Posted on 05/07/2014 7:05:41 AM PDT by george76
Thanks to a troubling government arrangement, ATV operators on western Colorado federal lands have been paying to help give themselves less room to ride.
The Bureau of Land Management’s Grand Junction Field Office is preparing to implement plans to shut down a significant number of roads under its jurisdiction. Documents obtained by Watchdog Wire Colorado indicate that off-highway vehicle (OHV) permit fees are funding the project to limit off-highway access.
Many Coloradans who pay permit fees to use their ATVs and other off-highway vehicles likely are not aware that the permit fees they pay to the BLM are being used to implement “Travel Management Plans” (TMP) designed to limit their hunting and recreational access to Colorado’s public lands. Tied to the BLM’s Resource Management Plans (RMP), the Travel Management Plans are currently being staged to close down 50-70 percent of the roads now used by Colorado hunters and OHV users, ranchers, and recreation-seekers.
...
Despite the fact that 97 percent of Colorado’s public lands do not fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government, it is apparent that the BLM considers Western Colorado to be little more than a federal enclave. Both Article I of the U.S. Constitution and Title 3 of the Colorado Revised Statutes protect state jurisdiction over lands managed by federal agencies.
Recent actions raise serious questions concerning whether BLM has overstepped its statutory boundaries by developing RMPs that will hinder the people of Colorado from accessing and developing their own state lands. More clearly troubling, though, is the agency’s use of legitimate OHV permit holders’ fees to implement plans that will prevent them from engaging in the very OHV activities for which they have paid.
(Excerpt) Read more at watchdogwire.com ...
In the vein of Gerald Celente’s quote, “when people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it” Those BLM guys over there may want to wear bulletproof vests when in public. Those guys at the Bundy ranch facing off agents looked like they were very much ready to kill and be killed.
And by the end of this year, as the economy and Obamacare take their toll, there will be a LOT more of them
I thought those fees were to provide upkeep for the wilderness.....
Well said.
Ahhhh …..incrementalism ! Ain’t it grand. Doom on BLM asshats !
These travel management plans out west suck. They act like being in the forest us a commute in a cit that needs to be accomplished in the most efficient manner possible. Then they close any roads that ‘duplicate’ an existing route. Being out in the wild lands isn’t always about getting from A To B.
Where I live the FS has closed many areas to ATVs. The problem is the ATV riders seem to think they should be able to ride where ever they damn well please - through streams where they destroy fish habitat, up and down every hill where they cause erosion, through wet meadows where they trash the vegetation that animals need for food and cover. If they stuck to established trails it would be a problem, but they couldn’t, so they got kicked out. Good.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.