OHV Riders testify in support of Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act

Supporters of H.R. 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011, testified that the bill would free up almost 43 million acres of public land that now may be off-limits to off-highway riding. "As it stands, the BLM [federal Bureau of Land Management] currently restricts activity on nearly 7 million acres of WSAs [Wilderness Study Areas] despite the fact the BLM itself has already determined these areas are not suitable for Wilderness designation by Congress," testified Thomas Crimmins, spokesman for the group Professionals for Managed Recreation. "The situation with the Forest Service is even worse," he said, "as access is restricted to over 36 million acres of IRAs [Inventoried Roadless Areas] that have been deemed unsuitable for ultimate designation as Wilderness." The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011 would remove stringent use restrictions on 6.7 million acres managed by the BLM and on 36.1 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land that was evaluated for strict congressional Wilderness land-use designations. The federal agencies have determined the 43 million acres aren't suitable for Wilderness designation, yet because of various laws and rules they must continue to strictly manage the land until Congress "releases" it for other possible uses, which H.R. 1581 would do. Crimmins, who worked for the Forest Service for 32 years, was involved in the process for evaluating Forest Service land to determine whether it deserved a Wilderness designation. A Wilderness designation bars off-highway riding and most other uses. "The intent of the process was to identify any and all areas that could potentially be considered for Wilderness designation and then, once and for all, make recommendations for areas that should be considered for Wilderness designations and areas that should be managed for multiple use," Crimmins testified. "This would allow the agency to move forward with its mission to manage the national forests."...more