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The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet Thursday to get the big picture of the effects off-highway vehicle (OHV) use has on public lands and what sort of long-term solutions are needed to minimize that impact.
OHV use in protected public lands has long been a difficult issue for land managers who must balance their responsibility to preserve sensitive lands and wildlife with maintaining a degree of access for outdoor enthusiasts.
That balance is complicated by illegal use of OHVs in restricted areas. Critics say irresponsible riders have severely damaged public lands by forging trails where they do not belong, damaging wildlife habitat, muddying streams and disturbing other users of public lands.
Thursday's hearing will take a general, national look at OHV management, a committee spokesman said.
Brad Powell, Arizona public lands coordinator for Trout Unlimited, said his message to the committee will be rather bleak. "Quite frankly, what I'm going to be telling the committee is that there's been an explosion in the use and damage cause by OHVs in the last several years," he said.
During the 1970s, Powell explained, there were around 5 million OHV users per year. In 2004, a Forest Service survey showed that number had jumped to around 11 million, and the number is continuing to rise.
Powell attributed the rise to better technology and lower prices for OHVs and said while the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have been exemplary in their efforts to establish travel management plans and designate ORV routes in national forests nationwide, those efforts are nothing without the strength to enforce them.
Some groups including Rangers for Responsible Recreation have called for new regulations and enforcement of illegal ORV use, including higher fines, confiscating vehicles or suspending hunting and fishing licenses.
But enforcement costs money and that is where both agencies have run into problems. "I don't think the agencies have the budget to do this and the Congress needs to change that," Powell said.
The Forest Service's fiscal 2009 budget proposal calls for a $17 million decrease for its law enforcement activities, further threatening the agency's ability to police OHV use. BLM's resource protection and law enforcement budget faces a net decrease of $365 million in the president's budget.
Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System, told House lawmakers earlier this year the explosive growth in OHV use in recent years has put a strain on land managers' ability to enforce proper use.
With 64 million acres of national forest open to vehicle use, Holtrop said the key is increased cooperation with local OHV groups so they understand the costs of irresponsible use.
Proponents of OHV use accuse critics of being overzealous in their demands to curb OHV use, but the BLM and the Forest Service management plans show how active management can be effective against abusive OHV use.
"We think they're essential. We're absolutely supportive of the travel management plans," said Greg Mumm, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an OHV advocacy group.
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, June 5, at 9:30 a.m. in 366 Dirksen.
Witnesses: Henri Bisson, deputy director, Bureau of Land Management; Joel Holtrop, deputy chief, National Forest System; Ed Moreland, vice president of government relations, American Motorcyclist Association; Greg Mumm, executive director, Blue Ribbon Coalition; Nada Culver, senior counsel, the Wilderness Society; Brad Powell, Arizona public lands coordinator, Trout Unlimited; and Frank Adams, executive director, Nevada Sheriffs' and Chiefs' Association.
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