The Forest Service Planning Rule will determine what is allowed in every Forest Nationwide by creating a set of regulations that each forest must comply with.. Stewards of the Sequoia continue to be heavily involved in the drafting of the new Planning Rule.
UPDATE 2011
The Forest Service released the Draft Planning Rule and they have finally included recreation in the planning rule due to the immense pressure by recreation interests. However the Forest Service have qualified it as "sustainable recreation".
There are still problems as the Federal Parks and Recreation Newsletter noted:
Said Chris Horgan, executive director
of the Stewards of the Sequoia,
“In the face of overwhelming public concerns
about recreation being excluded
from the Forest Planning Rule, the Forest
Service has included recreation,
however, they have decided to qualify
it, by adding the vague and indefinable
term of "sustainable’ to recreation. This was not the intention of the public and is a grave concern to the recreation
community.”
Horgan, whose association promotes
motorized and nonmotorized recreation
on public lands, worries about the environmental
implication. “It appears
that the Forest Service is attempting to
place additional environmental considerations
onto recreation by adding the
requirement of being ‘sustainable’,” he
said, “perhaps in order to appease the extreme environmental groups who seem to have been heavily involved
Stewards of the Sequoia are drafting a substantive comments and working with legislators on behalf of our members regarding this and other issues in order to help the Forest Service to create a reasonable and balanced Planning Rule which can be workable, reduce litiigation and get projects done on the ground.
It has been said that those at the meetings rule the world and there is a lot of truth to that. Stewards was invited by the Forest Service to attend another Regional Forest Planning Session in Sacramento in December 2011. We continued to remind the Forest Service that Recreation needs to a priority in Forest Planning, including motorized recreation. Stewards and our partners have been pounding the table on this in meetings and written comments for three years during the Forest Planning Revision Process. Yet Recreation still has not risen to the same level as other Forest issues............. Well persistence pays of and the dam finally broke at this meeting. The Forest Service has agreed and we have been able to get a Recreation Representative added to the Forest Stakeholders Advisory Committee, providing Recreation with a true voice at the table.
By being fully engaged Stewards is helping ensure recreation in all forms, including motorized recreation, is a priority for all future Forest Plans. The Sequoia National Forest is about to revise their Forest Plan. We have been laying the ground work to make sure our trails and access remain. Your support funds this kind of proactive work to keep your trail open.
CONGRESSMEN SPEAK UP FOR RECREATION ON FOREST
LANDS
Many people complain the public and recreation always get the
short end of the stick, especially motorized recreation. That
our legislators are controlled by the anti access groups or
don't care and there is nothing we can do about it.
At Stewards of the Sequoia we know this is untrue, we just need
to be pro active. Well here is a success story to prove what can
be done. For the past twelve months I have been working closely
with Congressman McCarthy's office keeping him up to date on the
problems with the revision of the National Forest Planning Rule,
which could effectively prevent most forms of recreation on
public lands and needlessly increase costly litigation over
public access on public lands.
Many thanks to Congressman McCarthy for taking action and the
forty legislators who recently signed a multi member letter,
endorsed by Stewards of the Sequoia, urging the Forest Service
Chief to remove vague terms such as "environmentally and
fiscally sustainable recreation", "stressors" and "ecosystem
services" as a basis for future Forest Planning Processes. The
letter wants to ensure our Forest Lands provide for robust
recreation of all forms including motorized and non motorized
recreation.
You can read this important Congressional Letter supporting all
types of recreation at
http://www.StewardsOfTheSequoia.org/PDF/USFS-ForestPlanLetterFINAL-(11-19-10).pdf
If your Congressman signed then please call and Thank them. If
your Congressman did not sign please call them and ask why not.
You can look up your Congressman by entering your Zip Code at
http://www.house.gov/
It only takes a few minutes and is part of being pro active. If
they hear from you then they will be better able to represent
your interests.
