Spring 2008 Program Updates

Restoration Program
With the success of the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative and passage of the Legacy Roads Remediation Initiative (nearly $40 million appropriated to restore watersheds — see cover story), we decided to increase our own investment in this effort. So on March 1st we brought Sue Gunn, our Washington State Representative, up to halftime. Wildlands CPR Director Bethanie Walder prepared a brief survey of road removal needs around the country (see new resources) and presented this to key staff from the Forest Service chief’s office in Washington DC. Wildlands CPR is also pulling together activists from around the country to expand this effort and pursue additional road removal funding over the long-term.

Here in Montana, Restoration Coordinator Marnie Criley has been working closely with the Montana Forest Restoration Committee to implement a pilot restoration project on the Lolo National Forest. Similarly, Montana ORV Coordinator Adam Rissien sits on the Bitterroot National Forest working group that will implement a pilot project there. Both projects will be implemented within the context of the recently adopted Montana Forest Restoration Principles.

On the science side, Staff Scientist Adam Switalski completed this year’s analysis from our Clearwater National Forest road removal monitoring project. Adam finished the season with a field trip with the University of Montana’s Wilderness
and Civilization program and earned a front-page story in The Missoulian highlighting the field work and results. Adam’s preliminary analysis supported similar patterns in earlier data, showing increased use of removed roads by bear and other animals. In addition, for the first time we captured photos of a wolf, cougar, and bobcat on removed roads.

Adam also updated our annotated bibliography on road impact review articles, in addition to an annotated bibliography on all of the off-road vehicle research that has been released in the past ten years. Both bibliographies are available
on our website.

Transportation Program
To continue from the scientific perspective, Adam completed, in partnership with Wild Utah Project, a set of off-road vehicle Best Management Practices (BMPs). We’ve been partnering with Wild Utah Project for nearly two years on this project, which we finalized (after a round of peer review and revisions) in January. The BMPs provide a template for agency land managers to use when implementing off-road vehicle programs. They address laws and regulations, forest soils, vegetation, wildlife, special ecosystems and user-conflict (see New Resources, page 13). But just because we’ve released BMPs does not mean we are condoning off-road vehicle use on public lands. As long as off-road vehicles are allowed on public lands, they must be managed appropriately, but, unfortunately, it is rare to find places where this is the case.

The problems with off-road vehicle management are graphically illustrated in the new Foundation for Deep Ecology book, Thrillcraft (see RIPorter 12:4 for more info). In December and January, Wildlands CPR distributed approximately 4,500 copies of the book to conservationists and recreation activists around the country to use in their efforts to control off-road vehicles and to stop off-road vehicle abuse. Over the next few months, these books will be distributed to decision-makers, media, land managers and others who have a role in how off-road vehicles are managed.

In partnership with the Center for Biological Diversity, we crafted a compelling brochure to accompany the book and also developed resources for activists to use while distributing the book. In January, Wildlands CPR co-hosted a book release party with the Center for Biological Diversity in Washington DC.

Here in Montana, Off-Road Vehicle Coordinator Adam Rissien continues to support the Bitterroot Quiet Use Coalition in mobilizing the silent majority to write their local newspapers and send comments to the Forest Service supporting roadless, wildlife and watershed protection from continued ORV abuse on the Bitterroot National Forest. In addition to alerting Coalition members of travel planning meetings, Adam helped create a distinctive brochure highlighting the Citizens’ Alternative, which was sent to over 1,000 local residents. Visit www.quietusecoalition.org to learn more.

Adam is also keeping tabs on numerous other travel planning efforts around the state. He submitted comments on the Custer National Forest’s Ashland District Travel Plan, where the agency proposes opening nearly 400 miles of trails to all vehicle types. Additionally, he provided comments to the Kootenai National Forest’s Three Rivers District. Finally, Adam responded to the Flathead National Forest’s Glacier View and Hungry Horse Districts’ invitation to discuss travel planning by reminding forest officials of their commitment to grizzly bear recovery. Several previous decisions regarding road densities are not in compliance with Flathead Forest Plan standards.

Down south in Moab, our Utah Off-Road Vehicle Coordinator Laurel Hagen had a terrific early success when the town of Escalante, UT refused $43,000 in state funds that would have been used to build a new off-road vehicle staging area in a city park. Citing concerns from highway safety to long-term ecological impacts, local residents asked the state not to grant the funds, which were requested by ORV boosters in the county seat to increase off-road tourism. Residents of Escalante and nearby Boulder are concerned about becoming ‘another Moab’ — with the accompanying overwhelming ORV tourism and manic in-town growth.

In late December, the Bureau of Land Management issued a new report showing that off-road vehicle use is NOT king in southern UT, much to the surprise of local residents and activists. This study shows that less than 6% of visitors to Moab’s famous landscape come to ride off-road vehicles. Just before releasing this study, however, the Moab Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office closed the public comment period on its new management plan. This plan, still in its draft form, would put 84% of the Moab area’s BLM lands within half a mile of a road. Laurel is working with other conservationists in southern Utah to promote this new data and ensure it is applied to new management plans.

On the other side of the country, Wildlands CPR continued our long-term battle to protect Big Cypress National Preserve from off-road vehicle abuse. Last summer, we joined numerous conservation groups, including Florida Biodiversity Project, on a Notice of Intent to sue the Park Service after they reopened, without any analysis, some off-road vehicle routes in the Bear Island unit of the Preserve. Some of the routes were closed again in late November 2007. So much damage had occurred in just 10 months that the agency could not keep the routes open, though they claim they have closed them only until they can harden the routes with limestone to reduce the damage (basically turning them into roads). We filed our lawsuit in December to challenge the overall management in Bear Island, and its lack of compliance with the off-road vehicle management plan that was adopted after previous legal efforts.