i recieved this from Mark Werkmeister. i regards the Gordy Hill area. please read it, i know it is very long, but it's important to keeping this area open and could help our cause for other off road managed areas. 
Four Wheeling Friends:
I sent the note below to the New Mexico 4 Wheelers but I also wanted to send it to you as active representatives of other local 4WD clubs. 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. This is our opportunity to help ensure quality in the local area! Please direct any questions to me and get those comments into the BLM at the address below.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Mark
PS. The 'wheeling is GREAT and we can't wait to invite you all down to experience it yourself if you haven't already been there!
*************************************************************
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
Four Wheeling Friends:
I sent the note below to the New Mexico 4 Wheelers but I also wanted to send it to you as active representatives of other local 4WD clubs. 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. This is our opportunity to help ensure quality in the local area! Please direct any questions to me and get those comments into the BLM at the address below.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Mark
PS. The 'wheeling is GREAT and we can't wait to invite you all down to experience it yourself if you haven't already been there!
*************************************************************
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
