NOT concerning ONE TIRE off the road!

From a BRC alert

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BRC ECO LAWSUIT ALERT

CALIFORNIA - Outrageous Flag Day Present from Radical CBD/PEER Alliance

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

Most Americans celebrate Flag Day today by hoisting the Flag at their homes or places of business. Radical environmental groups? They file lawsuits.

Don Amador, BRC's Western Rep, sent us the latest lawsuit, and it is the next in a long line from the Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. This lawsuit attempts to tell how Inyo County, California, manages its roads.

You can read their alert here: PEER:

I can think of a much better way to celebrate Flag day. How about a donation to BRC's legal program? Click here.

If BRC isn't your OHV org of choice, please donate to another. The point is to get in the habit of regular financial support, in addition to membership dues.

The thing is... No public lands advocacy effort can affect access on the ground without a continual and effective presence in the court and no OHV advocacy has the funding sources these radicals do. ALL OHV advocacy groups depend on donations from their members and supporters.

Don told me BRC will be reviewing this issue with the local and state OHV groups, and others as well. So as we so often say, stay tuned.

Thanks in advance and, as always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact BRC.
__________________________________________________ __________________________
PEER:

For Immediate Release: June 14, 2012
Contact: Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337

LAWSUIT FILED CHALLENGING PLAN TO ALLOW ORVS ON INYO COUNTY ROADS —

INDEPENDENCE, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility took action today to hold Inyo County accountable to adequately review the environmental impacts of an ill-conceived pilot project to allow off-road vehicles to use county roads. In a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court today, the two conservation organizations challenged the county’s recent approval of a procedure that would allow non-street-legal vehicles to use county roads without the environmental review required by California law.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors’ action would allow all terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other “greensticker” vehicles to use the same roadways as street-legal vehicles. “Greensticker” vehicles are not required to comply with emissions, noise and safety standards (e.g. lights and turn signals) required for street legal vehicles, and are not required to carry insurance. In addition to the obvious risk to human life and limb, increasing access for off-road riders, known to venture off roads and trails, also threatens the numerous sensitive plants and wildlife that call Inyo County home, and exposes residents to chronic noise and harmful particulate matter.

“Inyo County is setting up a wreck,” said Ileene Anderson, desert program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The county is home to so many threatened and endangered species that could be hurt by expanded ORV use — on both public and private lands. The county needs to figure out how to protect these resources, as well as public health, before it approves this new use of county roads.”

The plan’s poor-quality environmental review did not even attempt to identify and analyze the impacts of the countywide program, which is designed to expand off-road vehicle use in many sensitive areas and areas that have been restored for rare species.

“Inyo County has approached this proposal with blinders on,” said Karen Schambach, California director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “It’s too bad they have to be litigated into environmental review, but they are ignoring their responsibility to their own citizens, as well as to the natural resources that make Inyo County a destination for many kinds of outdoor-based recreation besides ORVs.”

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