Blog Archives for October, 2008

By Franklin Seal - October 28, 2008    During his October 23 show, Stephen Colbert of the Cobert Report aired this hilarious five-minute take on the gas-price crunch, it's dampening affect on off-road recreation and the resiliency of Hummer-owners' love for their "sport." He introduced the piece by saying, "The Hummer is in danger, but one patriotic group is working to save our chariot of freedom." (05:01)

By Bethanie Walder - October 27, 2008    I was saddened, but not terrifically surprised to see a story today reporting on a Wildlife Conservation Society study regarding African elephants.   With new road construction cutting into roadless areas in central Africa, the elephants have apparently learned to equate roads with poachers.  As a result, the elephants are basically trapped into smaller and smaller areas of habitat.  As you can probably imagine, it turns out that elephants need pretty large areas of unroaded land to thrive.

By cathy - October 24, 2008    I came across this article about a man who wanted to "do some hill climbing" in Eastern Washington and ended up driving up a popular hiking trail in a county park. Sure, it was dark (it was 2 a.m. on a Saturday night) and maybe the "No Unauthorized Vehicles" sign was difficult to see, but when asked why he drove up there, he replied he was unaware it was illegal and questioned why anybody would want to walk up a hill. Read the full article here.

By adamswitalski - October 22, 2008    It has been well established that some bird species will avoid roads.  Scientists believe that noise created from highways may disrupt bird communications which are important for establishing territories and advertising their breeding status to potential mates. 

By Sarah Peters - October 17, 2008   Folks in New Mexico have a chance to weigh in with their opinions on how Off Road Vehicles should be managed in the state.

By Bethanie Walder - October 14, 2008    On Friday, October 10, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a detailed letter taking the Forest Service and Plum Creek to task for their backroom dealings to renegotiate thousands of miles of road rights-of-way to allow for residential development on Plum Creek Lands.

By Marnie Criley - October 14, 2008    On September 18, Forest Service Chief Gail Kimball issued an interim directive on ecological restoration -

By Bethanie Walder - October 10, 2008    I spent three days this week checking out hiking, biking, equestrian and motorized trails on Forest Service lands in Montana and Idaho.  I was participating, along with a handful of activists representing each of the trail user groups mentioned above, in a Forest Service “field listening session” about the agency’s revision of their trail classification system.

By Laurel Hagen - October 7, 2008    Utah's governor, Republican John Huntsman, told the Salt Lake Tribune in a recent interview that he had witnessed extensive ORV abuse in Utah, and that "a crackdown is coming." The Trib's editorial cartoonist, Pat Bagley, responded with this excellent illustration (the little dude in the corner is supposed to be the governor): The article: ***

By Marnie Criley - October 6, 2008   On October 2, three of us from Wildlands CPR attended a one day workshop in Butte, Montana titled Growing Montana's Restoration Workforce. Wildlands CPR Board member Cara Nelson spoke about the educational opportunities and needs across the state and was quoted in an article that appeard in The Montana Standard. I spoke on a panel that focused on workforce needs across the state, specifically about training heavy equipment operators to do road decommissioning work.