New Mexico Off-Highway Access Issues (1 Viewer)

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This is not exactly SF National Forest news, but is along the same line.

The New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department released its report in response to last year's Senate Joint Memorial 40.

NMOHVA

It doesn't take much to see this is a serious trend that will restrict our abilities to get out into the natural world. We need actively support the NMOHVA.
 
Maybe we should combine the threads on one sticky. We're getting a lot of stickies...
 
From Mark Werkmeister:

Hello all,

The Cibola National Forest is kicking off the Travel Management Planning in the Mountainair Ranger District with three community meetings (Mountainair, Corona, Belen) in the next couple of weeks. The detailed Forest Service announcement is included below. It is important to participate in these meetings if we care about the future of OHV recreation in the District. A couple of important things to remember:

1) These are pre-NEPA meetings. What does this mean? It is kind of like meeting at the bar after work. You might discuss ‘work’, but no one will take minutes, and nothing official happens. It is important to participate (in good faith) but remember that “nothin’ mean nothin’” until the NEPA process starts with the request for Scoping comments. All of input will need to be replicated during the scoping period.

2) We will need to examine the ‘existing condition’ maps and ensure that the Forest Service accurately reflects the current reality of what is on the ground. If we know of trails/roads that exist that they do not have on their maps, we will identify the shortcomings in the FS maps.

3) This is just the start of the process, no, actually, it is kind of before the real start. The Forest Service is looking for information and we should help them. We should be very hesitant to identify ‘our most important’ trails. We want the Forest Service to follow the rules and analyze ALL of the existing trails/roads on the ground, whether they are on their system maps or not. They NEED to hear that request over and over and over until they get. We want ALL the roads/trails included in the Travel Planning analysis process as NEPA and the Travel Management Rule require.

4) One more thing…HELP GET THE WORD OUT. Travel Management affects far more than just OHV users. It will further restrict hunters, the gathering of forest products, etc…..almost everything people choose to do in the forest.

Thanks.

Mark
 
latest on Santa Fe travel management:

1300 letters received, resulted in approximately 4000 individual comments, narrowed to about 360 public concern statements. Id'ed 10 key issues from this, 6 of them "significant".
Now beginning to develop alternatives in response to the significant issues.
 
I just received this:

Legislative Update #5 - Call Senators to Kill SB379

or:

TinyURL.com/NMOHVA1


Legislative Update - Kill SB379!

2009 Session Update #5








List of Senate Corporation and Transportation Committee Members


READ SB379
HERE!



ick Links
Join NMOHVA or Renew Your Membership

More About Us

Call Senators to Kill SB379


NMOHVA has completed its analysis of SB379. This bill aims to change the OHV Act passed in 2005. SB379 is a BAD piece of legislation.

Here are some of the items in the bill. They clearly show why this is such a BAD bill:

1) An outright ban on anyone under the age of 14 operating an ATV or UTV. That is right. If you are under 14, YOU DON'T GET TO RIDE. AT ALL!
2) Allows the state to arbitrarily set any sound emission standard they choose, even if it is way lower than anywhere else in the US or is impossible to meet with today's technology.
3) A 50% increase in the OHV sticker fee. This increase comes even though they haven't spent the money they have already collected and they haven't given any reason why they need even more of our money.
4) The bill requires that over half of our sticker fee money must be spent on law enforcement. We supported the 2005 OHV Act because it emphasized education. Yet not a single child has been trained with sticker funding to date. Now they want to use our money for law enforcement instead.

There are so many things wrong with this Bill that we believe it should be killed outright rather than try to change it.

The first step in legislative approval is the Senate Corporation and Transportation Committee. This committee may vote on the bill as early as Monday afternoon. Let's do our best to kill it right here and now. If a majority of the Senators on the committee vote against SB379, it dies right there.

The link to the left identifies the State Senators who sit on the committee. If your Senator sits on this Committee, call his office the first thing Monday morning. A staff person will answer the phone. It is their job to log the opinions of citizens who call in. Give your opinion on SB379. If you can't call, send an email. If your Senator doesn't sit on the Committee, pick out a few Senators and call their office anyway! The point we want to make is that there are a lot of OHV users in New Mexico and we OPPOSE SB379.

Then get your riding buddies, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers - anyone who is tired of OHV'ers being treated so unfairly and so badly and have them call a committee member also.

Let's kill SB379 right here and now.

Remember to check your email for NMOHVA updates. We will keep you informed on the status of the bill.

Mark
President - NMOHVA
 
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Newest Message:

Invitation to NMOHVA Annual Meeting

Looks like free pizza on March 21st! Since we're new members, I think it would be good for some of us to show up. I will be there.
 
Bump - reminder about March 21st meeting:

Reminder of NMOHVA Annual Meeting

We're listed here:
http://nmohva.org/main/supporters.php
But look at the lifetime members... Thanks Harry!
NMOHVA 090321 Meeting.jpg
 
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Has everyone who's signed up for the NMOHVA email updates been keeping up with the progress of Senate Bill 379? I know it doesn't directly affect most of us since it geared towards legislating motorcycles, ATVs and UTVs. But, I can see how it's in the same spirit of gun control. If they can chip away at our rights in small pieces, eventually that will add up to big changes. You can read all about SB379 on the NMOHVA website. It has been heavily modified from its original version, thanks in large part to input and protest from the off-road community. However, it did pass by full senate vote and is now going to go through the House of Reps process. We all need to make sure we are talking with our State Congress to make sure that if it makes it to law that it is in the best interest of off-road enthusiasts and truly meets its goals of improving safety and responsible off-road use rather than just focusing on penalties and punishment, which is what its current focus is.

marc
 
Steve -

Thanks for posting the NMOHVA newsletter. They get involved in a lot of stuff around the state, and it's important for us to know what's going on.

Regarding land use issues, I don't know if everyone's aware that some changes have been made in the Manzanos recently. The Forest Service collected comments a while back (maybe a year ago), and recently issued a new map with trail designations for 4WD vehicles, motorcycles, etc. You can pick up a map for free at the ranger station on South 14, just off I-40. There are some changes on roads where I have wheeled before, and where 4WD vehicles are no longer allowed. Just FYI - get a map and check it out before you just go exploring. I am guessing that all the roads may not have signs describing the new restrictions. The rangers are probably going to want people to have a map and know where they are and are not allowed.

Also, the newsletter talked about a comment period for the Carson National Forest. I'm not that familiar to know if our club ever gets into those roads. It sounded like it was near the Espanola area. Maybe Vince and David would know that area? If anybody does know the roads, now is the time for comments before things are just shut down.

Evan
 
I'm not sure where the Carson is, but the Santa Fe is well on its way to closing most if the roads on the forest. It's very disheartening. Not that there is any good wheeling, but even the impact to hunters, campers, explorers, etc. I think the term "dispersed camping" will need to be replaced by "concentrated camping" because you will no longer be able to camp anywhere you want--not even on all of the remaining open roads--there will be designated areas for "dispersed camping". This will be the case on every national forest in the country, as will the "closed unless posted open" policy for roads. :crybaby:

evanz80 said:
Steve -

Also, the newsletter talked about a comment period for the Carson National Forest. I'm not that familiar to know if our club ever gets into those roads. It sounded like it was near the Espanola area. Maybe Vince and David would know that area? If anybody does know the roads, now is the time for comments before things are just shut down.

Evan
Click to expand...
 
That's interesting. My perception, after reviewing the Cedro peak area, was that there would be much more open to 4wd than previous.

Wonder why one forest gets closed up while another opens?
 
Santa Fe and Carson have for the most part been open to cross country travel forever, with some exceptions. That has kept open even most roads planned for closure. Now the NFs can't have cross country travel at all.

I would suspect what you are seeing in Cedro is just designation of routes that already existed and just weren't managed, but I don't know anything about management on the Cibola so I could be totally wrong.

I don't expect any net increases in access on any NF. Some areas will be recognized for OHV use and may even see some development where there is a strong influence of OHVers, but mostly you will see closures. Unfortunately I think much of it comes down to the fact that closure is much easier and cheaper than management. And I think many of the decisions are made without enough knowledge of the resources.
 
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