Alpine Forest Meeting

On Wednesday night, 11/14/07, I attended the Forest Service Road Transportation meeting in Alpine.  I would say that there were 80 people in attendance and the majority were very upset at the Forest Service new rules.  Not only are they proposing closing up to 80% of the roads, but they are making new rules for where you camp, use ATVs and retrieve down game.

Rules are laws.  Laws that the Forest Service is implementing.  We the people have no recourse in stopping these laws.  We can’t un-elect these employees and we can’t un-elect their boss. 

 It was explained that the Forest Service want our comments, but not to think that our comments are a vote.  That was a direct remark by Elaine Zurnoff (sorry if I spell name wrong) the District Ranger for the Apache Sitgreaves Forest.  So if the majority of the comments the Forest Service receive ask that no more roads are closed or that camping rules are not change it won’t matter because they are not taking a vote they just want to know what you think.

Sadly, the truth is that they are going to make these changes unless we the people can find a way to legally stop these new regulations.

The reason for the changes are coming from on top due to radical environmentalist who want to see our public lands closed to most human activities.  But it only makes sense if you force 2 million visitors a year into 20 percent of the forest and into a smaller area for camping you are going to see much more of an impact.

I asked a question about what would happen to someone caught on a closed road or camping in an area that is not designated?   The answer was that that person would be ticketed.  So now the Forest Service must spend time policing our forest and handing out tickets.

Where do they get the authority to do this?  They said federally.  That is not true.  We have a system of government that was set up to protect our individual rights.  So we elect a sheriff who is the leading law enforcement in our county, and the forest is in the county and if they want authority to ticket people then they must have the permission of our sheriff.  They can be given that permission, but it is important that they ask for it and not just think because they are “federal” they don’t have too.  This protects citizens and allows our sheriff to know what is going on in his county and who is doing it.

I love camping and driving in our forest.  We would always try to find an out of way place deep in the woods away from everyone else so you felt like you were the only ones left in the world.   That is nice for about two days and then you are refueled and ready to go back into the world and get to work.  

That will all change now and camping will be just like living in the subdivisions in the valley.

It seems that the majority of people want to pick on ATV owners and out law them from the forest, but I believe that most ATV owners are responsible and good citizens.  At one time we owner two and loved to go riding in the forest.    As long as you don’t go over and over the same area they do not hurt the foliage.  Forcing ATVs into a very small area will also make things worse.

The bottom line is this.  The most basic liberity is freedom of movement.  These are our public lands.  This is our country and we have a right to enjoy and to have access to these lands.

The original mandate of the Forest Service was to manage the forest for multiple use and to use the natural resource for the benefit of America.  There was a time when the Forest Service was the only government agency that made money.  Once they sent money back to the counties in PLT payments from the harvesting of trees.   Today they operate in the red. 

The Forest Service needs to return to its original mandate and restore the health of the forest through thinning.  Locking it up is not the answer.

Quotes by Justice Clarence Thomas

I get a monthly publication called Imprimis published by Hillsdale College. This month had a conversation with Justice Thomas talking about his book My Grandfather’s Son. I have long admire Justice Thomas and really enjoyed this article. I am only going to give a few quotes from the article because of copyright laws but, if you would like to get Imprimis, which is sent free from Hillsdale you can write to:Hillsdale College, 33 E. College St., Hillsdale, MI 49242-9989. I highly recommend it.

Justice Thomas: “When my grandfather was raising me, people didn’t talk about their rights so much. They talked about civil rights, yes, but they didn’t simply talk about rights and freedom. They talked more about the responsibilities that came with freedom - about the fact that if you were to have freedom, you had to be responsible for it. What my grandfather believed was that people have their responsibilities, and that if they are left alone to fulfill their responsibilities, that is freedom. Honesty and responsibility, those are the things he taught.”

Justice Thomas: “It’s the same thing in civil society. We’re too focused on the benefits of a civil society and we think too little about the obligations we have- the obligations to be civil, to learn about our history and our government, to conduct ourselves in a disciplined way, to help others, to take care of our homes. Too many conversations today have to do with rights and wants. There is not enough talk about responsibilities and duties.”

I couldn’t agree more with Justice Thomas and his grandfather. That is what I feel we have lost in America with all our big government programs it hasn’t help people be independent and free but dependent. A whole generation has not been taught the customs and culture of our Nation. They do not know where we have come from and what principles have made us the most prospersous people with a middle class that has had the blessings of abundances little known by millions in the world.

Frederick Bastiat the French political economist said, “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

Ours is the oldest Constitution in the world. For the last six thousand years of human history perhaps less than 1 percent of the human family has experienced freedom, as we know it. I ask this question? Have we been wise beneficiaries of the gift entrusted to us?

Sylvia Tenney Allen

Access to Our Public Lands Is A Basic Freedom

Below is an article I wrote for the Pioneer Newspaper located in Snowflake Arizona.  I have long been an avocate of access to our public lands for recreation, camping, hunting, and natural resource development.  In the last 15 years we have been on the fast track to locking up our lands being driven by the goals of the radical environemntal groups whoes organizations make huge dollars scaring and manipulating the public with mis-information and faulty science.

I love the out doors and want to protect our environement but I have learned over the last 15 years that excessive regualtions and laws do very little for the environmental but destroy our economy and individual liberties.  Our Forest Service is reviewing  its Transportaion Plan and writing new rules.  This means that access to our forestlands will he highly impacted.  At the end of the article is an address where you can write and send your public comments.

 

By Sylvia Tenney Allen

HEBER*  Does your family like to camp, hunt or take a long drive through the forest on back roads looking for wildlife?   According to the Citizen’s for Multiple Land Use and Access that is about to change with the new rules being implemented by the Forest Service, Travel Management Plan.

At a recent Republican meeting, held October 23^rd, in Heber/Overgaard the guest speakers were from the Citizen’s for Multiple Land Use and Access (CMLUA) located in Eagar Arizona.  They formed a year ago to get involved with the public comment process required by NEPA when government agencies are changing their management plans.

Doyle Shamley, president of the organization gave the background on the Forest Service Travel Management Rules.  Before Chief Forester Dale Bosworth left as head of the Forest Service he had worked with private and environmental groups to redo the Forest Service Travel Plans.  The Morse Udall Foundation paid for studies to be done and to rewrite the rules and definitions of what a road or trail is.  Bosworth directed all 177 forest districts to make the changes.

Many of the environmental organizations were involved with these meetings.  It has long been the goal of these groups to close access to our public lands.  On the Wildlands Project website they share information and work with federal agencies on how to demolish forest roads.

“Fifty to eighty percent of forest roads will be closed and they will still control what is left,” said Shamley.  “In the news release sent out by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on October 17^th is says, ‘The rules for game retrieval, fuelwood gathering, and dispersed camping opportunities are proposed to change with an emphasis on the protection of natural and heritage resources…’ read Shamley.  Continuing on, ‘Where it is appropriate and necessary, the designations will also specify seasons of use, type of vehicles permitted, and types of use for those roads, trails and areas.’

Forest Service notice in the Federal register, Oct 10, 2007 Dept of Agriculture, Forest Service, page 57514-57517 also listed these items:

“Removal of lighter forest products such as plants, plant parts, dry cones, grass seed, herbs and edibles, mistletoe and mushrooms would not be generally authorized.”

“This proposal would allow cross-country motorized game retrieval up to l mile from a designated route of legally harvested elk and mule deer…”

“Motorized cross country retrieval of other game animals would not be allowed…”

“In addition, hundreds of miles of currently used closed roads…would no longer be open to motorized use..”

“Unauthorized new routes would not be authorized.”

“This proposal would allow dispersed camping off designated routes, in certain areas, under certain conditions.   In all cases where dispersed camping is allowed, motorized vehicles would be restricted to within 300’ from the centerline of designated routes…”

 

Shamley says this is an issue of freedom, “our most basic liberty is the freedom to move and to have access to these lands where we live.  If we shove 2,000,000 visitors a year into 20 percent of our forest what kind of damage will that do?  If you close it off visitors will just stay home.  Our communities are depended on recreation use dollars our economy will be impacted.”

“No economic impact studies have been done by the Forest Service,”

Shamley pointed out, “this is not a law passed in Congress this was never heard on the floor of the house but is being done through admistrative directives from unelected bureaucrats.”

“By closing roads you have made wilderness and only Congress can designate wilderness areas.”

The Citizens groups has generated close to 6000 comments from people and say they have not seen any of these comments reflected in the new road maps that have been presented for closure.  Yet environmental groups comments are requesting that at least 50% of the roads to be closed and that is being reflected in the new road maps the Forest Service is showing at the public hearings.

Another huge concern of CMLUA is wild land fires.  How will forest fires be fought if there is no access to get to where the fires first start?  They will be left to burn.  It will also be the end of harvesting trees for our sawmills and the stewardship contracts will soon dry up.  “If roads are closing then new roads surely will not be built.”

“The Forest Service intends to enforce these closures with a $5000 fine if you camp in an area or travel on any roads that have been closed,” said Shamley.

“ATV users will be shoved into very small areas and on some maps not at all,” this was a concern to the group.

 The group said that all they have left is the courts.  Although it will take hundreds of thousands of dollars to litigate the group feels that access to our lands and to have the freedom of movement within the forest is worth whatever the cost.  “It just isn’t right,” replied Shamley.

 

Public Meetings all start at 5:00 to 8:00 pm:

November 6, Tuesday, Blue Ridge Junior High School Cafeteria, 1200 West White Mountain Blvd.

November 7, Wednesday, Eagar Town Hall, 22 west 2^nd St.

November 8, Thursday, Clifton Community Center, Clifton Train Depot, 100 N. Coronado Blvd, US Hwy 191.

November 13, Tuesday, Rim Country Senior Center, Overgaard, 2171 B. Street.

November 14^th, Wednesday, Alpine Community Center, 42661 US Hwy 180.

You have until January 3^rd, 2008 to get your written comments to:

Apache Sitgreaves National Forests

Attn: Plan Revision Team

P.O. Box 640

Springerville, Arizona 85938