PUBLIC LANDS: OHV group seeks dialogue on monuments with Sierra Club leader
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
E&E PM: Thursday, June 20, 2013
One of the nation's largest motorized recreation groups is asking the leader of the Sierra Club to reach out to local ATV, snowmobile and mountain biking clubs as he advocates for new national monument designations in the Southwest.
Americans for Responsible Recreational Access said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune should consider how new monuments in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado could affect recreational access.
"Any national monument, or frankly any other special designation of public lands, should be made only after all local stakeholders have had a chance to provide meaningful input and have had their input considered by decisionmakers," ARRA Executive Director Larry Smith said. "We fear that massive national monument designations will lead to less active management and the elimination of even the most sustainable recreational opportunities."
Brune and his family earlier this month set off from their San Francisco-area home on a two-week road trip to visit proposed and newly designated national monuments in the Four Corners states (E&ENews PM, June 11).
Sierra Club and other conservation groups are lobbying for the Obama administration to designate larger national monuments in its second term, including a 1.4-million-acre proposal surrounding Utah's Canyonlands National Park, at southeast New Mexico's Organ Mountains and in a watershed north of the Grand Canyon.
Brune last week told a crowd in Moab, Utah, that he was "100 percent" sure the Greater Canyonlands National Monument would be declared, a statement that angered Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah).
"It's a question of not whether we'll achieve that, but when," Brune said, according to a report from Utah Public Radio.
While national monument designations -- which require no act of Congress -- almost always bar new drilling or mining claims, presidents can exercise a great deal of discretion on how motorized recreation and mountain biking are managed.
Often, existing bicycle and motorized routes are maintained, though that's not always the case.
Brune today said that he welcomed additional dialogue with off-highway vehicle users and that monuments can accommodate both hikers and "responsible trail use."
"The beauty of a national monument is that it is flexible," he said in an email. "Everyone will have a say in how the monument is used and managed through a public comment process. ... The potential monuments I've visited have been very much bottom-up efforts with wide public involvement that will continue through the management planning process."
But striking that balance can be difficult.
In the case of Greater Canyonlands, the Outdoor Industry Association last year urged President Obama to protect the area using the Antiquities Act, warning that federal land use plans "fail to address exploding off-road vehicle use that is damaging riparian areas, cultural sites, soils and solitude."
