera Smith, Conservation Director for the Colorado Mountain Club (CMC), complemented the BLM on recognizing the need to develop a national ORV strategy; she offered seven tangible policy points that the CMC would like to see implemented.
“It is key that the BLM establish large tracts of land that are motor-free to insure that key habitats and species are adequately protected into the future and that people can explore the backcountry and find the solitude and peace that they seek and cherish.” Smith pointed out that over ninety per cent of BLM lands in Colorado are currently open to motors; yet, paradoxically, non-motorized recreation is considerably more prevalent on public lands than its motorized counterpart.
Smith also emphasized that adequate rules and regulations already exist that the agency can use to manage ORV use, but the agency has, to date, failed to utilize these regulations. “We are not asking for a bunch of new regulations; we are asking that the agency fulfill its responsibilities by enforcing and utilizing the regulations that already exist,” stated Smith.
The Colorado BLM has already initiated a planning process for designating official travel routes and determining areas that will be open to motors. “BLM is currently working on a strategy to address OHV issues in Colorado,” BLM Colorado state director Ann Morgan said. “These national listening meetings will help set the stage for our efforts.” Currently, forty-seven percent of BLM lands in Colorado are open to cross-country, unregulated ORV use. An additional forty-four percent are open to motors but with some type of restriction. Only nine percent are closed to motorized use.
ORVs have been implicated in the proliferation of illegally-created routes, in the degradation of watershed health from accelerated erosion, in the disruption and destruction of critical species and habitats, and in the spread of noxious weeds deep into backcountry areas.
The popularity of ORVs has grown exponentially since the 1980s when they were practically a non-issue on public lands. Technological advances have resulted in a fleet of vehicles that can crawl up mountainsides, through canyons, and into the most remote backcountry. However, the BLM’s budget-related resources—including the number of recreation specialists and law enforcement personnel—have not kept pace with the past decade’s growth in ORV use, making it impossible for the BLM to produce adequate recreation plans, monitor the impacts of recreation, or enforce against those behaving irresponsibly.
The comment period on the BLM ORV strategy is open until August 31, 2000. For more information, visit http://www.blm.gov/ohv/ohvstrategy.htm. To see the seven policy points suggested by the CMC, visit ww.cmc.org/cmc/conservation/cmccon.htm and click on “advocacy.”