Archive | April, 2019

Summit County Colorado Off-Road Riders – Single-track Trails Video

Summit County Colorado Off-Road Riders (SCORR) released a new video highlighting some terrific single-track in the Summit County/Breckenridge area of Colorado. SCORR is an off-road motorcycle club and advocate in the Summit County area of central Colorado and works diligently to support off-road motorcycle riding through Conservation, Legislation, and Education. Check out their latest video of some the single-track trails that were constructed over the past few seasons with grant funds from your Colorado Parks and Wildlife OHV stickers.

Read more about SCORR on their website: http://scorr.org

 

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Review of the Alpine Triangle Final Recreational Area Management Plan and associated Environmental Assessment

Delivered via email to awelsh@blm.gov Andy Welsh
Outdoor Recreation Planner/Realty Specialist Silverton Field Station
Gunnison Field Office

SUBJECT: Review of the Alpine Triangle Final Recreational Area Management Plan and associated Environmental Assessment

Dear Andy:

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Trails Preservation Alliance (TPA), the San Juan Trail Riders (SJTR) the Public Access Preservation Association (PAPA) and the Colorado 500 (CO 500). The TPA is a Colorado nonprofit corporation. The TPA is a volunteer organization created to be a viable partner to public lands managers, working with both the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the BLM to preserve the sport of trail riding and multiple-use recreation. The TPA acts as an advocate for the sport and takes the necessary action to ensure that the USFS and BLM allocate a fair and equitable percentage of public lands access to diverse multiple-use recreational opportunities. SJTR is a Colorado nonprofit corporation with approximately 400 members. SJTR is based in Durango and its members are primarily from Colorado. PAPA is a Colorado nonprofit corporation with approximately 300 participants. PAPA is based in Telluride and its members are primarily from Colorado. The Colorado 500 is a charity organization consisting of and funded by motorcyclists dedicated to helping rural Colorado schools, youth organizations and humanitarian agencies.

In order to help understand our comments and concerns we would like to provide the following historical context. Our four organizations have all participated in, and enjoyed multiple-use, motorized recreation in the Silverton and specifically the Alpine Triangle Recreation Area for decades, with the primary purpose of riding off-road motorcycles on single- track trails and other primitive routes, both trails and roads. Over the past decades, the single- track trails that were enjoyed and used by motorcyclists have now been closed to motorcycle use. A few historic examples of single-track trails our organizations have enjoyed and utilized in the past include:

  • Minnie Gulch Trail
  • Maggie Gulch Trail
  • Highland Mary Mine Trail
  • Rocky Gulch Trail
  • Continental Divide Trail
  • Cataract Lake trail

Former motorcycle single-track trail connections from the Alpine Triangle area to the Rio Grande National Forest have included:

  • Middle Fork Trail
  • West Fork Trail
  • Pole Creek Trail
  • Deep Creek Trail
  • Bear Creek Trail

As of today, all motorcycle use is limited to and restricted to routes designated as “roads”. Just like mountain bicyclists enjoy their single-track trails and experiences, so do many motorcyclists, and we feel it is appropriate at this time to begin planning for the opening and or re-opening of select trails to motorized single-track use.

The staff of our four organizations has been actively reviewing the Final Environmental Assessment for the Alpine Triangle Recreation Management Plan, originally prepared in August 2010 and the separate document titled Alpine Triangle Final Recreation Area Management Plan (aka RAMP). Our review of these two documents is being done to prepare ourselves for the BLM’s upcoming proposed action for the Silverton’s Travel Management Plan.

We would like to offer the following comments and concerns regarding these two documents and feel it is important to highlight our interests at this time:

  1. First and foremost is our concern that past decisions and the associated trail closures have essentially eliminated ALL motorized single-track recreational opportunities in the Alpine Triangle Recreation Area. That all motorcycle use is now grouped and combined with the many other diverse forms of Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) recreation uses, vehicle types and assembled into a single category. Our organizations feel it is regrettable that the RAMP documents did not acknowledge or recognize the recreational use of motorcycles on single-track “trails”. The fact that motorcycle use has been grouped with all other “Authorized Uses” exclusively on Route Types labeled as “Roads”, would seem to disregard the preference that some motorcyclists enjoy and seek the experience to ride on and use single-track trails just like “Mountain Bikes”, “Foot” and “Horses” users do. The documents also do not appear to acknowledge the desire, and what our organizations believe is a “repressed” need, for multiple- use, motorized single-track infrastructure. A recreational opportunity that had existed in the area in the past and was enjoyed by the public for decades is now no longer available1.
  2. Similar to our concern stated above, the documents also do not appear to identify, acknowledge, inventory or recognize the use of OHVs (e.g., ATVs and UTVs) on “trails” that are defined as 50 inches or less in width or routes that might be over 50 inches wide that are identified and managed as “trails”2.
  3. It seems to our organizations that the RAMP documents have focused the preponderance of analysis and inclusion of multiple-use, motorized recreation exclusively to the Alpine Loop area and recreational users of the “roads” that comprise the Alpine Loop and its associated road network. There does not appear to be any discussion or recognition of the desire for multiple-use, motorized recreation in areas and on routes (e.g., “trails”, single-track trails, and trails less than 50” wide) other than the Alpine Loop “road” network.

Our organizations feel it will be vitally important that these specific and unique uses, namely off-road motorcycle riding on single-track trails, be recognized and acknowledged as a legitimate, historical and appropriate use of the Alpine Triangle Recreation Area to meet the needs, desires and expectations for motorcycles. We also feel it will be important to specifically recognize motorcycle single-track use in the Alpine Triangle Area to facilitate the improvement and expansion of recreational opportunities in the future.

Thank you for your consideration of our comments and concerns. Together in partnership with the Gunnison Field Office we hope to help develop future land use and recreation plans that are responsive to user needs, provides sustainable multiple-use, motorized recreational opportunities and protects the resources of the GFO. The organizations would welcome a discussion of our comments and concerns with the undersigned at info@coloradotpa.org or 719-338-4106.

Sincerely,

D.E. Riggle

Director of Operations Trails Preservation Alliance

cc Elijah Waters Field Manager
BLM Gunnison Field Office

1 Final Environmental Assessment, Alpine Triangle Recreation Area Management Plan, Table 3.12, Summary Table of Existing Designated Travel Routes, pg. 96.

2 Final Environmental Assessment, Alpine Triangle Recreation Area Management Plan, pg. 94.

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Interior Gives Outdoor Recreation, Public Access a Boost

Reprinted by permission from the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) – https://mic.org

The MIC and other outdoor recreation industry groups applauded a recent secretarial order that will help prevent the sale of public lands important to outdoor recreation while ensuring that public access be a key consideration in land exchanges.

The U.S. Department of the Interior last month released Secretarial Order 3373, which directs the Bureau of Land Management to formally consider what impact the disposal or exchange of BLM land will have on the public’s ability to access federal lands for recreation. “This order will help ensure that the Bureau of Land Management considers public access to public lands,” Acting Secretary David Bernhardt said.

“This is great news for motorized recreationists because some tracts of BLM land may contain trails or routes important to ATV, dirt bike and side-by-side users, or they may be the sole access points that link key trail systems to one another,” said Tim Buche, MIC president and CEO. “Now, impacts to recreation will be considered before the BLM acts to dispose of or exchange system lands so we can better protect access. Secretarial Order 3373 will help the BLM meet its mission to sustain its lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The positive economic impact of recreation globally, and OHV recreation specifically, warrants that BLM consider how its decisions on lands impact these activities.”

The MIC, SVIA and ROHVA have been working with the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable to encourage policies that support the growth of the outdoor recreation economy. The ORR is America’s leading coalition of the outdoor recreation trade associations and organizations.

“With this announcement, we anticipate that more public lands with recreation assets will remain public and new areas will be identified for recreation access,” said Jessica Wahl, executive director of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.

 

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National Parks, Forests, And Public Lands Legislative Hearing

We’re thrilled to see Federal land managers directly address the extensive conflicts between the CORE Act and current management of many areas proposed to be Wilderness. They even specifically address the loss of roads in several new Wilderness areas and that the Curecanti portions need additional review in their testimony in the House hearing this week.This discussion starts at minute 28 of the hearing.

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