Public Lands Usage

Nomad

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Sep 25, 2010
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Public Lands Usage
We are loosing our land, this is public land that is being LOCKED up....
We are asking to read and contact our DC representatives to stop the locking up of PUBLIC LANDS
All states are going threw this not just Idaho.....



To the Editor, and all others....

Nobody breaks more federal laws then the U. S. F. S. unless it is our elected federal officials who claim they will curb federal wastes and spending to get our votes. Do they NO, they vote themselves a raise and stay on the same cash cow that they or their predecessors were on.



The Antiquities act of 1906 protects all old building structures for the benefit of all Americans and visitors, yet nobody destroyed more old structures than the U. S. F. S. by burning them and the bottom line, WHY what were they hurting?? People could look at them and try to figure out how those people were making a living. This was a part of our heritage.



In the 1990’s the federal government passed a disabilities act saying all public places had to be accessible by the handicapped. Yet the U. S. F. S. with this fair travel plan has denied the disabled and citizens who cannot walk the right to use and see the Payette National Forest.



Roads and trails left open for motorized use figuring a road 30 ‘ wide, ATV trail 5’ wide, OHV trail 6’ wide, and a motorcycle trail 2’ wide, figuring by the acre this comes out to be 1/5 of 1% for motorized use, with no off road travel 3.2 million acres in the Payette National Forest, 6500 acres for motorized use doesn’t sound like a real fair balance to me.



Yes the U. S. F. S. is still our forest worst enemies. No Exceptions.




Respectfully,





Leonard M. Wallace

Po Box 126

New Meadows, Idaho 83654

208-347-2446

__________________________________________________ _________________

More land that BLM want to lock up drafts are available here. 2,000+ pages three
volumes....

Here is a link to the website containing the documents for the Jarbidge
Resource Management Plan:
Draft RMP/EIS

I recommend starting with the document entitled How to Use Documents on
this Website, as it explains some ways you can more easily navigate the
documents using bookmarks, links, and searches rather than having to scroll
through all the pages.

You can find the address to which you can send or email comments in the
Dear Reader Letter. The Executive Summary gives a good overview of the
entire document. More detailed descriptions of the alternative management
options for Recreation and Transportation and Travel can be found in
Chapter 2 on pages 145-166. The maps that accompany these sections include
Maps 51-55: Recreation and Maps 56-66: Transportation and Travel. Appendix
M also discusses management of Special Recreation Management Areas in more
detail. The Special Designations sections of Chapter 2 (pages 207-240) may
also be of interest given your interest in the areas surrounding the
Bruneau and Jarbidge Canyons. Of course, feel free to review and provide
comment on any portions of the document in which you are interested.

Feel free to give me a call or send me an email if you have any questions.

Thank you for your interest in the Jarbidge Resource Management Plan--

--Aimee

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
Aimee D K Betts
RMP Project Manager
Jarbidge Field Office
Bureau of Land Management - Idaho
E: aimee_betts@blm.gov
P: 208-732-7405
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
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Good letter, Nomad. Hopefully, it will generate discussion and get people thinking. It is true that if you want to really foul something up, task the government with overseeing it.
 
Having huntedand worked in the Payette and the sorrounding National Forests I am having a little trouble determining the intent of the letter. I am thinking that because the user has to stay on the road or trail they are making the case that they are being denied access to the forest ground. This is true in a sense but one of the most sources of habitat loss in our national forests is unrestricted ORV use. It is not practicle to allow eveyone the right to drive all over in the woods. Fish and game studies have proven time and time again that hunting opportunities and game numbers incerease with a decrease in vehicle travel. Especially larger game like elk. The national forest system in the US has more miles of roads than our interstate system, many of them not well maintained because of the cuts in the forest budgets for maintainence. The forest service is right now an agency in crisis primarily because of budget cuts and because logging has been unnecessarily restricted in many western forests for environmental reasons. These restrictions have put people out of work, hampered economic stability of small communities and along with the wolves in Idaho have wrecked havoc on numerous communities. Thats my 02
 
Not sure I understand the intent of the post from Nomad.

I'm one of those guys who appreciates it when the Forest Service locks a gate on a no-longer used logging road - then I don't have ATV's, Jeeps & motorcycles running around like crazy where I hunt. Have never felt "locked out" of public land anywhere. Then again, I rather enjoy walking.

Guy
 
The road closures in the forest is all the back roads that have been there for over fifty years and are not graveled...
The people who are disabled vets and handicapped loose out due to the closures.....
The Frank Church Wilderness is open to all that want to walk and be alone in the woods very primitive and less and less
trails maintained......
All the lands west of Highway 93 to the Oregon line and South to and include Northern Nevada is all part of the land drafts
From BLM. Just in the Jarbidge District you are looking at 1,223,000 acres effected mainly up to the Bruneau River to include
Sheep Creek and Marys Creek. The Boise BlM has closures from there the Bruneau west to the Oregon state line. This
effects over 2 million acres...
Road closures in the Sawtooth National Forest since 1996 are more to follow.
BLM has locked up the BLM ground north of King Hill, Idaho on a Wilderness Study as they say.
We are facing these and more speaking to others from different states the same thing is going on...
We have choices speak up or loose them........
I have several grand children that I hope get to do and see as I did as a child and their parents did......
 
Nomad
I don't believe that the public loses out to road closures particulary if they are to protect the values that we go there to see. I did some research while thinking about the comments here. The Payette NF has 2,300 miles of roads and 2,100 miles of trails open for use. They have or are in the process of implementing a forest wide restriction on off road vehicle use. The forest has 1.6 million acres of general use lands and 700,000 acres of designated wilderness.
The Owyhee Resource Area (SW Idaho) has 834 miles of roads and trails open for vehicle travel. They are considering a ban to protect the lanscape and vegetation that is prevalent there. They have 1.1 million acres of general use and 500,000 thousand acres of wilderness.
Nation wide the forest service estimates that it has 380,000 miles of roads. They are decommissioning aproximately 2,000 miles of roads each year. They are trying to put our money where it makes the most sense. As our country grows we will see more and more restrictions on our use. We as a species are the primary spoilers of the planet and in order to maintain public values more and more restrictions will be implemented. I don't believe its the publics right to drive over every square foot of public land, as a disabled vet and an ORV user I am comfortable with clsoures to protect our lands. The vast majority of the public enjoy our public lands from a road, a campsite, vehicle or boat. Millions of them never get out of their cars, so not being able to drive every where is not an inconvience.
Thats what I found
 
Opinions do vary, we are seven generations of Idahoans and still growing........
The history in many areas is lost, sites unable to be seem ......because of road closures, hunting areas, fishing areas,
and recreation , as a 20 yr leader in Boy Scouts we have lost areas that we camped at road closure..Why? You will
not see any sign of our camping.. A 40 pound pack on a 11 year old boy stop and think of it....And yes we do fifty milers
when they are older, now the road we started from is closed....
As stated above do the math 2 million acres before now 6100 plus of land that we now have....
Public land as I understand is public open to all to use not abuse.
Land that is closed means more impact in other areas where you can go.... please call with your point of view
will be glad to share with you.......
 
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