Hatfield-McCoy Trails: Wayne County Update

The Hatfield-McCoy Trails has announced that its officials have recently met with the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers to discuss a new trail system. The U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers controls the East Lynn Dam Area in Wayne County, W.Va.

East Lynn Lake Area

Now, the trail system need to write a formal proposal, which includes both trail routes and trailhead sites. Once this is complete, Hatfield-McCoy with set the license agreements in place and begin construction.

For more info visit, TrailsHeaven.com or read the HMT blog

Doomsday……again. [CPSIA Feb. 10]

Just when things seemed like they couldn’t get any worst, the good ole Consumer Products Safety Commission is once again wreaking havoc on the off-road industry. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is a new law that prohibits the distribution or sales of children’s products that have any part with a lead content above 600ppm. In theory, the CPSIA law was intended to make toys safer for kids under 12 by limiting their exposure to lead. Unfortunately, minicycles, small-bore dirt bikes, and ATVs have some parts with lead in them which exceed the 600ppm limit. What this means, for now at least, is that as of February 10th all units not in compliance will be given a year before being unceremoniously pulled off of show room floors.

To express your concerns or write a letter to your state and national officials: click here

For more on the CPSIA, check out this site www.cpsia-central.ning.com/

The other good news is the new bill being pushed through congress to shut down more than 1,000,000 acres of OHV land. The bill is comprised of more than 160 other bills which are being bundled together, and have a good chance of being pushed through. You can read more about it on the AMA’s web site.

Lets hope for a miracle on both fronts.

A NEW PRESIDENT, NOW WHAT? Recreationists Must Unite and Mobilize

GUEST EDITORIAL BY DEL ALBRIGHT, BlueRibbon Ambassador

Recreationists who enjoy the backcountry, waterways, off-pavement trails and SUV exploring have a huge new door of opportunity open to us – as well as a new challenge. The time has never been more critical for us to unite and mobilize to enjoy this new door and meet this new challenge. No matter how you wanted this election to turn out, we have to step up, work together, and mobilize our forces to help this new administration understand our sports and access issues.
Inherent with new Presidents, rotating congress critters, and term limits, we will always be in the game of educating new elected officials. It is our destiny if we are to survive.
I think there are a few steps we can take to ensure the future of our sports, no matter how you view this change in American politics. And one thing is for sure: we can all be proud of the fact that it is America and we can affect change by speaking up and working together. This is not the time to sit by and wait. We must act and help the newly-elected politician at all levels understand that we are the responsible stewards of our public lands and that we deserve access. Here are my suggestions for “now what?”
Step one is to unite our various sports and access interests at every opportunity. Leadership meetings and Summits, intra and inter-state, will help us find new ways to cooperate. Differences must be put aside and past intra-sport conflicts must come to an end. We need an Army now, more than ever. National groups like the BlueRibbon Coalition are an obvious membership for every recreationist in this country because “mixed use” will be an important strategy for keeping trails and riding areas open.
Groups like the North American Motorized Recreation Council (NAMRC) and the new BlueRibbon National Land Use Advisory Council (NLUAC) that facilitate regionalized communication will help us breech gaps in communication and facilitate long-term solutions to local and regional problems, as well as national issues. But no matter who works for us, we all need to be united in our efforts.
Step two is to engage recreationists at all levels to join up and be part of organized recreation. There are millions of us out there waiting for a reason to join up and get involved. This new Administration is the reason. They need us to help them understand who we are and what we stand for.
A quick internet search shows that those who oppose our access outnumber us by well over a million members and hundreds of millions of dollars. Just the numbers for a few key groups are shocking:
The Wilderness Society has over 300,000 members and supporters, with $60 million bucks in the bank.
The Sierra Club with over 730,000 members and over a hundred million dollars in their kitty.
The National Audubon Society with net assets at the end of 2007 at over $300 million and tens of thousands of members.
So why do we have so many off-pavement and waterway recreationists who are not members of something? The reality is that our state, regional and national organizations have not yet found the magic formula to engage all these pending members. I think this election changes that. We all now have reasons to jump in with both feet and to engage our friends and fellow recreationists to turn this door of opportunity into one we’ll never forget. We have to be the solution with our large organizations and become the empowerment to get others to join the cause. Membership in our standing organizations and clubs is absolutely critical to the survival of responsible recreation.
Step three is to adopt more of our public lands and engage with our state and federal land management agencies. We have to partner up with land management agencies at every opportunity and find ways for us to be involved in the use, management and future of those lands and waterways we love to play on. We need to be at the table when decisions are made, problems are identified, and solutions are implemented.
We have to take “ownership” of our resources. Oh, excuse me, we do own America! Let’s not forget that. When it comes to public lands, they are YOUR public lands. So we need to do everything we can to ensure our lands are protected FOR the public instead of FROM the public.
(That is the motto of the BlueRibbon Coalition).
###
BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible use of public and private lands, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. Call 1-800-258-3742 and visit BRC online at www.sharetrails.org Also visit Del’s website at www.delalbright.com

U.S. Senate poised to shut Off-Highway Vehicles out of more than 1 million acres of public land

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — The U.S. Senate is poised to act as early as Sunday on a massive package of public lands bills that would shut motorcyclists out of more than 1 million acres without adequate public comment, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports.

The last-minute move just as the newly elected Congress takes over has raised the ire of the AMA and at least one congressman, who believe the proposal and process deserve more public participation.

“Those who say things get better with time obviously never encountered the public lands omnibus bill,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). “This bill was a bad idea last Congress, and it’s only gotten worse over the past month.”

Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations, agreed.

“It makes little sense to lump together more than 160 very important public lands bills into one package that is nearly 1,300 pages long, and then expect the public to digest it all — and to rush a vote through the Senate on a weekend,” Moreland said.

More than 160 public lands bills have been grouped together by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The package would create more than 1 million acres of designated Wilderness land, which would shut out all motorized vehicles.

The last-minute congressional maneuver would also make the National Landscape Conservation System permanent. This system creates an additional level of bureaucracy for the National System of Public Lands and would remove much of the authority of the existing agency in managing those lands.

“Congress should put together a new package and pass it through committee rather than debate legislation carried over from the previous Congress,” Rep. Bishop said. “Poor process produces poor product, and this is an example of congressional process at its worst. Parts of this bill are good, and parts are very bad. Each part deserves to be discussed and voted on its own merits.”

“Continued responsible access to public lands is a vitally important right for current and future generations,” added Moreland. “This measure deserves to be fully analyzed and thoughtfully debated in the next Congress prior to a final vote.”

All AMA members and anyone else who enjoys outdoor recreation are urged to contact their U.S. senators and ask them to oppose the omnibus public lands bill. An easy way to contact your senators is in the “Issues & Legislation” area of the Rights section of the AMA website at www.AmericanMotorcyclist.com.