Sonora Pass Sno-Goers: News

Unfortunately, once again, WA State US Senator Maria Cantwell and WA State US Representative Jay Inslee

SAWS Members,

Unfortunately, once again, WA State US Senator Maria Cantwell and WA State US Representative Jay Inslee have introduced companion bills in Congress November 17, 2011, to end multiple-use recreation, including snowmobile use, on the majority of our so-called Roadless areas across not only WA State, but all across the western United States.

Recall that if President Clinton's version of the Roadless Act is finally implemented, much of the 58.5 million acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas would become off limits to snowmobile use.

For those unfamiliar with this proposed legislation, the paragraphs below from our SAWS Roadless editorial dated August 2009 should help clarify this issue:

http://news.snowmobilealliance.org/2009/08/the-roadless-saga-continues-where-will-it-all-end/

The 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule contains three classificationsfor recreation; "Primitive,Semi-Primitive Non-Motorized, and Semi-Primitive Motorized". As you can see, snowmobile use would only be allowed in one of these three designations - Semi-Primitive Motorized. Not a pretty picture for those that value multiple-use recreation on our non-wilderness multiple-use public lands. As a reminder, we currently have 109.5 million acres of designated wilderness - how many more acres of non-wilderness lands do we need closed to multiple-use?

You can view maps of the so-called roadless areas by state at the following link. These maps show Inventoried Roadless Areas, but do not break down which areas would be designated in the above three classifications: Roadless Area Maps

In the Spokesman-Review blog below, it states in the very first sentence "Two Washington lawmakers led a bipartisan group of 131 sponsors to introduce legislation Thursday to assure an administrative rule protecting 58.5 million acres of wild roadless areas on America's public lands".

Interesting that the lead sentence in the article regarding these two bills uses the word "bipartisan", which is very misleading.

In reviewing the sponsors and cosponsors of these two bills, S1891 and HB3465, there are 19 democrats, 0 republicans and 1 Independent that support S1891. And there are 111 Democrats, 0 republicans and 0 Independents that support HB3465. Where is the "bipartisan" support? I guess the 1 independent, Joseph Lieberman, in the Senate, must allow them to claim that this is a "bipartisan" bill. Give me a break.

Here are two links to the bills in question:

S1891 - A bill to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System

HB1891 - To protect inventoried roadless areas in the National Forest System

Please contact your elected officials in the US Congress and let them know your opinion on these two bills.

Write Your Representative

Write Your Senator

Dave Hurwitz

WA SAWS Rep - Snowmobile Alliance of Western States

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2011/nov/18/cantwell-inslee-lead-effort-protect-roadless-forests/

Cantwell, Inslee lead effort to protect roadless forests

Posted by Rich

18th Annual Snowmobile Show Nov 12, 2011 12:00 NOON

Starting time 12:00 NOON

Barbecue / Beverages

Win gift certificates from 2 of our sponsors

5 Minute Car Wash / Modesto Yamaha

_______________________________

Parts Swap Meet

This year we are going to have a parts swap-meet. So bring all of your old parts and take advantage of this opportunity to sell them. Also keep your eyes out for good deals on parts you need.

____________________________________

Bring your used snowmobile and sell it the show.

Fees for selling a snowmobile or trailer are:

$50 for sales to $3000 / $75 for sales to $5000 / $100 for sales above $5000

Place: 2400 Herndon RD, Ceres

Take Hatch RD to Herndon. Herndon is the frontage road the East side of Highway 99.

Don Olmstead 404-4054 Terry Alkire 595-0555

Press Release

Contact: Ed Klim
Phone: (517) 339-7788

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11:00 A.M. EDT October 18, 2011

Snowmobiling Web Sites and Facebook Expand

    Haslett, MI, October 18, 2011 – As we look at the last 20 years of communication transformation, most are amazed. Communication amongst snowmobilers has changed forever and it appears the evolution will continue. The manufacturers and many in the industry are now active on the Internet with active web sites, Facebook, and Twitter. The technology makes the passing of news and information more participatory and more social. This is having a profound effect on our society. As an industry, we will be able to take advantage of this emerging technology in communicating trail conditions, riding conditions, avalanche bulletins, weather forecasts, road conditions, and snow conditions, meeting notices and more.
    The increased participation in electronic media has lead to a decline in readership of newspapers in North America. However, in other parts of the world, newspaper readership remains very high. Newspaper readership in North America has fallen approximately 30 percent, while in Europe, readership has fallen less than 4 percent. Other parts of the world are realizing a renewed interest and growth in newspaper readership. Understanding the opportunities in communication gives all of us reason to be more involved in compiling and discussing information and news.
    The news agenda is no longer controlled by the press barons and specific outlets but now is as participatory as the coffee shops once were. Specific snowmobile and tourism related magazines appear to be thriving when matched with electronic media.
    The challenge in all of this new communication access is accountability to make sure the information we use is transparent and factual. Much of the information discussed on the internet is NOT fact-based and misinformation needs to be confronted.
    These changes give us much to celebrate, so we should all enjoy and embrace it and expand our communications with snowmobilers and non-snowmobilers alike, expressing to them the reasons we enjoy winter recreation and snowmobiling.
    The snowmobile manufacturers continue to work on expanding and growing the Go Snowmobiling web site www.gosnowmobiling.org. Within two years our active viewership has expanded to over 3.5 million visitors annually.
    We also have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GoSnowmobiling . We have many friends on our Facebook page and we are looking for more. We are finding that people throughout the world want to enjoy the winter and the great outdoors. Research has shown us the viewers and readers of our information are very interested in snowmobiling. The level of interest continues to be very high with those visiting our web sites. A majority of people living in the snowbelt area, have expressed a high desire to go snowmobiling, rating their interest a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. We know many individuals are visiting our web sites and reading our information; therefore we need to keep our web site up to date, honest and entertaining.
    It is important we understand that, as a snowmobile community, we offer “unique” information that is not readily available. We offer a form of recreation that is unmatched and exciting. We have a great opportunity to express to other interested folks the reasons we snowmobile are quite simple:
a.    To view the scenery,
b.    To be with friends,
c.    To get away from the usual demands of life,
d.    To do something with our family and friends,
e.    To be close to nature,
f.      To participate in an active, exciting activity that ensures we will be tired at the end of the day and will be able to experience a great night’s sleep.
# # #

Lawmakers go west for hearing on public lands

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2011

Lawmakers go west for hearing on public lands

Michael Doyle
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The perennial conflict over public lands will surge again Monday in Sacramento, Calif., as congressional Republicans showcase their unhappiness over environmental restrictions they consider excessive.

Carpenters will complain about logging restrictions, motorcycle riders will plead for more off-road access and conservative lawmakers will hope to build momentum for bills whose long-term prospects remain uncertain.

"All of the West is under attack from radical environmentalists, so we'll have to move legislation," Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said in an interview. "Jobs are being destroyed."

The Sacramento field hearing, and others like it, provides a stage for competing political narratives. Republicans can emphasize jobs; one of their witnesses Monday is from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Democrats can stress the vulnerable environment; one of their witnesses is from Trout Unlimited.

"There's been a full assault on any effort to stop rampant resource development," Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., said of congressional Republicans.

However it's characterized, there's certainly been no shortage of legislative proposals concerning public land use.

Prompted by President Bill Clinton's designation of the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument in 2000, Nunes authored a bill to slow the creation of additional national monuments. His is one of a number of GOP bills likely to win favor in the House subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands, which organized the Sacramento field hearing.

Some pending bills would specify that presidents cannot establish new national monuments in Montana, Utah or Idaho without congressional approval. Others would give state legislatures a veto over national monuments in their state or, like the Nunes bill, let the monument designations lapse without subsequent congressional approval.

Several different federal agencies currently administer some 100 national monuments nationwide, including the California Coastal, Carrizo Plain and Muir Woods monuments in California.

Republican presidents designated five of California's 10 national monuments, including one that commemorates the Tule Lake camp that incarcerated Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Beyond national monument controversies, the House subcommittee led by tea party favorite Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is considering several broader public lands bills, including one by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The legislation by McCarthy, the House majority whip, would lift current interim protections from 6.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management property.

Still other bills are designed to open up Forest Service land for multiple uses including grazing and mining.

Republicans run the House panel on public lands with a 13-10 margin, giving them the power to set agendas, dominate witness lists and move bills through the House over the objection of Democrats.

The Democratic-controlled Senate, though, poses a potentially serious impediment to the House's public lands efforts, and Garamendi predicted the House's most aggressive proposals won't go far. The Obama administration, too, has already stressed its opposition to a number of the House bills, including the national monument bill written by Nunes and the Bureau of Land Management bill written by McCarthy.

"Through our wilderness decisions, we demonstrate a sense of stewardship and conservation that is uniquely American," Bureau of Land Management Director Robert Abbey told the House subcommittee earlier this year.

ON THE WEB

House Natural Resources Committee website

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY:

GOP wants to give Congress veto on national monuments

As decision on Grand Canyon nears, sides line up

Administration raises questions about lake expansion

Subcommittee to Hold California Field Hearing on Restoring Access to Our Public Lands

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public on Lands will hold an Oversight Field Hearing in Sacramento, California, on "Restoring Public Access to the Public's Lands: Issues Impacting Multiple-use on Our National Forests," on Monday, September 19, 2011.

BlueRibbon Coalition Executive Director, Greg Mumm said "We are extremely pleased to see Congress focus on the importance of multiple-use/sustained yield management on public lands." Mumm noted that recently completed management plans on millions of acres of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have emphasized a preservationist oriented management policy over the Congressional mandated multiple use policy.

Utah Representative Rob Bishop said; “Utah and other western states including California suffer each year from new and existing federal regulations and mandates that hinder multiple-use of our federal lands and resources. Many of these policies continue to be detrimental to the creation of jobs and the generation of revenue upon which so many communities rely. This is the wrong approach and defies the intent for which our national forests and public lands were created. This hearing will examine the effect of these policies on multiple-use and the subsequent impacts on communities and their local economies.”

California Representative Tom McClintock said; “For generations, the U.S. Forest Service maintained a balanced approach to the management of our forests that assured both healthy forests and a healthy economy. Now, it seems to be following a very different policy of exclusion, expulsion and benign neglect of our forests. These actions evince an ideologically driven hostility to the public’s use of the public’s land – and a clear intention to deny the public the responsible and sustainable use of that land. This important hearing will examine the damage caused by these policies and begin the process to restore Gifford Pinchot’s original vision for the Forest Service: ‘To provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run.”

WHO:           National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman
                      Rob Bishop (UT-01),
                      Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-04),
                      and other possible Members.

WHAT:          Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
                       Oversight Field Hearing on:
                       "Restoring Public Access to the Public's Lands: Issues Impacting Multiple-use
                       on Our National Forests"

Witnesses to be announced.

WHEN: Monday, September 19, 2011
10:00 A.M.. PDT

WHERE:        Jesse M. Unruh Hearing Room,
                       California State Capitol Building
                       Sacramento, California

See the Subcommittee's announcement at here.

We will let you know when the Subcommittee announces the witness list. And we should have some tips and pointers on how to make your views known to members of the Subcommittee on this important issue. Stay tuned!

Brian Hawthorne                                            Ric Foster
Public Lands Policy Director                        Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition                                    BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 102                                   208-237-1008 ext 107

Secretary Ken Salazar made the announcement that his agency's newly enacted "Wild Lands" policy had come to an end.

There was quite a bit of cheering (and rightfully so) from the pro-access crowd a little over a week ago when Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar made the announcement that his agency's newly enacted "Wild Lands" policy had come to an end. From the June 1, 2011 article in The Washington Post "Salazar shelves policy to analyze more acres for wilderness protection";

"Facing resistance from congressional Republicans, the Obama administration reversed course Wednesday and jettisoned a policy aimed at evaluating whether millions of acres in the West would qualify for wilderness protection."

"Environmentalists criticized the move, although they said they held out hope the administration would move ahead with its wilderness inventory and push for greater protections once the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and the legislative rider is no longer in effect."

Former DOI Secretary Bruce Babbitt chimed in on the subject June 8, 2011, during his speech to the National Press Club with his suggestion that President Obama should just by-pass Congress, as former President Bill Clinton did when Babbitt pushed the idea when he wasacting DOI Secretary, by using the Antiquities Act;

"Babbitt attacked the White House for failing to stand up to what he warned is an all-out congressional assault on public lands and urged the Obama administration to use its executive powers to protect at-risk landscapes.

"Babbitt also blasted an April budget resolution to restrict funding for the Bureau of Land Management's "wild lands" order to protect roadless areas as "a political calculation among the munchkins in the White House."

"By voicing his willingness to use the Antiquities Act as an alternative to wilderness designation, the president can bring Congress to the table to work out conservation measures acceptable to reasonable stakeholders," he said. Clinton used the act to bring about congressional action to protect places such as Steens Mountain in Oregon, the Colorado Canyons, the San Jacinto Mountains and Otay Mountain in California and Las Cienegas in Arizona, among others, Babbitt said."

Well my friends, it is now time for round two from Secretary Salazar in his quest to have millions more acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed lands designated as wilderness.

In a letter from Secretary Salazar submitted to Congress Friday June 10, 2011, he states among other things;

"As an integral part of our effort to conserve America's lands and wildlife for future generations, I will work with Members of Congress to identify public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for permanent Wilderness protection under the Wilderness Act."

"The Department of the Interior will, by October 15, 2011, submit to Congress a list of "crown jewel" areas that we believe are ready for immediate Wilderness designation by Congress. This list will include some areas that would be protected by bills that are currently pending before Congress and that have strong local, state, tribal, and congressional support. It may also include some areas that are not currently being considered for protection, but that the Department of the Interior believes have widespread support and are worthy of Wilderness designation."

This new push for wilderness protection on BLM managed lands cannot be good for those that support multiple-use of our public lands. But organizations such as The Wilderness Society (Friends of Frontier Airlines), Winter Wildlands Alliance, and other pro-wilderness anti-access organizations are more than pleased.

As stated in a June 10, 2011 article in the New York Times;

"Salazar spoke last night before the Wilderness Society's annual awards ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, where top Obama administration officials joined leaders of major environmental groups, including actor and conservationist Edward Norton.

"What we will be doing tomorrow is asking the members of Congress to help us move forward with legislation that will be like the 2009 omnibus public lands bill that will identify those areas where we believe there is significant support for the creation of additional wilderness," Salazar said. "We need to move forward and create additional wilderness so that these places that are so precious and yet so limited are places that we protect and preserve for a long time."

"Salazar cited bills by Democrats and Republicans in New Mexico, Idaho and California that would create roughly half a million acres of new wilderness where motorized and industrial activities would be barred to protect recreational opportunities and pristine landscapes."

"There are a whole host of other bills out there," Salazar said. "Our hope is to be able to assemble those pieces of legislation where we believe we will have the political clout to be able to get them through."

Once again it is time for those that support multiple-use access to our public lands, as is required by law, to roll up their sleeves and get involved in round two of this particular fight. If you are not willing to get involved and fight for your access, then you might as well throw in the towel and the anti-access opposition can be declared the ultimate winner.

Dave Hurwitz

Snowmobile Alliance of Western States