By Aaron Kindle          10/10/12

On a day cloaked with freezing drizzle and fog, nearly four dozen brave souls headed to Bear Creek to get some work done. Before even realizing the incredible importance of the now known, one and only, greenback cutthroat trout population in the creek, folks from the angling, motorized, mountain biking communities and the general populace committed to showing up on October 6^th . The goal was to clean up trash, restore stream banks, plant native vegetation and install signs about how to behave appropriately in a sensitive watershed.                          

Two large sites that had been denuded of all vegetation and generally mistreated were chosen for the brunt of the work, along with numerous user-created trails that were contributing sediment to the stream and encouraging inappropriate behavior. These sites were cleaned of debris, seeded with a native seed mix, planted with native shrubs and had erosion control matting installed. The net result was some constructive progress towards better managing this precious creek.

This day came together after folks from Trout Unlimited, the Colorado Motorized Trail Riders Association and the Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates (a mountain biking club) joined together to ask for actions to protect the creek and to preserve the fish and recreation opportunities. We collectively asked Colorado Springs Parks (owners of this piece of land) to allow us to get a crew together to get out and address some of the easiest to fix problems. 

Of course, much more needs to be done to ensure the legacy of the Greenback and of the unique recreation opportunities found in the Bear Creek watershed. The drainage holds one of the very few single track motorized trails on the Front Range, a world class mountain biking trail and a great hiking trail, very close to Colorado Springs. The fish and the recreation make this drainage a real treasure for both Colorado Springs residents and the general public alike. With these ideals in mind, the above-mentioned groups also asked the managing agencies to complete a few tasks that will both retain the recreation opportunities and preserve the fish. We have asked for a reroute of the trail to a less impactful area in the drainage, restoration of the creek and a remedy of the problems associated with a nearby road.

Once completed, these tasks will ensure the longevity of an amazing fish and tremendous recreational opportunities, and we be hailed as a true community effort. We at Sportsmen Ride Right are proud to be part of efforts like this and hope thatcollaborative efforts where folks reach out to one another to get things done becomes the new paradigm. We think wild places, wild critters and people will all ultimately benefit.

http://washingtondnr.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/why-we-rock-at-reiter-foothills/

New Mexico Wildlife Federation

Mark Casias grew up hunting around Taos. Over time he became an outfitter and guide, and eventually he started using an OHV to help transport equipment and retrieve game.

But while he still drives an OHV, he said, he looks back on his early riding career with some regret. “In the old days we used to ride them a little recklessly.” That was when OHVs were relatively rare in the backcountry. As four-wheelers became more common – not to mention more powerful – Casias said his favorite hunting areas in Carson National Forest started showing signs of degradation and damage. And hunt quality declined as drivers took their machines into areas once accessible only on foot, pushing elk, mule deer and other wildlife farther and farther away.

“I regret riding where we rode. There was just so much damage to the forest,” he said. “I’m guilty of that too.” But rather than just feel guilty, Casias and other sportsmen have started working to turn things around. At first it was like-minded hunters and anglers working with the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to rein in outlaw riders and protect important habitat.

Last year they joined forces with a new organization called Sportsmen Ride Right, which consists of hunters and anglers nationwide working to protect both habitat and OHV access to public lands through responsible OHV use.

Sportsmen Ride Right was established by OHV-driving hunters and anglers who had come to same realization as Casias – that sportsmen, who are a substantial portion of OHV users, were responsible for much of the damage being done to wildlife habitat on public lands throughout the West.

“We loved these lands to death,” said Garrett VeneKlasen, another longtime OHV user and one of the driving forces behind Sportsmen Ride Right. “But we’re the ones who wrecked it, and now we’re the ones who are trying to fix it.” Sportsmen Ride Right was created by and for hunters and anglers, VeneKlasen said. Other OHV groups represent recreational users, who may not care about their impact on elk habitat or what their machines might do to a Rio Grande cutthroat trout stream.

“This group gives sportsmen like us a voice,” he said. “There are 33,000 registered OHV users in New Mexico and the majority of them use their machines for hunting and fishing. But it’s been a silent majority. Most sportsmen are conservation-conscious and want to do whatever they can to protect the wildlife habitat they depend on for good hunting and fishing opportunity.” The list of Sportsmen Ride Right partners now includes dozens of hunting, fishing and OHV groups from New Mexico to Washington state. Also on board are sporting goods businesses and even the Wyoming Game Wardens Association.

The coalition believes that a designated system of well-maintained roads is essential to hunting and fishing on public lands throughout the West. But it is equally important that some places be protected from motorized access.

“Wild, un-roaded areas free of motors provide essential habitat that not only creates a quality outdoor experience, but also creates opportunities for bigger bulls, bigger bucks and better fishing,” the Sportsmen Ride Right website says. “Balanced access is being able to drive to the edges of large areas of intact habitat, then access the core portions by foot or horseback.” The group likens OHV restrictions in the backcountry to bag limits, public draw hunts and catch-and-release rules – minor restrictions that benefit all. Casias and VeneKlasen met at a U.S. Forest Service meeting several years ago and soon started working together. Both had grown up in northern New Mexico, were OHV riders and shared a passion for hunting. They also had seen hunting decline in their backyard because of irresponsible OHV use.

The two were part of a 2009 effort that included local citizens, the Forest Service and Game and Fish that eliminated motorized use in two areas of the Carson’s Camino Real District south and east of Taos. A 1973 state law allows Game and Fish to work with private landowners or other public land management agencies to restrict vehicle use when the State Game Commission determines that OHV operations are damaging wildlife habitat reproduction, management or habitat.

The Carson restrictions cover 33,000 acres, a tiny fraction of the forest’s 1.5 million acres. But after the two agencies installed new gates, berms and signs, wildlife that had been driven out by a steady stream of OHV traffic returned, Casias said. In just two or three years, hunters who used to have a hard time finding a bull in the area were overwhelmed. Last fall he took a 352-inch, 7-by-7 bull, “and that wasn’t even the bull we were after,” he said.

Some of his old friends initially were not happy that OHVs had been banned from the two areas. Now they’re singing a different tune, Casias said. “I’m getting quite a lot of praise from these guys. They’re seeing a lot more wildlife.” The closed areas are still riddled with old logging roads and OHV trails. But with no motorized access, the roads make good paths for hunters and game. Sportsmen can drive a truck or OHV to the edge of a closed area and find elk tracks a few hundred yards from the road, Casias said.

“We’re not really giving up anything,” VeneKlasen said of the closures, “but we’re gaining a lot.” Local hunters worked with Carson National Forest and the Department of Game and Fish to establish habitat protection areas. As a result, hunters say they’re seeing much more game and taking out trophy animals.

Even after the closures, Carson National Forest has more than 2,600 miles of dedicated roads and OHV trails – enough to stretch from Taos to Detroit and back. Nationwide, almost 90 percent of all U.S. Forest Service lands are within two miles of a road, and 78 percent are within one mile.

Designated OHV routes are essential, Sportsmen Ride Right says, both for providing access to public lands and for protecting habitat that creates high quality fishing and hunting. It’s also important that individuals ride responsibly, by staying on those designated routes.

At the same time, the coalition is also fighting to maintain OHV access. Last fall the group called on San Juan National Forest officials in southwest Colorado to keep a popular trail open to motorized use. The agency had proposed to close a section of OHV road because some riders had illegally driven into the adjacent Weminuche Wilderness. Fencing and a gate meant to keep riders out had been torn down. The Forest Service had wanted to close the final section of Middle Mountain Road to OHVs, but Sportsmen Ride Right, along with Durango-area OHV clubs and Trout Unlimited, called for the road to remain open. They offered to help construct a new barrier and to help monitor the area to prevent further acts of vandalism.

In the past, the debate over OHV access on public lands has been between two extremes – those who want unlimited motorized use and those who want none. Sportsmen Ride Right was created to bring hunters and anglers to the forefront of travel planning on public lands, said Aaron Kindle, a member of the coalition in Colorado.

“We hope that preserving motorized access at Middle Mountain can be the first in a series of solutions where sportsmen and motorized users come together to find practical ways to solve problems while protecting fish and big game habitat across the West,” Kindle said.

Clark Collins gets the credit. On a warm Wyoming summer day a few years back, Collins, the founder and first executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition looked around the room and said: “It’s your guys who are the problem.”

“What do you mean?” someone in the audience asked.

“Sportsmen. Elk hunters. Fishermen. You guys are the ones who are causing a lot of the problems with motorized vehicles,” responded Collins.

For those of us in the room, it was a classic “ah-ha” moment. Collins was speaking to a gathering of sportsmen. More specifically, he was speaking to the employees of Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen Conservation Project. We looked around at each other and thought, “You know, he’s right.”

Today’s motorized vehicle users come in many stripes, but the majority of the users are us—people who ride our machines into backcountry areas to hunt and fish. Sometimes, these are also the people who go off trail illegally to retrieve downed game, who cut switchbacks, who abuse the privilege. And these “bad apples” give all of us a bad name. Those who ride recreationally aren’t the problem, said Collins, and he was right. People who ride strictly recreationally, who have a passion to ride, are quite often those who join clubs, who do good work on the land, who work hard to educate, inform, and get out to maintain trails.

From that moment back in 2008, we realized that we needed a new idea, a new effort to reach out to our own as Collins advised. We needed to talk to sportsmen about the ethics of riding right, about balance.

Thus was born the idea of Sportsmen Ride Right. Since that time, we’ve met with others like Brian Hawthorne at Blue Ribbon Coalition to get ideas on how to reach our own. We look forward to continued work with BRC and other groups to ensure that our activities are preserved for future generations.

We’ve come to the conclusion that pointing fingers is not going to protect the habitat and access that sportsmen rely on. Much like our predecessors implemented bag limits and set us on the path of the North American model of wildlife conservation, we too must take the high road and start making sure we leave a legacy of reasonable motorized access and quality hunting and fishing.

While BRC has done an excellent job of representing the recreational riders of public lands, it took Collins to bring that point home to us, and provide us with the seed that has become SRR. Until now, no one has represented the motorized sportsman, the person who rides their machine to access hunting or fishing. Not BRC, nor any other group on a national level. Until now.

Sportsmen are focused on quality experiences, quality animals and the ability to have long, over-the counter seasons, while maintaining access to that quality.

For sportsmen, motorized access is a means to an end. And that mentality has led many of us to be land abusers instead of stewards.

It’s all the rage to blame our deficiencies in managing motorized recreation on a few rogue users, the “bad apples.” The truth though, is that we are all culpable. When we head onto public lands in a motorized vehicle, it doesn’t matter if that vehicle is an all-terrain vehicle, a one-ton pickup or a Subaru; we have to recognize that at some level we are all motorized users and we all have an impact.

So, like hunters and anglers have always done, we are taking charge of our own. We have nothing to hide and no hidden agenda – just a simple mission; to get the entire sporting community to embrace and practice compliant OHV use on public lands. Our goals are simple and common sense, like visible identification on all motorized vehicles on public land, and education ethics targeted specifically at sportsmen. We’ll work hand-in-glove with renowned organizations like Tread Lightly! and state and federal wildlife agencies. Sportsmen came up with ideas like catch-and-release, poaching hotlines, stamps to fund habitat and taxes on ammunition for habitat funding. Moreover, sportsmen have always funded nearly every dime that goes into state wildlife agencies.

We refuse to simply blame, criticize, shout and argue without coming up with solutions. Solutions that start with our own and partnerships that form and back those solutions. That’s what SRR is all about.

Garrett Veneklasen of SRR recently interviewed Ron Schubert, the new “Sportsmen’s Rep” for the New Mexico OHV Advisory Board.

Q1. How long have you been riding ATVs?

I have been riding ATVs for 6 years, Jeep owner for over 15 years, horse owner for 3 years as a youth and rode dual sport motorcycles for 16 years.

 Q2. Tell me a little about the off road organization you’ve formed.

I started Sierra Riders (now called, “High Country ATV Explorers”) as a place for New Mexico ATVers to meet on the internet, set up rides, discuss issues, learn about places to ride ATVs and to have fun.  There was no organized ATV clubs or good source information to provide information on where you could or couldn’t ride.  This is the reason I started the club and it is still that way to this day.  No one owns the club.  It is owned by all that want to participate in it and it is there for everyone.  The members elected to give back by volunteering their time to help United States Forest Service by adopting areas we ride in the Jemez Forest District and the Mt. Taylor Ranger District. 

The club members are for pro-access with individual memberships in the Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC), All Terrain Vehicle Association (ATVA), New Mexico Off Highway Vehicle Alliance (NMOHVA), to mention a few.  They are very leery of doppelganger organizations that would restrict access but play the part of pro-access.  The club takes their memberships very seriously but also understands a lot more can be done through common ground of larger organizations.

 Q3. Tell me about some the trail rehab projects you’ve been organizing in the last few years.

 The High Country ATV Explorers has worked with United States Forest Service in the Paliza Canyon area of the Jemez Forest District in the Santa Fe National Forest for 5 years as a formal USFS volunteer group.  The area was touched by the Los Conches fire and the future of riding in that area is unknown at this point.  Also, the group has been picking up discarded trash on Mt Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest.  We picked up in excess of 60 bags of trash off of the trails and roads on Mt Taylor over the last 3 years. 

 Q4. You’ve recently been elected as the sportsman’s representative for the NM OHV Advisory Board. As a rider and sportsman, you seem like the perfect fit for this position. What do you plan to bring to the table over the next year?

 1. New Mexico is blessed with so much government land but things are constantly changing on government land.  The land management agency’s rules that govern outdoor activities can be difficult:  impossible to find, hard to understand or not even available.  This means cooperation is needed between state and federal land management agencies on clarifying what the rules are and how they affect the outdoor enthusiast. I hope to get some of this straightened out and make the information more readily available (a one-stop place to shop, if you will) by the state and on the internet with real time updates.    New Mexico’s outdoor enthusiast and out of state visitors will have some place to go without trying to guess what is allowed and what is not.

2.  I am a strong supporter of volunteer activities and will be involved in the state’s new Trail Ambassador program.  I want to bring more volunteers out to make things better on the ground for everyone.

3.  I want to hear from the outdoor enthusiast on how we can make things better, their experiences good and bad with OHVs and get answers for the outdoor enthusiast’s questions.

 Q5. As a hunter and ATV enthusiast, how can we best engage and educate fellow riders on the importance of staying on trail and not driving cross country?

1. The first thing you can do is to lead by example and encourage those that you interface with to do the same.

 2.  The hiring of an Education and Law Enforcement Coordinator is smart move on behalf of the OHV program to further educate New Mexicans on the OHV laws and rules. 

 3.  Be a part of the New Trail Ambassador program that is about to be launched by NM OHV Department.  This is a really a great grass roots program.  The program will help educate New Mexicans and the designated trail systems.

 4.  Make available Land Manager’s information on the internet and make simple to find:  OHV trails have not been designated by all land management agencies but there are those that have.  The availability of information to let the public know what has been designated for OHV use, camping, hiking, and public can access, etc. and rules that apply are very important.  The land management’s agencies rulings are different from one location to another or one land management agency to another.   So, clarity and understanding can only help those that are outdoor enthusiast.

 5.  To encourage the engaged users and groups about, “Staying on the Trail” to keep delivering the message and engage those that are not.  Also, include the message, “Tread Lightly”, “Leave No Trace” and “Pack It In, Pack It Out” because those that are engaging in outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, camping, OHVing, etc. need to step up their game and pick up after themselves if they are not.  I have picked up many beer cans, water bottles and other refuse left in camps, alongside the road and on the trails that have been discarded.

Garrett O. VeneKlasen

New Mexico Public Lands Coordinator

Trout Unlimited

November 15, 2011

Chairman Bishop, Ranking Member Grijalva, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to testify. My name is Garrett VeneKlasen; I am the New Mexico field coordinator for Trout Unlimited.

Today I will share with you my experiences as a sportsman and ATV user on public lands in New Mexico. My experiences have taught me the importance of balancing access with habitat protection in order to sustain healthy populations of fish and game, and quality recreational opportunities. I believe that some of the things we’re doing in New Mexico show that if we work together, we can achieve that balance.

I was born and raised in New Mexico and spent my childhood and formative adolescent years hunting and fishing with my father throughout the public lands of New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Today, as a father, I am able to pass down our priceless outdoor heritage to my daughter because like many New Mexicans, we have a deep passion for wild places and hunting and fishing. Since I was old enough to drive a car and start a fishing guiding business at sixteen, my entire working career has centered on hunting, fishing and recreating on public lands. I’ve been a fishing and hunting guide, an outfitter, an outdoor writer/photographer, an outdoor travel consultant, and an outdoor television producer. All these jobs center on viable public lands resources.

Seventeen years ago, I purchased my first ATV. At the time, I was newly married and living in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Angel Fire is the gateway to amazing USFS, state and BLM public lands. My “back yard” was the 1.5 million acre Carson National Forest. The public lands backcountry hunting and fishing back then was world class. We had tremendous herds of trophy elk and mule deer. Populations of turkey, grouse and bear were off the charts. Needless to say, as a hunter, angler and OHV enthusiast, I was in heaven.

Back then not many folks owned ATVs in Northern New Mexico. If there were any rules regulating the use of these machines on public lands, they sure weren’t publicized and definitely not enforced. Almost daily, I would take off from my house on my ATV with a full tank of gas, a chainsaw, a GPS and a topo map and head into the forest. Aside from more than 3,000 miles of designated motorized trails I could use, the Carson is riddled with abandoned logging roads. If a designated road wouldn’t take me where I needed to go, I would simply re-open an abandoned logging road or even head cross-country to get to my favorite hunting or fishing spot. In a matter of years I created literally hundreds of miles of my own user-created routes. There wasn’t a spot on the map I couldn’t reach on my ATV.

Because I was one of only a handful of motorized users, the overall impact on the land was relatively insignificant. For a time, the quality of my off-bike hunting, fishing and related backcountry experiences remained true and unaffected.

But as each year passed, the number of OHV users in my country grew at an exponential rate. Since 2003, OHV sales have tripled in the United States (1). The amount of OHV activity has increased dramatically throughout the Carson National Forest. The Camino Real district of the Carson was especially hard hit due to its proximity to Taos and the fast growing resort communities of Valle Escondido and Angel Fire. Soon it wasn’t just a handful of folks traversing the countryside in OHVs. It became an army of unfettered users like me that collectively fragmented watersheds, disrupted wildlife and outraged and ultimately displaced the non-motorized users coming to the backcountry.

For a time I denied the fact that increasing off-road use was having a negative impact on the quality of my backcountry fishing and especially hunting. With each passing season though, the quality and quantity of elk, mule deer, turkey, bear and grouse declined dramatically. These animals equate engine noise with predation and quickly vacate lands frequented by vehicle traffic. In a matter of years we – the OHV community – literally drove the animals off public lands and onto adjacent private lands. During hunting season, it became a race to drive into the last remaining remote and un-fragmented backcountries, which were the only isolated islands that held the last residual unmolested game populations.

My favorite fishing spots were impacted also. Folks riding through our river bottoms left deep scars in the soft riparian soil and created mud bogs in fragile riparian areas. Some of our small creeks were even becoming scoured and channelized by frequent OHV use through their courses.

We loved our country to death.

In the fall of 2009, I attended my first Travel Management meeting held by the US Forest Service (USFS) in Taos, New Mexico. At the time, I viewed Travel Management from an access-restricting standpoint instead of its intended purpose – responsible resource protection. I was extremely skeptical of the federal government regulating my off-road activity. I bought in to the rhetoric stating that the “Feds” had no right to tell an upstanding, tax-paying citizen like myself where I could or could not ride. I hated the idea of having to possibly close many of the user-created routes that I and my buddies exhaustively created and maintained for almost a decade.

But in the room were many recreationists like myself. Folks who loved to ride, but also equally cherished the non-motorized, regressive side of outdoor recreation. We talked among ourselves and decided that we, the OHV-based sportsmen’s community, needed to do something to protect our resources from overuse.

And so we collectively and willingly worked with the land management agencies on Travel Management in our area. We used common sense approaches to balance adequate access with corresponding, ample non-motorized refuge country. This is the essence of the Travel Management concept. In the end, the USFS ended up closing some roads and trails, but retained more than 3,000 miles of roads and trails for motorized use. This scenario is typical across the West. There is a misconception floating around out there that Travel Management has severely restricted access across the West and this is simply not true.

I believe that the Travel Management process helps build balance for all users of our treasured national forests. I also believe, as a rider, that I could literally wear the wheels right off of my vehicle just driving the roads and trails on my local national forest alone. In fact, of the 3,400 miles of roads and trails on the Carson, more than 3,000 of those miles are open to motorized vehicles. That’s a pretty good deal for the motorized user like myself.

We, the sportsmen-based OHV community in northern New Mexico, did not stop with supporting the Travel Management process. We collectively wanted to ensure that there would remain quality, easily accessible non-motorized refuge land to hunt in adjacent to our designated motorized routes (2).

In 1973, the New Mexico Habitat Improvement Act (HIA) was implemented to protect wildlife populations and crucial wildlife habitat from unrestricted motorized vehicle travel throughout New Mexico’s national forests. The idea behind the act was to create relatively small non-motorized Habitat Protection Areas (HPAs) for wildlife. These areas do not restrict motorized use by federal or state agencies and allow for special use permitting for activities such as logging.

The HPAs helped wildlife to flourish.. It is a well-documented fact that game and non-game species alike rely heavily on large, contiguous, protected, non-motorized tracts of country for food, cover and breeding habitat. In the 1980’s local populations of elk, deer, turkey, bear, grouse and other game and non-game species exploded after HIA went into effect. In a very short period, the Camino Real District of the Carson became one of the most sought-after hunting units in the entire state. This was the game-rich country I first encountered when I moved to Angel Fire, New Mexico in 1994.

With the help of the local New Mexico Game & Fish Department and US Forest Service personnel, we collectively identified previously-closed non-motorized HPAs within the Camino Real District of the Carson and re-closed (to motorized use) two separate HPAs in the Carson. Collectively, these two HPAs protect approximately 33,000 acres (remember the Carson consists of 1.5 million acres) of prime wildlife habitat. Please keep in mind that the implementation of these closures was instigated by the sportsmen-based OHV community, not the non-motorized community.

Again, it is important to note that this country was originally closed and protected under the previously-mentioned HIA, but was eventually opened back up via user-created routes. Many of these routes were created by yours truly.

After three years of closure, these two HPAs once again boast some of the finest public-land big game hunting opportunities (from both a trophy quality and quantity standpoint) in the entire state if not the entire West. Hunters, hikers, horseback enthusiasts, naturalists and mountain bikers flock to the area because of the easily accessed pristine and wild backcountry country. The revenue generated by hunting and other non-motorized recreation related activities in the communities surrounding the Camino Real is estimated to be $13.4 million annually, and helps create more than 170 local jobs.

Our experiences in New Mexico have played out in similar ways throughout the West. Sportsmen who use public lands rely on an intact and meaningful system of roads and trails to hunt and fish. We have a significant stake in the upkeep of those roads and trails, but we also need areas where we can leave the machine behind and find not just the solitude and peace that lives in wild country, but also the high quality fish and wildlife habitat that produces meat for the table and fodder for the soul.

The term “access” is a tricky one for sportsmen. Were motorized access the number one issue for sportsmen, downtown Washington D.C. or New York City would be hotspots for hunting and fishing. Sportsmen understand that access is not simply the ability to drive your vehicle uninhibited across the landscape. For sportsmen, access is about quality and opportunity. Just as urban centers loaded with roads and cars don’t make quality habitat for fish and wildlife, neither do national forests overrun by unmanaged motorized recreation make good places to fish and hunt.

When the conversation turns to motorized access, non-motorized users and motorized recreationists are often split into disparate groups. For hunters and anglers, the truth is different. Nearly every sportsman who visits public lands does so in a motorized vehicle. It may be an ATV, a truck, a jeep or another four-wheel-drive vehicle, but most of us travel across Forest Service or BLM roads to reach the edges of our hunting and fishing areas.

Sportsmen also know that as you venture farther from the motors, the fish get bigger, the bucks get better and the elk get more numerous. In my state, one of the most sought-after elk tags in the West can take years to draw. Unit 16a in the Gila National Forest draws hunters from around the country and around the world to pursue trophy elk. The Gila National Forest spans 3.3 million acres, four counties and five hunting units. Once the Gila National Forest finishes it Travel Management Plan, it will have more than 3,600 miles of motorized roads and trails for use by the public and the most desirable and hardest-to-draw tag will remain the one that allows sportsmen to hunt the Gila Wilderness Area, away from motorized roads and trails.

There is broad recognition in the sportsmen’s community that sound management and responsible use of public lands are necessary to sustaining quality recreational opportunities. Sportsmen are part of a broad-based, divergent off-road community which encompasses much more than the purely recreational riders that are a loud, but minority, stakeholder within the overall OHV picture. The silent majority of the OHV community are recreationists like me who embrace a balanced, common-sense approach to motorized access and resource protection within our public lands. To give voice to this majority we have started a coalition of businesses and rod and guns clubs called Sportsmen Ride Right. Our coalition believes that motorized access is a necessity, but one that must be balanced along with habitat protection to ensure the long-term health of our hunting and fishing heritage.

Sportsmen Ride Right is firmly in support of Travel Management Planning. It only makes sense that we would put thought into the impacts of motorized use on fish and wildlife on public lands. For sportsmen, travel management is no different than game laws that include season and bags limits.

Because so many sportsmen use OHVs to hunt and fish on public lands, we have the most to gain by doing it “right.” To this end, Sportsmen Ride Right advocates responsible OHV use and, more importantly, a secure a strong sporting heritage for future generations.

As we consider the decisions made through Travel Management Planning, it is important that we keep in mind the size and extent of the road and trail network on public lands.

• Nearly 90 percent of all lands managed by the US Forest Service are within 2 miles of a road and 78 percent of all national forest lands are within one mile of a road. 62 percent of all national forest roadless areas are less than one mile’s distance from a road. Only a little over 11 percent of all national forest roadless areas are two miles or more from a road.

• In New Mexico’s Carson National Forest there are over 3,000 miles of designated motorized roads and trails.

• Once travel management is complete on the Gila National Forest, there will be about 3,600 mile of motorized roads and trails on the forest. That’s more miles of roads than there are residents in Catron County, where much of the Gila National Forest lies.

• In Idaho, which contains more roadless acres than any other state besides Alaska, 61 percent of all U.S. Forest Service managed land is within 1 mile of a road and 94 percent of Idaho lands designated as “general forest” by USFS are within 1 mile of a road.

Besides damaging valuable fish and wildlife habitat and limiting hunting and fishing opportunity, an excessive and redundant road system is an unneeded burden on American taxpayers. The Forest Service lacks the financial resources to maintain its system of roads and trails and faces a maintenance backlog of $8.4 billion.

With so much at stake, it only makes sense for the Forest Service to analyze its network of roads and trails at the district level and to determine the minimum system that can be sustained given available resources, yet still provide access without diminishing the quality of recreational opportunities such as hunting and fishing.

Hunting and fishing generate $76.7 billion in economic activity in the United States annually. But the number of people who engage in hunting and fishing has been dropping steadily for a generation. Today’s youth are more likely to shoot ducks or catch a trout in a video game than they are for real in the outdoors. Our national forests provide critical opportunities to hunt and fish, and these opportunities cost a whole lot less than on private lands. However, these opportunities are available because we still have significant areas of land and water on our national forests that are relatively undeveloped. Areas with low road densities frequently have high aquatic and terrestrial habitat values. Conversely, hunting and fishing opportunities in backcountry areas can be compromised by high road densities and frequent motorized traffic. So if we are to keep our hunting and fishing traditions going, there has to be a good balance between motorized access and walk-in areas.

A look at how motorized access impact elk illustrates this point. Elk are one of the most popular game animals in the U.S. and their reaction to motorized roads and trails has been studied extensively. A 1983 study (Lyon) of the impact of road density on elk populations reported that “habitat effectiveness” could be expected to decline by at least 25 percent with a density of 1 mile of road per square mile and by at least 50 percent with two miles of road per square mile. This study further reported that as road densities increased to five to six miles of roads per square mile, elk use declined to less than 25 percent of potential.

Other studies have shown that closing roads benefits elk. Irwin and Peek (1979) found that road closures allowed elk to stay in preferred habitat longer while elk in roaded areas were displaced. Leptich and Zager (1991) found that closing roads extended the age structure and doubled the bulls per cow sex ratio. Gratson et al. (2000) measured elk hunter success in relation to road density and found that hunter success almost doubled when open road density was reduced from 2.54 km/km2 to 0.56 km/km2.

Just this month in California, a special state task force found that poorly built roads were doing more harm to salmon in Battle Creek than clear cutting (3).  Battle Creek, a tributary to the Sacramento River and an important spawning ground for salmon, highlights the need for planning and carefully thought out road systems.

Sportsmen, like other public land users, may disagree on specific road closures or openings. We do not, however, disagree about the need for sound management of our fish and wildlife resources. Travel Management Planning is part of sound wildlife management, and most sportsmen fully support the concept and need for designated routes.

Hunters and anglers have a long history of paying our own way and taking responsibility for our actions and for those of our peers. We will continue to work for balance and to protect the wildlife heritage that we owe to our children. We ask that Congress also seek a balance that will protect our irreplaceable public lands. Congress should not only protect the Travel Management process, but vocally support a proven policy that can save our lands and save tax dollars.

In summary, the increase in population and use rates of our public lands indicates that we – the current stewards and trustees of our public lands – desperately need to implement a long range Travel Management Plan now more than ever.

The key to the success of Travel Management is transitioning from the individualized, me, mine, here and now access-restriction mindset to a broader, ours, theirs, and tomorrow resource protection perspective. Ultimately this issue isn’t just about us. It’s about giving my unborn grandchildren (God willing) something of real value. It’s about giving them the same quality public lands backcountry experience and opportunity that helped define and refine the man who now sits before you.

The wild world is one of the last truly authentic things that we can give to subsequent generations. In the backcountry, away from the modern trappings of the civilized world and all our gadgets and machinery there is only one truth to be found. It is a place where all beings are governed by a set of perfect laws that have never changed and never will. If a balanced approached to preserving and protecting this one irreplaceable commodity isn’t worth protecting, I don’t know what else is.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. Your careful and thoughtful consideration is greatly appreciated.

Contact: 

Aaron Kindle (303) 868-2859

Matt Clark (970) 799-0274 

  Sportsmen Ride Right looks for a solution at Middle Mountain

Durango, Colo. — Sportsmen Ride Right today joined Trout Unlimited, Tread Lightly!, Rocky Mountain Ramblers and Creeper Jeepers Gang in calling on the San Juan National Forest to keep a popular section of the Middle Mountain road open to motorized use.

U.S. Forest Service officials have announced their intention to close the last section of the road at Tuckerville a mile short of where the trail currently ends at parking area near the Weminuche Wilderness boundary. San Juan National Forest officials are taking action because of repeated incursions by off-highway vehicles (OHV) into the wilderness.

The final section of trail was opened to motorized use in 2009 when local motorized enthusiasts assured the Forest Service that allowing motorized users to ride to the edge of the Weminuche would not encourage incursions into the wilderness. Fencing and a gate were installed at the trail’s end in 2010 with the help of the Creeper Jeepers Gang, a local four-wheel-drive enthusiasts’ club, but the gate was torn down this summer.

In a joint letter to the Forest Service on Monday, SRR and the off-road vehicle clubs asked that the final section of the road be kept open, and in return offered to help the Forest Service construct a new barrier in place of the one that was vandalized, and to help monitor the area.

“Responsible wheeling is one of our primary goals – and if it’s not legal, we don’t do it,” said Dave Shannon of the Creeper Jeepers. “Let’s face it, if we don’t take responsibility, we may lose our sport.”

“We want to help the Forest Service address this issue,” said Matt Clark, backcountry coordinator for TU in Colorado, who noted that the road is an important access point for sportsmen who want to hunt or fish in the wilderness area. “Our plan is to provide some funding that can be used to rebuild the barrier and to work with local OHV clubs to organize some volunteers to help in construction and maintenance. It’s just as easy to tear apart a gate a mile further down the road; what we need is more peer to peer education and better compliance with the rules.”

“The Creepers voted overwhelmingly to do anything they can to help the Forest Service rebuild the closure at its current location,” Shannon added. “The wilderness overlook near the end of that road is a wonderful resource that we don’t want to lose.”

Sportsmen Ride Right (sportsmenrideright.org) was organized this year as a coalition of sportsmen and women who use motorized vehicles to access hunting and fishing on public land. As motorized users, SRR members know the importance of access, but recognize that the privilege of motorized access comes with the responsibility to protect vital fish and game habitat and follow the rules of the trail.

“SRR was created to bring hunters and anglers into the forefront of travel planning on our public lands,” said Aaron Kindle, TU’s field coordinator for Colorado and a member of the SRR coalition. “All too often we have seen just two polarizing points of view define the debate over OHV access on public lands – people have been either been calling for more motorized access or for a ban on OHVs altogether. Meanwhile, our hunting and fishing opportunities have dwindled.

“We hope that preserving motorized access at Middle Mountain can be the first in a series of solutions where sportsmen and motorized users come together to find practical ways to solve problems while protecting fish and big game habitat across the West,” Kindle said.

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It seems as if I grew up in a four-wheel drive. My first hunting memories are of my dad’s ’58 Chevrolet Apache grinding in granny up some lonely Colorado jeep trail. Today, there’s a mint ’68 Ford Bronco, a tough ’70 Ford F250 High-boy, a Dodge diesel and a dirt bike in my garage. I use all of them many times of the year to enhance my life as a sportsman. But, I know when to park. And, even with gas prices creeping ever higher, I’m not likely to sell off my motorized toys and rely solely on my feet or on my horses. I like roads. But I also like using my legs.

Roads get us into the country; legs get us away from the roads and into game. Years ago, I spent a month in the backcountry of the Brooks Range in Alaska. We drove in on the “haul road,” the same road that was built into the Arctic Circle for the famous Alaska Pipeline. We climbed up and over and away from the road, putting miles between us and a road that was driven daily by the Winnebago set. On the other side of the hill, we saw moose and grizzlies and caribou and Dall sheep. We caught Arctic char and grayling and fended off mosquitoes that could carry off a small child. At the end of the trip, we worked back toward the road. It was August and a fresh snow had fallen. We walked in fresh caribou and sheep tracks, but as we dropped off down to the road, we cut fewer game trails. And fewer. And fewer. A mile from the road, I picked up my first beer bottle and boot track. Back in civilization.

For anyone who hunts elk, this is how it goes: travel away from the road, you’ll pick up game tracks. Travel farther away from the road; you’ll pick up more tracks. The abundance of game is directly proportional to the distance from the road.

So why don’t more people go into the backcountry?

Mike Beagle thinks he’s got the answer. A fit, athletic 40-something, Beagle is a former Army infantryman, a former college football safety, and a former high school teacher. While his past is as much a part of him as the present, talk to Mike long enough and you’ll find out the most important thing is not what he was but what he is: a father.

Beagle has a daughter in the sixth grade and a son in the third. They’ve been exposed to wild backcountry lands since they were one year old.

“The greatest thrill of my life is introducing my kids to that life away from the 7-11 and all those gizmos,” says Beagle.

His kids catch fish and wrestle with the family’s bird dogs. Yet they are an anomaly in a generation more attached to indoor activity than out. Today’s children are estimated to enjoy only 30 minutes of unsupervised outdoor activity per week, while at the same time they have an average of three hours per day in front of a television set.

“It’s the plugged-in generation,” says Beagle. “They don’t want to leave their indoors toys.”

A life-long hunter, Beagle relates a story: fifteen years ago when he taught school on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, he asked his class how many hunted, fished or camped outdoors.

“Three quarters of them raised their hands,” remembers Beagle.

A decade and a half later, he asked the same question of his class in more-rural Medford, Oregon. “Three or four raised their hands and the rest of the class looked at them like they were weird or something.”

To Beagle, as a father, that was a lesson that hit home. “Folks want to do things the easy way now,” he says. “That is one thing we need to fight, we need hang on to those core values that made the country great.”

For Beagle and many others, the idea of hunting and working hard go hand-in-hand. “To me it’s a great traditional value, it’s a family value, to be able to take kids into a backcountry area, over-coming physical obstacles and being mentally and physically tough,” says Beagle. “There’s something special about earning those elk fajitas that I’m going to eat for dinner this Saturday night. It’s a neat feeling to produce that for the family, without having to go to the grocery store.”

 Tom Reed is a hunter and angler and lives outside Pony, Montana.