Idaho lawmaker hopes to make justice on Megaloads unaffordable

Idaho lawmakers hope to dissuade public access to judicial review of state megaload approvals by forcing them to post huge sums of money before access to court is granted.

Idaho bill targets anti-megaload lawsuits – Spokesman Review

BOISE – Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, has introduced legislation requiring anyone who files a lawsuit against a transportation project on state highways to post a bond equal to 5 percent of the value of the items being hauled, and if the plaintiffs lose the lawsuit, the whole bond would go to the Idaho Transportation Department.

Requiring potential litigants to post bonds jams up the gears of justice, making those with financial resources ‘more equal’ in their access to justice than those without wealth.  Whatever one thinks about the merits of the megaload controversy, state laws that have the effect of erecting economic prohibitions on justice are not a good idea.

Oral Arguments on Wilderness/Wolf litigation heard today

“Wilderness Wolf Watchers” Coalition seeks an Injunction/Temporary Restraining Order preventing the landing of helicopters

Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill is set to hear oral arguments on the Frank Church Wilderness/Helicopter Landing litigation this afternoon.  The “Wilderness Wolf Watchers” Coalition seeks an Injunction/Temporary Restraining Order preventing the landing of helicopters in the Frank Church Wilderness before they take place, while the merits of the case are considered.

The Idaho Department of Fish & Game and the US Forest Service each filed briefs against the Wilderness Wolf Watcher coalition’s request :

IDFG Brief
USFS Brief

Among their arguments, the government belittles several advocates’ declarations describing their trips to the Frank this winter and their potential for their wilderness experience to be harmed by the helicopter incursion.

Laurie Rule, Wilderness/Wolf advocates’ esteemed attorney, replied to the governments’ argument with this excellent brief :

Plaintiff’s Reply Brief

Judge rejects U.S. management plan for California desert (West Mojave)

Complicated ruling was a victory of sorts for conservation-

Judge rejects U.S. management plan for California desert. By Louis Sahagun. LA Times.

This was a huge case over a big area and a BLM plan that took 15 years to develop. My view of it as a partial victory is based on private email from kt. Perhaps kt will want to comment on it here.

Here is the judge’s decision pdf

Mudslides from the 2007 Idaho wildfires begin after unusual June wet spell

Article below is about a mudflow near Ketchum, orginating from the Castle Rock Fire area, but there a numerous slides around southern Idaho-

June is often a fairly wet month in Idaho, which is mostly an arid or semi-arid state. The end of May and continuing into June has brought a lot of precipitation into southern, south central and southeast Idaho. Much of it is in slow moving thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are much more typical of July and August than May in Idaho.

In 2007 over a million acres of wildfire burned in Idaho’s mountains (and even more on its sagebrush steppe country — “rangelands”). The soil on the burns on these steep mountains are stable yet as this mudslide west of Ketchum indicates.

When travelling backcountry roads you should inqure about slides and washouts, and at least for the next week (according to the weather report) be prepared for flash floods.

Officials: Burned hillsides still pose risk. Mudslide threat could last several years in Castle Rock Fire area. By Jason Kauffman. Idaho Mountain Express Staff Writer.

Are any readers aware of slides and blockages in your part of Idaho or nearby states that folks should be aware of. Please post.

Will Salazar be as tough on law breaking off-road rally as on Tim De Christopher?

This is the critical test of whether only pro-environment conscientious objection is prosecuted-

Today about 1000 ATV and 4 x 4 owners are going to deliberately violate the law and charge up the Paria River’s bed in the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument. Because they have announced the event as a deliberate violation of the law, it is consciencious objection. The Secretary of Interior’s action will shows us whether only one side on conservation issues gets treated as criminals.

The Salt Lake Tribune writes today of Salazar’s “acid test.“Equal treatment”. Feds must foil OHV lawbreakers. Tribune Editorial.

New vehicle plan for Bridger-Teton National Forest goes in effect May 1

The new travel plan for this high profile national forest is effective May 1-

Developing a national forest travel plan nowadays is fraught with controversy and often lawsuits, but the Bridger-Teton seems to have pretty wide acceptance, relatively speaking. Years in the making, it goes into effect on May. 1.

ATV, motorbike rules to go into effect soon. Plan will limit off-highway vehicle access for those hunting antlers in Gros Ventre River drainage this spring, Bridger-Teton official says. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Earlier on this blog. Jan. 28, 2009. Bridger-Teton National Forest produces its long-awaited travel plan
Still earlier. Jan. 15, 2007. Bridger-Teton National Forest has draft travel plan

Park concerned about Sylvan Pass costs

Yellowstone Park’s East Entrance was kept open in 2008-9 winter at the cost of $3500 per snowmobile!

Park concerned about Sylvan Pass costs. By Gazette News Services. Billings Gazette.

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Prior to the season, financially strapped Yellowstone Park wanted to abandon the costly effort to keep this high altitude entrance open. News reports were that VP Dick Cheney personally intervened to overrule the NPS.

Now we see the cost.

Is the RV headed for the history books?

Are RVs viable in a time when their builders may go bankrupt, gas prices can skyrocket, and seniors lose their retirement funds?

The RV’s last roundup. Salon Magazine. By Mark Schone, with additional research by Ben Travers

Bill proposes stiff fines for off-roading on closed lands

This is a turn of events regarding OHV’s and the minimal fines that have been applicable in Montana. Currently fines are roughly $50 per offense, this Bill proposes $500 and jail time.

Bill proposes stiff fines for off-roading on closed lands. By Kahrin Deines. Montana Standard.

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism. “Images of an evolving world” by artist Don Simon

This is an interesting perspective on the human affect on wildlife and wilderness. (Audio/Visual).

Bridger-Teton National Forest produces its long-awaited travel plan

Big news because this forest is so scenic, recreational and wildlife important-

With the growth in use of off-road vehicles, the travel plan for each national forest has become a bigger and more important decision. After a number of years of work and rounds of public input the Bridger-Teton National Forest in NW Wyoming has finally released their new travel plan.

Forest plan limits ATVs. Environmental groups, motorized use advocates praise formalized trail system, Bridger-Teton staff for response to public comments. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Off-road vehicle use fuels tension, violence across U.S.

Most violence over private property and those who try to enforce the law-

This is according to USA Today. By Emily Bazar.

Sylvan Pass opens and closes

Nature fails to cooperate with Dick Cheney-

The Park Service wanted to halt the extremely expensive and dangerous practice of keeping Sylvan Pass just west of the East Entrance of Yellowstone open for snowmobiles.

As usual a handful of Cody businesses screamed that the economy would disintegrate if a couple dozen snowmobiles didn’t pass through during the winter, so Dick Cheney, who was once Wyoming’s lone congressman, personally intervened overruling the Park Service. Now the Service is struggling with Old Man Winter.

Story: Sylvan Pass opens and closes. Written by CJ Baker. Powell Tribune.

Idaho Fish and Game develops wildlife collision database

For now it’s just data, but its uses in trip planning, signing, road construction, and road routing are obvious-

Highway Wildlife Collisions. Idaho Fish and Game.

Idaho Fish and Game says it’s web site database will be available for public use soon.

Thrillcraft Video

A video detailing the damages of ORV use on America’s public lands following the general theme of George Wuerthner’s book Thrillcraft: The Threat of Motorized Recreation has been posted online:

Off-road rage

More people, more off-roaders (50 million?!), more off-road rage – standardNET

Smokey’s new ad makes ATV users angry

Rocky Barker writes how the Blue Ribbon Coalition (an off-road vehicle lobby) doesn’t like the new Smokey the Bear ad that says ATVs can start wildfires. This is true. Such fires happen all the time.

So do dirt bikes and full-sized vehicles that travel over dry grass. I started one once with my truck is days when the catalytic converters got really hot. Fortunately, it only burned an acre and one conifer.

Smokey’s new ad makes ATV users angry. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise. New York Times.

Higher energy costs may greatly reduce the housing sprawl into our wild country, which costs the taxpayers to much to provide services, increases the cost of forest fires, and uses a lot of energy (the emerging check on the sprawl).

Judge Molloy limits late snowmobiling season in favor of Flathead grizzlies

Late season, high altitude snowmobiling has been a contentious issue for a long time on the Flathead National Forest. Here is a victory for bear conservationists.

Judge Molloy limits late snowmobiling season in favor of Flathead grizzlies. Daily InterLake. By Jim Mann

US House Natural Resources Committee has hearing on ORV damage on public lands

First, the Las Vegas Review Journal. OHV misuse criticized in U.S. House .Off-road fans, critics face off: Even riders see damages left by few.

House panel told public lands overrun by ORVs. Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT).

“. . . the 300 arrests and 37 injuries at a gathering of 1,000 ORV users at the Little Sahara Recreation Area in Utah last year to illustrate how bad things are getting.”

Experts: Off-road vehicles threat to public lands. By Noelle Straub. Missoulian D.C. Bureau

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New and related. Colorado wildlife officers can now ticket for illegal riding. Grand Junction Sentinel. This will be a great help to the too thinly spread Forest Service and BLM enforcement officers. 

Blaine County ORV enthusiasts blame wolves to prevent BLM closures in wintering habitat

Off-road ‘enthusiasts’ (snowmobiles) expressed their disdain for a “Blaine County Cooperative Conservation Recreation and Travel Plan” which would close BLM and state big game wintering habitat to both motorized and non-motorized recreationists on either side of the Wood River Valley “only when harsh winter conditions warrant.”

Motorized users express outrage over BLM travel plan
Snowmobiles don’t harm wintering big game, they claim :

On Wednesday, many of these speakers said the only negative impact on wintering deer and elk is the area’s growing gray wolf population. They claimed snowmobiles do not harm deer or elk in any way.

This ‘wolves as whipping-boy’ phenomenon is growing.

I’ve got extended family in West Yellowstone that compelled me to write this personal anecdotal account of snowmobiles’ general affect on me last year. Whatever a person’s take on snowmachines is, to say that they don’t disturb wildlife is … less than honest …

Sylvan Pass will stay open

The final decision for winter use for Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks has been signed. Sylvan Pass will remain open this winter with the use of howitzers and helicopters for avalanche control despite the huge cost of doing so for a trickle of snowmobilers.

The Park Service, however, will not send personnel up to shoot shells into the snow if they deem it too dangerous, as has been the case in the past. So at least Park employees will not be expected to sacrifice their lives for the perceived benefit of a few Cody, Wyoming businesses.

Once again, I think this illustrates what I said about Cody, Wyoming as Wyoming town most negative to wildlife and sound management of Yellowstone Park in the public rather than a parochial interest.

Story in the Casper Star Tribune. Sylvan Pass will stay open. By Whitney Royster.

[Utah] Off-road activist says he’s tossed in the towel

Off-road activist [Huck] says he’s tossed in the towel. He declares, after ruling, he’ll no longer fight wilderness designations. By Patty Henetz. (link expired) The Salt Lake Tribune. Note the SLT link died, but a found an active link at an off-road activist site.

“It’s like battling the Borg: Resistance is futile,” Huck said during a phone call from Blue Notch, a desert region near Lake Powell’s Hite Marina where he was dirt-biking with his family. “We might as well just designate all of Utah wilderness now and get it over with.”

New Rocky Mountain Front travel plan emphasizes solitude rather than ATVs

The Lewis and Clark National Forest issued a new travel plan governing the lower two-thirds of the Rocky Mountain Front for the next 20 years.

It came after a full environmental impact statement and receipt of 46,000 comments. It looks like good news for wildlife.

Story originally from the Missoulian and reprinted in the Billings Gazette. By Perry Backus.

All-terrain vehicles restricted to only some terrain. Government limits off-road recreation

All-terrain vehicles restricted to only some terrain. Government limits off-road recreation. By Patrick O’Driscoll. USA Today.

The days of legal, recreational cross country travel on public lands of the United States (that is, off road or off trail) are just about over. Of course, there is little money to enforce it right now due to the failure of the Bush Administration to seek adequate funds for the agencies. On the other hand, the inexpensive way to write the rules if you have little money is to say “nothing off-trail” and a route is closed to motor vehicles unless a sign says it is open to them.

Related story in southern Idaho. Geared for conflict. Public land use evolves with high ATV traffic. By Matt Christensen. Times News.

Note: Congress actually appropriates the funds, but last year they could not produce a budget. So the government has been running for a year on a “continuing resolution,”or “CR.” which keeps the old budget figures intact (except for the “supplemental appropriations” Congress has since passed, mostly for the civil war in Iraq).

This year Congress has given the land management agencies a big increase, but Bush is threatening a veto and his stated that a CR might be OK for the second year a row.

Group not surprised by Yellowstone gate decision

Group not surprised by Yellowstone gate decision. AP. Idaho Statesman.

But I am. Cody businesspeople almost always get their way with the Park, and despite the astronomic cost of keeping the East Entrance at Sylvan Pass open for a handful of snowmobilers, I thought the Park would be ordered to cave. So this is good news if you think the Park’s limited funds should be used for its more important functions.

It has been hard to keep track of the many Yellowstone snowmobile plans, but a new, final plan comes out today, and it involves closing Sylvan Pass.

Final plan: Close Sylvan in winter. By Whitney Royster. Casper Star-Tribune environmental reporter.

Update. The new final plan reduces the total number of snowmobiles into the Park to 540 per day from the previous high allowance of 720, but in recent years the number of snowmobiles hasn’t come close to even the new lower limit.

To my view some good news is the discontinuance of the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail between Moran Junction and Flagg Ranch.

Story in New West. Final Winter Plan Reduces Snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park. By Lucia Stewart.

Blue Ribbon Coalition Action Alert. Bridger-Teton NF and Boise NF

The Blue Ribbon Coalition is not one of my favorite groups because of their uncompromising stance in favor of recreational motor vehicles. They also try to get me fired every so often.

I do get their alerts to their members, however. Here is one very relevant to those who care about the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and another for the Boise National Forest. Do as they say, or more likely do just the opposite. Ralph Maughan

– – – – –

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

Attention Western Wyoming and Eastern Idaho recreationists!

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is working on their new travel plan and as part of that process they will be hosting three OHV Workshops asking the public to assist with development of alternatives to the current Proposal for a Designated Motorized Road and Trail system. A schedule of these meetings is listed below. The proposed system is available for public review on the forest’s website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/btnf/projects/travelrevision/proposal/proposal.shtml

The schedule and location of the OHV Workshops:

Too many ATVs in Spread Creek, WY area; scare elk

Spread Creek rises east of Jackson Hole and flow into the Park. It is terrible fishing because it was degraded by a dam to divert waters to Elk Ranch Reservoir for irrigating hayfields for CATTLE inside Grand Teton National Park.

The lower reaches of Spread Creek are lousy for fish, but the country around it is great elk country, moose, deer, bear and wolf too. The Bridger-Teton NF is supposed to have wildlife management as the number one multiple use for the area, but ATV crowds are pushing in.

This story is about Wyoming Game and Fish Department asking the US Forest Service to limit the Spread Creek area to reduce ATV density because they scare the elk on their summer range. The Forest Service sure seems to be proposing a lot of motorized access for a wildlife first area.

Of course, the Blue Ribbon (blue smoke) Coalition was there to speak up for the fat the lazy.

Story in the Jackson Hole News and Guide. State: ATVs scaring elk. By Cory Hatch

See also, Elk prefer people on foot. Study finds ATVs, bikes disturb them most. Jackson Hole News and Guide. By Corey Hatch.

Jackson Hole residents strongly oppose drilling, ORVs in critical wildlife habitat at Bridger-Teton forest plan meeting

Residents: Curb oil drilling. Comments gathered at workshop raise concerns over wildlife, air quality. Jackson Hole News and Guide. By Cory Hatch.