Lassen National Forest - what a mess!

[UglyJeepThing]

Eldorado isn't the only forest trying to push the RDP down the throats of the OHV public.

Sylvia is a reliable source, and according to her letter, Region 5 is trying to push their forests to get this RDP done faster!

Read this letter from Sylvia Milligan, and understand that what we're doing for Eldorado will have a great impact throughout the forests in California.

Amy

Hi All,

On July 12th the Lassen NF had a meeting in Chester to explain the latest in the RDP. The information they presented was NOTHING like what we had been told for months about this process. By the time I drove home I was livid.

An ATV club from Redding had just held a ride that day in the Mineral area and I knew where they were camped. I stopped by to explain to them what I had learned that day (this is a club of apx. 200 members that I have tried to get involved for several years but they REFUSED to get political. A number of them were aware of the situation and were very supportive of my work). When I told them that the ride they had taken that day was no longer possible to ride because of the process they were appaled. Everyone there asked how they could help. Most had already looked at the website and the process and had written letters in the past but they admited they were so put off by the complicity of the process that they really did not understand what to do. However, they were now ready to get involved.

That night I could not sleep thinking about the meeting on Saturday so I finally got up and started writing. I wrote a letter for one of the women in the group and took it to her that morning before we rode (yes, we rode illegally that day knowing it was our last ride in the area we love to ride). I gave her a list of people to cc the letter to. She was delighted at this opportunity to help.

I then left on a three week vacation on August 1st. While gone I received a copy of the newspaper article that I have enclosed for you (the first one) showing the lady in front of her quad and a good article about the RDP and people's frustrations. However, the article contained some quotes from the forest and when I read them I was disguisted with the information put out to the public as gospal. The worst information stated the following, "Lassen temporarily closed 110 miles of roughly 1,200 miles of trail and issued maps showing which routes are ATV-approved". However, what they did not say was that most of the remaining routes are also on the hit list on their spreadsheets.

Also stated was, "The FS will study ways to remedy the environmental, arch, and safety concerns prompting the closures before reopening some of the trails in June". REOPEN, who are they kidding. I stopped by the SO's office in Susanville on my way out of town on August 1st and was told that Region 5 has instructed the forests to get this process done by June of next year (in other words speed this process up) but that each forest does not have the resources or manpower to get the work done so they will most likely have to close most of the routes. They are going to make areas like around the community of Mineral a priority because they are now landlocked in this process. The rest will just have to be closed.

I also wrote a letter to the local paper before I left about the Recreagion Guide they put out each year. It is a great insert in the paper but it NEVER promotes motorized recreation and with the RDP tentatively closing so much riding opportunity I explained to them what was going on and how it would impact the area, i.e. interface, watersheds, private property, etc. I feel we need to spotlight our 'open' areas. I hope that also had some bearing on the second article I have enclosed from our local paper. The paper does state that people should get ahold of the local (state) elected officials when in reality they need to get ahold of the federal elected Assemblymen.

You can go online to www.redding.com and rad the full articles

I feel we have the ball rolling and we MUST keep pushing to keep it rolling.

Sylvia




News 1 article
Restricted routes irk local ATV riders
released: (Monday, August 13, 2007)
... next: Officials will try to develop routes for ATVs and other off-roaders that ... cials will try to develop routes for ATV s and other off-roaders that preserve ... decisions to close certain trails to ATV

Editorials
Forest takes OHV closures a step too far
Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007
If the Forest Service wants to corral dirt bikes and quads to prevent a wholesale trampling of public lands, more power to the agency. But does it make any sense to preserve valuable backcountry resources by barring riders from dirt roads through the remote woods? Full story »

[Teriod]

There needs to be a way to stop the entire process, the Eldo is probably going to be the biggest fight, hopefully we can get people to step up and help the national forests the have less OHVers as their forest's roads and trails are important to everyone also