Vera Smith, Conservation Director for the Colorado Mountain Club, testified in February before the Sub com mittee on Forests and Public Lands. Senator Ben Night horse Campbell requested that the Subcommittee hold oversight hearings on the White River National Forest plan revision process in response to complaints from motorized recreationists and ski industry representatives that the plan was overly restrictive.
The original composition of the testifying panel had eight representatives from the motorized community, the ski industry, and local government, one environmental representative, and no representatives of the non-motorized recreation community. CMC contacted the Subcommittee and requested to be added to the panel so that the voice of the non-motorized recreation community could be heard.
The goal of the testimony was to insure that the Subcom mittee understood the perspective of the non-motorized recreation community, namely that the Forest should be managed with ecological protection as a top priority.
In December 1999, the Colorado Mountain Club organized a meeting with the non-motorized recreation community in Colorado to develop a set of guiding principles by which the White River National Forest should be managed. “We developed the principles because the voice of the non-motorized community, the largest user constituency by far on the Forest, was not being heard,” said Steve Bonowski, the chair of the CMC Conservation Committee and a participant in the meeting. According to Forest Service statistics, in the summer non-motorized backcountry recreation is 12 times as popular as motorized backcountry recreation.
The main emphasis of the principles is that the Forest Service should manage human uses within ecological constraints, that roadless areas should remain roadless, and that recreation, including skiing, can negatively impact the environment and should be limited, as necessary, to protect the health of forests and wildlife and the quality of life in our mountain towns.
The testimony can be viewed at www.cmc.org/cmc/conservation/index.htm