US Senate meeting on OHV use - June 5th

[-Bluegill-]

The US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is meeting in Washington DC this Thursday to discuss OHV use on National Forest land. As you know with the recent struggles to maintain the trails at Tellico this is a huge issue.

Luckily for us, there are Senators on that Committee from all over the country. You can click on their names to get to their individual contact info from this link.

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=About.Members

Even the simplest email will go a long way!

EDIT: for Volunteer state residents (TN), Bob Corker's contact link doesn't work. Here is his web contact page:
http://corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactInformation.ContactMe

This is what i sent him, feel free to copy & paste if you want:
(first 2 sentences are "butter" material)


Senator Corker,

I want to thank you for the fine work you've done in representing Tennessee's interests in the US Senate. Your actions so far have made me proud that I voted for you. Having been informed of an upcoming meeting of the Energy & Natural Resources Commitee this Thursday, please allow me to address my issue. I am an avid outdoor enthusiast, including camping, fishing, and hunting - but by far my favorite activity is off roading. And I am not alone, there are many responsible off road enthusiasts whom I know of here in eastern TN that are concerned about us losing our access to public OHV designated land. The biggest example of which is the Upper Tellico OHV area.

I consider myself blessed to have an abundance of public OHV areas in east TN, but at the same time - worried that these highly valued public assets are becoming restricted from further OHV use. While I realize that it is practically impossible to please everyones interests, I do ask that you consider our OHV use interests when the commitee meets. Thank you in advance for your time & consideration.

[Casey]

:thumbsup: Good job.

If all it takes is a simple threat to sue the USFS (not actually filing suit) to close trails at Tellico, imagine the ramifications from a Senate hearing to rid public land of OHV users. :mad:

Make sure you buy an ECI raffle ticket. Chance to win a set of BFG tires or gift certificates from BJ's. The proceeds will be donated to the Save Tellico Fund. ;)

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=86064

Looks like UFWDA, BRC and SFWDA will need all the help they can get. They are actually filing suit against the USFS.
I'm no lawyer but they (mostly SFWDA)appear to have a good case. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and man hours invested in the area over a 20 year period. Working with the USFS to maintain the trail system, volunteer labor, private citizens, all of them OHV enthusiasts.

Perhaps a legal mind will chime in on the issue.

http://www.ufwda.org/news_view.php?id=108

[Tad]

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=ca2e6111-befb-b64a-8a55-3945b88b484e

Those are the witnesses that will testify.
Should not be too hard to contact them.

Why is this in OT?
Seems this should be stickied at the top of Gen Disc :thumbsup:

[Tad]

Running out of time on this one folks.
You like to wheel?
You might want to contact these folks.

[KaiserMan]

Oh, okay. I thought they where meeting on over-head valve use untill I opened the thread.

[Marvin Gates]

You might want to tell him you are representing at least 10,000 folks, just in our group!
AND WE VOTE!

[sungoesdown]

Jim DeMint just got several emails....c'mon guys!

[Casey]

Jim DeMint just got several emails....c'mon guys!
I e-mailed him as well.

I pointed out that we veterans are avid OHV enthusiasts. If he's as big of a proponent for veterans rights as he claims to be....:rolleyes:

[cajun_lad]

That meeting is today???
Hope I wasn't too late. Sent one 'nice' letter to Mr. DeMint, and one to my home state senator Mrs. Landrieu.

[-Bluegill-]

Sorry about the late notice, I didin't find out about it until 2hrs before I posted it here.

They have a .ram webcast of the meeting, click on the "view archive webcast" to see it. As usual for the Senate - it is a long meeting, just over 2hrs on the webcast.
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=ca2e6111-befb-b64a-8a55-3945b88b484e

[bairy]

Sorry about the late notice, I didin't find out about it until 2hrs before I posted it here.

They have a .ram webcast of the meeting, click on the "view archive webcast" to see it. As usual for the Senate - it is a long meeting, just over 2hrs on the webcast.
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=ca2e6111-befb-b64a-8a55-3945b88b484e

Anybody that watched it all...

Cliffnotes??

[-Bluegill-]

I actually paid attention thru the whole thing, although i did have to pause it a few times & splash water on my face to keep from being bored to sleep. :D

Sadly, my Senator & several others on the committee were not there. :mad: I feel that our interests as off road enthusiasts were pretty well represented. It seems that most of the discussion about OHV's in general was leaning toward ATVs & motocross bikes. I thought it was interesting to learn that the USFS is years ahead of the BLM in implementing trail management systems at the local level. All examples given by panelists & Senators were WEST of the Mississippi River, meaning no one even touched the subject of Tellico - which is why the meeting was called for in the first place (IMO, because of SFWDA's lawsuit). I was impressed with Joel Holstrop's grasp of the situation (deputy Chief of National Forests, USFS). Henri Bisson (BLM Director) seemed to have a bit of "Yeah, whatever..." attitude, but both of them understand how popular OHV use currently is.

Senators that spoke during the meeting: Bingaman, Salazar, Craig, Tester, Murkowski, and one from Oregon (can't remember which). Let me tell you, if it were possible - I would vote for Idaho Senator Craig in a heartbeat - that man is an off roader's friend! Doubt that he drinks, but if I met him, I'd buy him whatever he is drinking just for the comments he made in that meeting.

Trout Unlimited has an ex-USFS bigwig as their Arizona chief in Brad Powell, and to put it nicely he painted the worst pictures of OHV abuse. Needless to say I do not support (nor encourage support) of that organization. My first impression of Greg Mumm (BRC Director) was that he had taken too much Valium or inhaled a doobie before the meeting, but his last comments made up for all my misgivings about him - he helped the Senators understand that most of the "bad apple" incidents given by Mr. Powell, Ms. Culver, and Mr. Adams took place in public OHV areas BEFORE the new trail management systems were implemented. Mr. Holstrop & Mr. Bisson had already given statistics that supported Mr. Mumm's claim.

Bottom lines that the Committee left the meeting with a better understanding of:
1. new trail management systems being implemented by USFS & BLM are working
2. BLM is WAY behind - FS expects completion of trail management implementation by Dec '09 - BLM estimates it will take 10 years. :eek:
3. Both organizations are undermanned, must coordinate with local Sherriff offices for help providing law enforcement
4. Education at local levels of trail management systems is critical (evidence proven by statistics)
5. the Committee will push for more funding for both gov't entities, because they understand that OHV use has explosively grown over 400% in the past 20yrs.

[Casey]

I just got a call from the office of Sen. DeMint! His office says that the Senator agrees that we should continue to have access to our designated public OHV areas.

He will get my vote/support. I urge other enthusiasts from SC to vote for him as well.

[cajun_lad]

done deal