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RECREATION ADVOCATES HOLD
NATIONAL MEETING
North American Motorized Recreation
Council convenes in Kansas City, Missouri
Representatives from regional and national recreation
organizations
met in Kansas City, MO. to discuss issues of common concern
and
develop a plan to achieve solutions to those issues.
Kansas City, MO (May 23, 2004) - The spring 2004 North
American
Motorized Recreation Council (NAMRC) meeting was held over
the May
22-23 weekend in Kansas City, MO. Representatives from
regional and
national motorized recreation groups met to discuss common
issues of
concern and develop a plan to achieve solutions to those
issues.
The meeting identified a number of issues, including user
conflict,
Forest Service National OHV Policy, agency land management
plans, and
legal actions affecting recreation activities. Organizations
represented included the American Motorcycle Association
(AMA),
Arizona State Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs (ASAFWDC),
BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC), CalROC, California Association
of 4 Wheel
Drive Clubs (CA4WDC), East Coast 4 Wheel Drive Association
(EC4WDA),
Off-Road Business Association (ORBA), and United Four Wheel
Drive
Associations (UFWDA).
Citing the growing number of people participating in
motorized
recreation with different expectations of "recreation
experience",
meeting participants agreed to support establishing
state-wide
coalitions of recreation user groups and work towards
resolving
conflicts.
John Stewart, Director of Environmental Affairs for UFWDA
expressed
growing concerns with the National OHV Policy under
development by
the Forest Service. The new policy (due to be released for
public
comment during the summer months) will provide management
guidelines
for all Forest Service managed public lands. Key elements of
the
policy are expected to include an elimination of
cross-country travel
within the National Forest system and establishing a
designated route
system. Citing a recent study by the Southern California
Land Rover
Club that identified a greater than 50 percent error rate
with agency
route inventories, Stewart commented, "In recent years,
thousands of
miles of backcountry dirt roads in the deserts and forests
across the
western states have been closed to public access based on
faulty
route inventories."
Agency land management plans continue to be an obstacle for
motorized
recreation. A study commissioned by ORBA on a land
management plan
for one Southern California Desert region noted the lack of
a
recreation component within the plan. Also, while that plan
called
for increased habitat for protected species, it contained no
provisions to fund habitat protection and monitoring.
Legal and political issues were recognized as key elements
in the
effort to retain recreation access to public lands. Roy
Denner,
President and CEO of ORBA commented, "We believe that the
recreation
community needs to visit our country's leaders in Washington
regularly to make sure that they know what's happening on
the ground
with regard to OHV recreation. We expect lawmakers to be
concerned
about public access to public lands as well as environmental
protection."
Participants have scheduled a fall meeting to continue
working
towards solutions to preserve recreation access to public
lands and
increase awareness of declining recreation opportunities.
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