I got this from a Sandia Jeep Club member who got it from Mark W.:
The note below has been sent to the local club and others but I
wanted to send it also to you as active representatives of the
Santa Fe contignent. We are trying to generate as many written
comments in support of elements of this plan because parts of it
ACTUALLY SUPPORT OUR SPORT and its growth! Mike Bilbo, the BLM
Recreation Officer has done an outstanding job in getting the
Gordy's Hill OHV area into the preferred alternaitve. Now it is up
to us to generate enough public support to ensure that it stays
there in the appropriate form and size!
Please send this message on to your club and then BEAT THE DRUM to
ensure support. We have been actively supporting opportunities in
the Las Cruces area, here is your opportunity to return the favor!
Please direct any questions to me and get those comments into the
BLM at the address below.
Thanks.
Mark W
PS. The 'wheeling is GREAT and we can't wait to invite you all
down to experience it yourself!
*************************************************************
The Socorro office of the BLM has finally released the draft
Resource Management Plan (RMP) for public comment. The RMP is a
very important document becuase it outlines the general direction
and plan that the Socorro office will follow for its management
practice for the next 10-20 years! This particular RMP is doubly
important to us because it contains the establishment and general
management of the Gordy's Hill OHV area. While I hesitate to make
too big a deal of Gordy's Hill as it may divert our attention away
from the other issues of motorized recreation on the lands managed
by the Socorro office, this is truly a unique and valuable opprotunity!
Gordy's Hill is actually in the 'preferred alternative' as proposed
by the Socorro office. It is proposed as a 7647 acre Special
Recreation Management Area (SRMA)consisting of designated trails
for single track (mountain bikes/motorcycles), ATV's, and 4WD
vehicles. It also proposes that the preparation of a Recreation
Area Management Plan be one of the top planning priorities for the
Socorro office. The preparation of the Management Plan is a BIG
deal because it would be the actual document that would designate
the trail system with the Gordy's Hill SRMA. So...... the Resource
Management Plan creates the Special Recreation Management Area and
prioritizes the planning necessary to actually designate the
trails. Make sense? Good.
Okay, here is how to help ensure that the preferred alternative is
the alternative that gets adopted and that Gordy's Hill is included
as it is currently presented. You need to provide written comments
on the draft Resource Management Plan. I know that writing letters
isn't that much fun but this is truly a special opportunity that we
must not let get away from us!!!!
Written comments are due by July 16th and should be sent to:
Brian Bellew
Socorro Field Office
Bureau of Land Management
901 S. Highway 85
Socorro, NM 87801
The document is pretty imposing at about 500 pages including maps
(with another 250 pages of Apendices) so I will try to help you out
by providing you:
1. An overview of how the document is organized and arranged so
you can navigate your way to the sections in which you are most interested,
and
2. Some hints on how and what to write so your comments have the
most impact, and
3. Some general and specific comments to make on the Gordy's Hill
portion of the draft RMP if you aren't able to find the time to
create your own.
A Quick Overivew of How the RMP is Organized
The Draft RMP can be found on-line at
http://www.nm.blm.gov/sfo/sfo_rmp_revision/sfo_rmp_revision.html
. It is in the typical .pdf format (you can load a free 'reader'
at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).
It is broken into four pieces to help it load a little faster but
unless you only have dial-up, you won't like waiting for it! Like
any big reference book, the Table of Contents, starting on page (i)
is your friend!!! All of Chapter 1 is essentially 'boilerplate'
that describes what the RMP document is supposed to do, restates
the palnning process employed, lists the 'issues' that have already
been identified in earlier steps of the process, and generally dots
'i's' and crosses 't's' according to what the BLM has to do when it
writes an RMP. Generally speaking, you can skip Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 is where is starts getting interesting. It presents the
alternatives as a range of options on which the public can
comment. Alternative A is always the "No Action'
alternative. Alternative A will not be adopted, it is merely in
the RMP to describe the current state of management and is used as
a baseline to contrast with the new plan alternatives. Like almost
all NEPA documents, this RMP provides three additional alternatives
(B, C, and D) that are the actual alternatives to be
considered. Alternative B is the preferred alternative. As the
documents describes, "The overall goal of this alternative is to
provide a balance between resource use and protection. Management
under this alternative would balance the need to protect, restore,
and enhance natural values with the need to provide for the
production of food, fiber, and minerals, and to provide recreation,
heritage tourism, and other services on public land." Alternative
C is the "protection" alternative. Again, in the words of the
document, "Alternative C provides greater emphasis on resource
protection than Alternative B. This would be achieved primarily
through more management emphasis on protection of resource values
associated with special designations and special status
species." And finally, Alternative D is the "production"
alternative. It "emphasizes commodity production and use,
including mineral leasing and mineral material sales, grazing,
commercial recreation and tourism, and woodland-products
harvesting. Under Alternative D, constraints on commodity
production would be the least restrictive while still complying
with applicable law, regulation, and BLM policy."
So.....to review: Alternative A - Current situation as a
comparison. Alternative B - The 'preferred' alternative (the
balanced approach). Alternative C - The most protective
alternative. Alternative D - The least protective
alternative. That being said, there are some peculiarities to this
particular RMP associated with motorized recreation that doesn't
always follow the 'typical' alternatives range. For instance,
Gordy's Hill is actually smaller under the Production Alternative
(D) than the Preferred Alternative. More on that later.....
The first part of Chapter 2 described the "Continuing Management
Guidance" and "Management Common to All Alternatives" under a bunch
of topic areas. In a nutshell, it describes the boundaries that
the BLM has to stay within for all of the alternatives. Starting
on page 2-23, the RMP starts describing the specific actions under
the different alternatives for a whole range of topics. By the
way, these thirteen specific topics, and the order in which they
appear, is consistent throughout Chapter 2. For instance, "visual
resources" is always listed as the sixth item, recreation is always
the eleventh, and "transportation and travel management" is twelth,
and "special designations" is always listed as the thirteenth and
final. If you want to save time, there is a table that summarizes
all of the alternatives and how they deal with the thirteen topic
areas starting on page 2-52.
Chapter 3 "provides a summary of the current conditions of the
resources, resource uses, and programs within the Planning
Area." To make things more interesting to government bureacrats,
they change up the topic areas by arranging and splitting up the
areas differently in this chapter. These are summarized on page
3-1. Chapter 3 is basically a list of all the data that the BLM
has collected to charaterize the current situation. The topic of
most interest to us, OHV use, is covered under Section 3.3.7.4 Off
Highway Vehicle Use on page 3-54.
Chapter 4 "characterizes the potential impacts on the environment
of implementing the alternatives described in Chapter 2." In this
chapter, the BLM experts try to project what impacts might result
from the various alternatives based on the data they present in
Chapter 3. Some key wording to review regarding OHV impacts is
found on page 4-45 under the final two paragraphs of Section
4.4.7. There are many other references to OHV travel in Chapter 4
but, in general, the references tend to be general in nature and
describe the positive impacts of eliminating the current 'open'
designation on lands managed by the Socorro office.
Chapter 5 covers more 'boilerplate' about consulting with local
government entities and tribes and describes the various public
comment opportunties that have occurred. Don't bother with Chapter 5.
And that is it! You did it! Well, almost. Now the Maps and
various Appendices......
As you see below, the maps come in "sets of three" as there is a
map for each of the alternatives being considered. Maps of interest:
Map 2-15 Gordy's Hill - Alternative B
Map 2-37 Gordy's Hill - Alternative C
Map 2-59 Gordy's Hill - Alternative D
Map 2-21 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative B
Map 2-42 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative C
Map 2-65 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative D
Map 2-1 Special Designations - Alternative B
Map 2-22 Special Designations - Alternative C
Map 2-43 Special Designations - Alternative D
Appendices of Interest:
Appendix J - Off Highway Vehicle Areas and Route Designations -
Included in this section is a road section by section
description/map of roads that will be closed by this RMP. Comment
at your own discretion but I have made a few specific suggestions below.
Appendix K, Section V. Gordy's Hill SRMA - A very brief description
of Gordy's Hill and why they are proposing it.
There. You did it. Now you are done reviewing the material (you
have been reading along, right?) and you are ready to make your comments.
General Guidance on Providing Comments
Comments are always the most valuable and impactful if they are
your own and not someone else's. Petitions and form letters are
easily identified by the agency and generally get counted as a
single comment no matter how many times the agency sees the form
letter. If you do use somebody's else's ideas, 'personalize' it as
much as you can and hand write it. This helps it stand out as a
"different" comment.
Comments can be on things that you like seeing in the plan,
additional items that you would like to see included in the final
version of the plan, changes you would like to see the BLM
consider, etc. Your suggestions can be combinations of pieces of
alternatives that were presented or they can be entirely new items
that you think should be included. As much as possible, try to
avoid emotional comments and try to provide answers for items that
you question. In other words, if you don't like something, present
a workable alternative as a solution!
If you have been to Gordy's Hill (or other places within the plan)
and enjoyed it, tell the BLM what and why! And some complimentary
wording to the BLM (thanking them for motorized recreation
opportunity) never hurts!!
Comments
And now for some general, and then specific, comments that I noted
as I reviewed the material.
General Comments:
1. The establishment of Gordy's Hill as a SMRA is a great
idea. Quality opportunities for motorized recreation are shrinking
and providing a special place and special management for those
activities will help decrease the impacts of 'outlaw' motorized
activities in other areas.
2. Motorized recreation is still growing at a fast pace and
recognizing the growing public need, planning for that need, and
working with the user community to fulfill that need is a very positive
thing.
3. Gordy's Hill offers a wide range of motorized recreational
activity for a broad swath (motorcycles, ATV's, 4WD) of motorized users.
4. The development of a management plan for Gordy's Hill will
offer the BLM an opportunity to utilize a large base of dedicated
volunteers from organized groups of motorized users. We want to
help! We offer our services.
5. Gordy's Hill is an important piece of the RMP for motorized
users but it isn't the only thing! Check out the maps to ensure
that you will still have access for the other favorite places that
you like to go!
Specific Comments:
1. Map 2-15 The northwest boundary of Gordy's Hill should follow
the Johnson Hill Road and then follow the Pipeline Road down to
Arroyo de la Parida. This was the intended alignment, is a
'natural' boundary, and makes much more sense from a boundary
integrity standpoint.
2. Appendix D, page D4 - In addition to monitoring OHV uses within
the Planning Area with a focus on compliance with specific
designations, there should be an active monitoring program to
determine if the Planning Area is succeeding in meeting the
specific needs and expectations of the motorized user
community. The motorized community, like any other user
group, should be able to expect the management agency to actively
seek to provide the type of quality recreational opportunities that
they desire (within the context of the larger RMP). To focus the
monitoring only on compliance misses a key element in determining
public user satisfaction and discriminates against a particular user group.
3. Appendix J - There are grave concerns over numerous route
closures within WSA's. While closing post-1980 user created routes
are an appropriate action, many of the route proposed for closure
under Alternatives B and C are clearly identified as 'ways' that
pre-date the establishment of the WSA's. While closing these
routes may make management of wilderness values in these WSA's
easier, there is nothing under the Interim Management Policy and
Guidelines for Lands Under Wilderness Review or Instruction
Memorandum 2003-275 that supports the elimination of these
routes. In numerous cases, the closure of identified routes, even
under Alternative B, would eliminate interesting loops, make access
to special points within these WSA's much more difficult, and
generally try to manage these areas as Wilderness which they are not!
I know that this is TONS of information but this is VERY
important!!!! Please write up your comments (Don't copy mine
exactly!!!!) and send your comments today!
Mark W
The note below has been sent to the local club and others but I
wanted to send it also to you as active representatives of the
Santa Fe contignent. We are trying to generate as many written
comments in support of elements of this plan because parts of it
ACTUALLY SUPPORT OUR SPORT and its growth! Mike Bilbo, the BLM
Recreation Officer has done an outstanding job in getting the
Gordy's Hill OHV area into the preferred alternaitve. Now it is up
to us to generate enough public support to ensure that it stays
there in the appropriate form and size!
Please send this message on to your club and then BEAT THE DRUM to
ensure support. We have been actively supporting opportunities in
the Las Cruces area, here is your opportunity to return the favor!
Please direct any questions to me and get those comments into the
BLM at the address below.
Thanks.
Mark W
PS. The 'wheeling is GREAT and we can't wait to invite you all
down to experience it yourself!
*************************************************************
The Socorro office of the BLM has finally released the draft
Resource Management Plan (RMP) for public comment. The RMP is a
very important document becuase it outlines the general direction
and plan that the Socorro office will follow for its management
practice for the next 10-20 years! This particular RMP is doubly
important to us because it contains the establishment and general
management of the Gordy's Hill OHV area. While I hesitate to make
too big a deal of Gordy's Hill as it may divert our attention away
from the other issues of motorized recreation on the lands managed
by the Socorro office, this is truly a unique and valuable opprotunity!
Gordy's Hill is actually in the 'preferred alternative' as proposed
by the Socorro office. It is proposed as a 7647 acre Special
Recreation Management Area (SRMA)consisting of designated trails
for single track (mountain bikes/motorcycles), ATV's, and 4WD
vehicles. It also proposes that the preparation of a Recreation
Area Management Plan be one of the top planning priorities for the
Socorro office. The preparation of the Management Plan is a BIG
deal because it would be the actual document that would designate
the trail system with the Gordy's Hill SRMA. So...... the Resource
Management Plan creates the Special Recreation Management Area and
prioritizes the planning necessary to actually designate the
trails. Make sense? Good.
Okay, here is how to help ensure that the preferred alternative is
the alternative that gets adopted and that Gordy's Hill is included
as it is currently presented. You need to provide written comments
on the draft Resource Management Plan. I know that writing letters
isn't that much fun but this is truly a special opportunity that we
must not let get away from us!!!!
Written comments are due by July 16th and should be sent to:
Brian Bellew
Socorro Field Office
Bureau of Land Management
901 S. Highway 85
Socorro, NM 87801
The document is pretty imposing at about 500 pages including maps
(with another 250 pages of Apendices) so I will try to help you out
by providing you:
1. An overview of how the document is organized and arranged so
you can navigate your way to the sections in which you are most interested,
and
2. Some hints on how and what to write so your comments have the
most impact, and
3. Some general and specific comments to make on the Gordy's Hill
portion of the draft RMP if you aren't able to find the time to
create your own.
A Quick Overivew of How the RMP is Organized
The Draft RMP can be found on-line at
http://www.nm.blm.gov/sfo/sfo_rmp_revision/sfo_rmp_revision.html
. It is in the typical .pdf format (you can load a free 'reader'
at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).
It is broken into four pieces to help it load a little faster but
unless you only have dial-up, you won't like waiting for it! Like
any big reference book, the Table of Contents, starting on page (i)
is your friend!!! All of Chapter 1 is essentially 'boilerplate'
that describes what the RMP document is supposed to do, restates
the palnning process employed, lists the 'issues' that have already
been identified in earlier steps of the process, and generally dots
'i's' and crosses 't's' according to what the BLM has to do when it
writes an RMP. Generally speaking, you can skip Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 is where is starts getting interesting. It presents the
alternatives as a range of options on which the public can
comment. Alternative A is always the "No Action'
alternative. Alternative A will not be adopted, it is merely in
the RMP to describe the current state of management and is used as
a baseline to contrast with the new plan alternatives. Like almost
all NEPA documents, this RMP provides three additional alternatives
(B, C, and D) that are the actual alternatives to be
considered. Alternative B is the preferred alternative. As the
documents describes, "The overall goal of this alternative is to
provide a balance between resource use and protection. Management
under this alternative would balance the need to protect, restore,
and enhance natural values with the need to provide for the
production of food, fiber, and minerals, and to provide recreation,
heritage tourism, and other services on public land." Alternative
C is the "protection" alternative. Again, in the words of the
document, "Alternative C provides greater emphasis on resource
protection than Alternative B. This would be achieved primarily
through more management emphasis on protection of resource values
associated with special designations and special status
species." And finally, Alternative D is the "production"
alternative. It "emphasizes commodity production and use,
including mineral leasing and mineral material sales, grazing,
commercial recreation and tourism, and woodland-products
harvesting. Under Alternative D, constraints on commodity
production would be the least restrictive while still complying
with applicable law, regulation, and BLM policy."
So.....to review: Alternative A - Current situation as a
comparison. Alternative B - The 'preferred' alternative (the
balanced approach). Alternative C - The most protective
alternative. Alternative D - The least protective
alternative. That being said, there are some peculiarities to this
particular RMP associated with motorized recreation that doesn't
always follow the 'typical' alternatives range. For instance,
Gordy's Hill is actually smaller under the Production Alternative
(D) than the Preferred Alternative. More on that later.....
The first part of Chapter 2 described the "Continuing Management
Guidance" and "Management Common to All Alternatives" under a bunch
of topic areas. In a nutshell, it describes the boundaries that
the BLM has to stay within for all of the alternatives. Starting
on page 2-23, the RMP starts describing the specific actions under
the different alternatives for a whole range of topics. By the
way, these thirteen specific topics, and the order in which they
appear, is consistent throughout Chapter 2. For instance, "visual
resources" is always listed as the sixth item, recreation is always
the eleventh, and "transportation and travel management" is twelth,
and "special designations" is always listed as the thirteenth and
final. If you want to save time, there is a table that summarizes
all of the alternatives and how they deal with the thirteen topic
areas starting on page 2-52.
Chapter 3 "provides a summary of the current conditions of the
resources, resource uses, and programs within the Planning
Area." To make things more interesting to government bureacrats,
they change up the topic areas by arranging and splitting up the
areas differently in this chapter. These are summarized on page
3-1. Chapter 3 is basically a list of all the data that the BLM
has collected to charaterize the current situation. The topic of
most interest to us, OHV use, is covered under Section 3.3.7.4 Off
Highway Vehicle Use on page 3-54.
Chapter 4 "characterizes the potential impacts on the environment
of implementing the alternatives described in Chapter 2." In this
chapter, the BLM experts try to project what impacts might result
from the various alternatives based on the data they present in
Chapter 3. Some key wording to review regarding OHV impacts is
found on page 4-45 under the final two paragraphs of Section
4.4.7. There are many other references to OHV travel in Chapter 4
but, in general, the references tend to be general in nature and
describe the positive impacts of eliminating the current 'open'
designation on lands managed by the Socorro office.
Chapter 5 covers more 'boilerplate' about consulting with local
government entities and tribes and describes the various public
comment opportunties that have occurred. Don't bother with Chapter 5.
And that is it! You did it! Well, almost. Now the Maps and
various Appendices......
As you see below, the maps come in "sets of three" as there is a
map for each of the alternatives being considered. Maps of interest:
Map 2-15 Gordy's Hill - Alternative B
Map 2-37 Gordy's Hill - Alternative C
Map 2-59 Gordy's Hill - Alternative D
Map 2-21 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative B
Map 2-42 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative C
Map 2-65 Off Highway Vehicle Use Designations - Alternative D
Map 2-1 Special Designations - Alternative B
Map 2-22 Special Designations - Alternative C
Map 2-43 Special Designations - Alternative D
Appendices of Interest:
Appendix J - Off Highway Vehicle Areas and Route Designations -
Included in this section is a road section by section
description/map of roads that will be closed by this RMP. Comment
at your own discretion but I have made a few specific suggestions below.
Appendix K, Section V. Gordy's Hill SRMA - A very brief description
of Gordy's Hill and why they are proposing it.
There. You did it. Now you are done reviewing the material (you
have been reading along, right?) and you are ready to make your comments.
General Guidance on Providing Comments
Comments are always the most valuable and impactful if they are
your own and not someone else's. Petitions and form letters are
easily identified by the agency and generally get counted as a
single comment no matter how many times the agency sees the form
letter. If you do use somebody's else's ideas, 'personalize' it as
much as you can and hand write it. This helps it stand out as a
"different" comment.
Comments can be on things that you like seeing in the plan,
additional items that you would like to see included in the final
version of the plan, changes you would like to see the BLM
consider, etc. Your suggestions can be combinations of pieces of
alternatives that were presented or they can be entirely new items
that you think should be included. As much as possible, try to
avoid emotional comments and try to provide answers for items that
you question. In other words, if you don't like something, present
a workable alternative as a solution!
If you have been to Gordy's Hill (or other places within the plan)
and enjoyed it, tell the BLM what and why! And some complimentary
wording to the BLM (thanking them for motorized recreation
opportunity) never hurts!!
Comments
And now for some general, and then specific, comments that I noted
as I reviewed the material.
General Comments:
1. The establishment of Gordy's Hill as a SMRA is a great
idea. Quality opportunities for motorized recreation are shrinking
and providing a special place and special management for those
activities will help decrease the impacts of 'outlaw' motorized
activities in other areas.
2. Motorized recreation is still growing at a fast pace and
recognizing the growing public need, planning for that need, and
working with the user community to fulfill that need is a very positive
thing.
3. Gordy's Hill offers a wide range of motorized recreational
activity for a broad swath (motorcycles, ATV's, 4WD) of motorized users.
4. The development of a management plan for Gordy's Hill will
offer the BLM an opportunity to utilize a large base of dedicated
volunteers from organized groups of motorized users. We want to
help! We offer our services.
5. Gordy's Hill is an important piece of the RMP for motorized
users but it isn't the only thing! Check out the maps to ensure
that you will still have access for the other favorite places that
you like to go!
Specific Comments:
1. Map 2-15 The northwest boundary of Gordy's Hill should follow
the Johnson Hill Road and then follow the Pipeline Road down to
Arroyo de la Parida. This was the intended alignment, is a
'natural' boundary, and makes much more sense from a boundary
integrity standpoint.
2. Appendix D, page D4 - In addition to monitoring OHV uses within
the Planning Area with a focus on compliance with specific
designations, there should be an active monitoring program to
determine if the Planning Area is succeeding in meeting the
specific needs and expectations of the motorized user
community. The motorized community, like any other user
group, should be able to expect the management agency to actively
seek to provide the type of quality recreational opportunities that
they desire (within the context of the larger RMP). To focus the
monitoring only on compliance misses a key element in determining
public user satisfaction and discriminates against a particular user group.
3. Appendix J - There are grave concerns over numerous route
closures within WSA's. While closing post-1980 user created routes
are an appropriate action, many of the route proposed for closure
under Alternatives B and C are clearly identified as 'ways' that
pre-date the establishment of the WSA's. While closing these
routes may make management of wilderness values in these WSA's
easier, there is nothing under the Interim Management Policy and
Guidelines for Lands Under Wilderness Review or Instruction
Memorandum 2003-275 that supports the elimination of these
routes. In numerous cases, the closure of identified routes, even
under Alternative B, would eliminate interesting loops, make access
to special points within these WSA's much more difficult, and
generally try to manage these areas as Wilderness which they are not!
I know that this is TONS of information but this is VERY
important!!!! Please write up your comments (Don't copy mine
exactly!!!!) and send your comments today!
Mark W
