BuzzH
Well-known member
Looks like the noose continues to tighten...
HAHAHAHA, I couldnt be happier. Lets hope the ATV crowd continues on with their fat-assed sport. Before long, they'll restrict themselves to blacktop. Funny thing is, they're killing their own "sport" and all I really have to do is sit back, watch, and laugh...that and write a couple dozen letters a year.
Beaverhead proposal would limit motorized travel
By PERRY BACKUS
Montana Standard
DILLON – Areas recommended for wilderness on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest would be off-limits to motorized travel under a proposal being circulated for a new long-term management plan.
The 297-page document suggests areas in the West Big Hole, Pioneer Mountains and Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Range would be managed for their wilderness
characteristics. Snowmobiles and ATVs wouldn’t be allowed to operate there.
“This proposed action is the very first step in revising the forest plan,” said Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest planner Peri Suenram. “It’s really designed to kick off conversation.”
The proposal suggests allowing fires in more areas, including fires started by fire managers and by lightning and using larger “management areas.”
It also proposes setting aside about 79,500 acres in the East Pioneers, 56,875 acres in the West Big Hole and about 4,500 acres in Mount Jefferson from motorized travel. All three areas have been recommended to be managed as wilderness by the Forest Service.
The configuration of the proposed wilderness in the West Big Hole is proposed to change with the addition of a 400-acre corridor through the middle of the area in the vicinity of the Ajax mine area.
“We looked back through the 1980s and ’90s and this configuration seemed be something that people have worked on for various wilderness bills,” said Suenram.
The members of the Bitterroot Ridge Runners snowmobile club are taking a hard look at the proposal. The club’s president, Terry Solberg, said that some of its 215 members have been snowmobiling in the West Big Hole area for years for both its solitude and challenging terrain.
“It’s difficult, mountainous country,” Solberg said. “A lot of the new sleds are very capable of taking people into areas where they can get away from the masses into a less crowded environment.”
Solberg said members are concerned over the proposal to close the area, especially since there is no immediate proposal to include it into the wilderness system. To his knowledge, Solberg said the area’s never been closed to snowmobiles, despite the fact that it’s recommended for wilderness. To close it to motorized use now would make the area de facto wilderness, he said.
The Bitterroot Ridge Runners plan to meet with officials from the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest to learn more about the proposal so the club can offer its input, he said.
“We realize it is a long ways before the final product is produced,” Solberg said. “This is just to stimulate one’s thinking. We appreciate that approach.”
John Gatchell, conservation director for the Montana Wilderness Association, said the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest has a long history of breaking promises to protect non-motorized areas.
“They are sweeping away areas that aren’t motorized now” in the current proposal, Gatchell said.
In a letter written to the Forest Service in July, Gatchell said a series of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest supervisors have made promises to protect nonmotorized areas, which haven’t been kept.
“Southwest Montana conservationists cannot afford to wait for a new set of promises for the Forest Service honor commitments,” Gatchell said in his letter. “Year after year, damage accrues and wilderness vanishes while successive supervisors plan and promise, but fail to act.”
“Your immediate intervention is necessary to prevent the irretrievable loss of unprotected wilderness and traditions on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest,” he wrote to current supervisor Tom Reilly.
Gatchell said other area national forests have protected areas classified as recommended wilderness from motorized travel.
“Today’s smoldering train wreck of mismanagement and broken promises is a continuing failure to set clear and responsible limits to off-road vehicle traffic on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest,” wrote Gatchell. “Wilderness candidate areas, recommended wilderness and nonmotorized areas are not being kept free of motor vehicle traffic.”
Suenram said Forest Service officials will make presentations to anyone interested in the learning more about the proposal.
“This is only a proposed action,” Suenram said. “People are starting to take a look at it.”
The final plan is due sometime in 2005. A draft plan should be out in late 2004.
The proposal, called “Proposed Action for Forest Plan Revision,” is available in print, on CD-ROM, or online. Call 683-3984 to request a printed copy or a copy on CD. To download a copy of the proposal online, go to www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d. Click on “Forest Plan Revision.”
The proposed management plan is out for public comment until November 20. Comments should be submitted either in writing or by e-mail. Written comments should be addressed to Herrera Environmental Consultants, 101 E. Broadway, Suite 610, Missoula, MT 59802. E-mail comments should be sent to [email protected].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Perry Backus may be reached via email at [email protected].
HAHAHAHA, I couldnt be happier. Lets hope the ATV crowd continues on with their fat-assed sport. Before long, they'll restrict themselves to blacktop. Funny thing is, they're killing their own "sport" and all I really have to do is sit back, watch, and laugh...that and write a couple dozen letters a year.
Beaverhead proposal would limit motorized travel
By PERRY BACKUS
Montana Standard
DILLON – Areas recommended for wilderness on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest would be off-limits to motorized travel under a proposal being circulated for a new long-term management plan.
The 297-page document suggests areas in the West Big Hole, Pioneer Mountains and Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Range would be managed for their wilderness
characteristics. Snowmobiles and ATVs wouldn’t be allowed to operate there.
“This proposed action is the very first step in revising the forest plan,” said Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest planner Peri Suenram. “It’s really designed to kick off conversation.”
The proposal suggests allowing fires in more areas, including fires started by fire managers and by lightning and using larger “management areas.”
It also proposes setting aside about 79,500 acres in the East Pioneers, 56,875 acres in the West Big Hole and about 4,500 acres in Mount Jefferson from motorized travel. All three areas have been recommended to be managed as wilderness by the Forest Service.
The configuration of the proposed wilderness in the West Big Hole is proposed to change with the addition of a 400-acre corridor through the middle of the area in the vicinity of the Ajax mine area.
“We looked back through the 1980s and ’90s and this configuration seemed be something that people have worked on for various wilderness bills,” said Suenram.
The members of the Bitterroot Ridge Runners snowmobile club are taking a hard look at the proposal. The club’s president, Terry Solberg, said that some of its 215 members have been snowmobiling in the West Big Hole area for years for both its solitude and challenging terrain.
“It’s difficult, mountainous country,” Solberg said. “A lot of the new sleds are very capable of taking people into areas where they can get away from the masses into a less crowded environment.”
Solberg said members are concerned over the proposal to close the area, especially since there is no immediate proposal to include it into the wilderness system. To his knowledge, Solberg said the area’s never been closed to snowmobiles, despite the fact that it’s recommended for wilderness. To close it to motorized use now would make the area de facto wilderness, he said.
The Bitterroot Ridge Runners plan to meet with officials from the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest to learn more about the proposal so the club can offer its input, he said.
“We realize it is a long ways before the final product is produced,” Solberg said. “This is just to stimulate one’s thinking. We appreciate that approach.”
John Gatchell, conservation director for the Montana Wilderness Association, said the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest has a long history of breaking promises to protect non-motorized areas.
“They are sweeping away areas that aren’t motorized now” in the current proposal, Gatchell said.
In a letter written to the Forest Service in July, Gatchell said a series of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest supervisors have made promises to protect nonmotorized areas, which haven’t been kept.
“Southwest Montana conservationists cannot afford to wait for a new set of promises for the Forest Service honor commitments,” Gatchell said in his letter. “Year after year, damage accrues and wilderness vanishes while successive supervisors plan and promise, but fail to act.”
“Your immediate intervention is necessary to prevent the irretrievable loss of unprotected wilderness and traditions on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest,” he wrote to current supervisor Tom Reilly.
Gatchell said other area national forests have protected areas classified as recommended wilderness from motorized travel.
“Today’s smoldering train wreck of mismanagement and broken promises is a continuing failure to set clear and responsible limits to off-road vehicle traffic on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest,” wrote Gatchell. “Wilderness candidate areas, recommended wilderness and nonmotorized areas are not being kept free of motor vehicle traffic.”
Suenram said Forest Service officials will make presentations to anyone interested in the learning more about the proposal.
“This is only a proposed action,” Suenram said. “People are starting to take a look at it.”
The final plan is due sometime in 2005. A draft plan should be out in late 2004.
The proposal, called “Proposed Action for Forest Plan Revision,” is available in print, on CD-ROM, or online. Call 683-3984 to request a printed copy or a copy on CD. To download a copy of the proposal online, go to www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d. Click on “Forest Plan Revision.”
The proposed management plan is out for public comment until November 20. Comments should be submitted either in writing or by e-mail. Written comments should be addressed to Herrera Environmental Consultants, 101 E. Broadway, Suite 610, Missoula, MT 59802. E-mail comments should be sent to [email protected].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Perry Backus may be reached via email at [email protected].
