Here’s a link to the American Motorcyclist Association talking points for members attending meetings on the planning rule.
This, as well as other comments from recreationists raise some interesting issues:
Recreation must be included in the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) planning rule as a
substantive principle. In the previously issued Notice of Intent (NOI), recreation
appears only to be an afterthought. For millions of Americans, public land
recreation is what connects us to the land, introduces us to principles of
conservation and stewardship and teaches us to value healthy ecosystems.
Recreation also provides sustainable employment and economic growth in rural and gateway communities. The USFS planning rule must encourage land managers to plan for recreation.
2) The USFS planning rule should seek the inclusion of existing land management plans within local forest and grassland plans. Various communities have worked with local and federal administrators to develop Travel Management Plans and other management directives. Forest plans must not treat these existing collaborations as mutually exclusive from future planning.
My thoughts were that all the planning rules heretofore have considered recreation, and that no one would reopen travel management decisions, most of which are fairly recent, in a forest plan. I wonder if these groups think differently on this or have other specific concerns?
There are other recreation planning tools (recreation facility master planning, niche determination, recreation opportunity spectrum) and I wonder if these groups are arguing for better (and/or more clear to the public) of all these different efforts?
Maybe the AMA (as well as other motorized recreation groups) should address the growing trend of some roads being closed by fallen hazard trees not harvested because of successful litigation. Yes, courts have indeed ruled against public safety in some cases. The only option left to Forests is to close roads when they are legally-barred from cutting hazard trees.