Thanks brother TRX430ex.

 

What Did Your Congressmen Have To Say? !


Statement of Senator Orrin G. Hatch before the Senate Subcommittee on Forest and Public Land Management Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
November 2, 1999

CLINTON FOREST ROAD POLICY

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I would like to thank you for holding this hearing. You have
shown excellent leadership on this issue, and I want you to know that you have my full support.

As you know, President Clinton's most recent forest road policy would close about half
of the 8 million acres of Forest Service land in Utah and about 40 percent of the Forest
Service lands in the rest of the nation. Under the President's proposal, our citizens are to consider stretches of their forests "closed" unless the lands are expressly posted as "open." Mr. Chairman, Robin Hood and his gang enjoyed greater freedom in
Sherwood Forest than our citizens will have on their own lands under this proposal.

This latest move by the President is not simply about managing roads in our national
forests, and I think everyone in this room recognizes that. It is nothing short of an
attempt to wrest from the Congress and the American people the power to designate
wilderness in our national forests. It is, for all intents and purposes, a vast onesizefitsall 40 million acre wilderness designation only, it comes without any public input or congressional sanction.

Mr. Chairman, the American people have not given the Forest Service or the President
the power to designate wilderness. With the Wilderness Act of 1964, Congress made it
clear that some lands should be set aside as wilderness. But what this Administration
seems regularly to forget is that the Wilderness Act sets up a very public process and then gives only Congress the power to designate wilderness.

Mr. Chairman, the people of Utah are wondering why the President hasn't used the
established methods of making Forest Service policy; why he hasn't shown the faintest
interest in learning the needs of the rural communities that would be the most affected
this proposal; and why he is shutting out the vast majority of recreationists to whom this
land belongs?

The Forest Service records show that recreation is the fastest growing use of our
forests. Yet, the Forest Service acknowledges that only 2 percent of recreationists make use of the 35 million acres of existing wilderness. In other words, Mr. Chairman, the other 98 percent of the public who use our forests will lose access to an additional 40 million acres, so that the elite 2 percent will have sole access to 40 percent of our national forests. No wonder the President has not sought public input for this proposal.

It saddens me, Mr. Chairman, that the only answer I have to offer the citizens of Utah is that the President is, once again, attempting to secure political points with extreme environmental groups on the backs of rural communities. Having written off rural
America early in his term, President Clinton has repeatedly stretched his power as far as
possible in an effort to curry favor with such interests. I cannot believe that responsible advocates for the environment would support this blatant circumvention of the established processes for designating wilderness.

Mr. Chairman, I hope your committee can help bring some reason into this process.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my view on this matter.

Congressman James Hansen has also got some pretty nifty ideas!

<A Href="http://congress.org/cgi-bin/webreturn.pl?link=www.house.gov/hansen/&dir=congressorg2">Eastern Wildneress</a>

And if any mountain bikers are reading.. You Must See This!

<A Href="http://congress.org/cgi-bin/webreturn.pl?link=www.house.gov/hansen/&dir=congressorg2">Suckering Mountain Bikers</a>

[This message has been edited by TopCat (edited 12-10-1999).]

 

I attended a Forest Service meeting on the 13th of this month in Boise Id. There were approximately 500 people in attendence. 75% multiple use and 25% Tree Huggers.

the thing that floored me was the definition of what the Forest Service says a road is. " A road is any maintained roadway that is accessable by a passenger car" This is their out for closing most of the roads in the forest. They say they only have funds to maintain 35% of the existing "Roadways" so you see the roadless area will expand yearly as less and less roads are maintained to passenger car standards.
For more information on the meeting that was held here in Boise check out our ATV club web page at <a href="http://www.outdooridaho.com/idatv">http://www.outdooridaho.com/idatv </a>

------------------


[This message has been edited by minehunter (edited 12-21-1999).]

[This message has been edited by minehunter (edited 12-21-1999).]

 

I think is the url you may have been after.

<A HREF="http://www.outdooridaho.com/idatv"> Idaho ATV Association</A>

<A HREF="http://www.outdooridaho.com/idatv/green.htm">

Oh and make sure that you all read this Green-Response!</A>

Not sure who exactly posted the above but I hope that this corrects the bad link from above.