The Good: Winter Wildlands Goes to the White House
WWA Executive Director Mark Menlove was one of 90 conservation, recreation and political leaders invited to the East Room of the White House for President Obama’s unveiling of a special report on America’s Great Outdoors, a Presidential initiative aimed at reconnecting Americans to the outdoors.
The report highlights the benefits of active, outdoor lifestyles and, among other directives calls for the establishment of a 21st Century Conservation Service Corps to engage young people in public lands and water restoration. The President also called for the creation of an interagency America’s Great Outdoors Council to enhance collaboration between federal agencies on recreation and conservation initiatives and to support outdoor recreation opportunities on public lands. In addition, the report recommends the formation of Partnership of non-governmental stakeholders to advise federal agencies and to promote innovation and partnership opportunities.
WWA has been actively engaged in the America’s Great Outdoors initiative since the concept was first announced a year ago. Last summer WWA hosted two listening sessions, one in Boise and the other in Jackson, Wyoming, to gather input from the human-powered recreation community for the initial phase of the report. The White House invitation was extended in recognition of WWA’s standing in the outdoor recreation community and its leadership role in the Outdoor Alliance, a coalition of national human-powered recreation organizations that WWA helped found.
The Bad: Forest Service Denies Request to Manage Snowmobiles Under Off-Road Vehicle Guidelines
The U.S. Forest Service has denied a request from WWA and 90 recreation and conservation user groups asking that snowmobiles on national forest lands be managed under the same guidelines applied to all other classes of off-road vehicles.
In August 2010, WWA and our supporting partners submitted a petition to the Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture formally requesting that the Agency amend the 2005 Travel Management Rule, the framework used to designate routes, trails and areas on each national forest unit open to motorized use. Petitioners requested the removal of an exemption making management of over-snow vehicles optional while making designations for all other classes of off-road vehicles mandatory.
In denying the request, the Forest Service stated that by including the option for a local forest official to determine whether to manage snowmobile use the 2005 Rule provides an “adequate mechanism for regulating over-snow vehicle use” and that national regulations for over-snow vehicle use are not required by law.
“Quiet recreation and responsible stewardship are getting the short end of the stick,” said WWA Executive Director Mark Menlove. “Our petition provided the legal and ecological rationale for the Agency to restore balance between motorized and non-motorized use in winter and to meet their obligation to protect public lands for future generations. We’re disappointed that the Agency continues to duck their responsibility.”
WWA believes the decision sends mixed signals: The petition response openly acknowledges that snowmobiles can have adverse impacts on air and water quality, native vegetation, fish and wildlife populations and habitat, and on other recreationists, and yet the Agency refuses to include snowmobiles in the framework that has proven successful in managing all other motorized use.
In denying the request to remove the over-snow vehicle exemption, the Forest Service did agree to develop guidelines on factors for local officials to consider if they choose to implement winter travel planning but gave no timeline for when those guidelines might be announced. “We appreciate the offer to establish better guidelines,” said Menlove, “but guidelines are of little use without a directive to actually follow them.”
While the Forest Service response is a setback, WWA will continue to push for Travel Management reform. “This denial leaves 81 million acres in the Western U.S. as unregulated free-for-all zones in winter where those with the biggest, loudest, most powerful toys get their run of the landscape and the rest of us are pushed aside,” concluded Menlove. This issue is too important to give up on. WWA will continue to work by whatever means available to fix this flawed regulation.
