Shortly after the January NOHVCC e-newsletter was sent out,
it was clear that one article struck a chord with OHV enthusiasts and industry
folks. It was the article titled "Wilderness Designations Have Negative Impact
On Local Economies." Based on reader clicks to "read more," it clearly got the
most attention and readership.
Following articles we publish on topics of great interest,
we often receive a number of emails with more information. One of the emails in
response to the "Wilderness" article was from Joanne Spivack, NOHVCC's State
Partner in New Mexico.
We wanted to share it with you because it contains some additional information
on federal land designations and restrictions that may be helpful in your OHV
advocacy efforts:
To: NOHVCC
From: Joanne Spivack
Subject: Over HALF of all public lands are now under restrictive designations
I decided to add up all the federally managed lands that are
under restrictive designations. What I found shocked me. Guess how much of our
federally managed public land is already under
restrictive designations?
Let's start with the amount of federal lands. Four agencies
administer 628.4 million acres (93.5%) of these public lands, and most of it is
in the West.
- BLM manages 261.5 million acres and is responsible for 700
million acres of subsurface mineral resources.
- USFS manages 192.5 million acres.
- USFWS manages 81.4 million acres.
- National Park Service (NPS) manages 79.0 million acres of
federal land (and oversees another 5.4 million acres of nonfederal land).
US Fish and Wildlife was the hardest to find; it's a mix of
federal land, donated land and land under other agencies. I use the "primary
jurisdiction" figure of 81.4 million acres from their 2001 land report.
There are 671.8 million acres of public land managed by
federal agencies, almost 30 percent of the land area of the United States.
(Another website said 655 million acres, which is 29 percent of the 2.3 billion
acres of the U.S.,
but you get the picture.)
Here are the federally managed public lands where motorized
use is either entirely forbidden or where use is very limited:
- 109.5 million restricted acres of Congressionally designated
Wilderness
- 73.6 million restricted acres in non-wilderness lands
in National Park Service Lands (non-wilderness)
- 23.7 million restricted acres in BLM National
Conservation System (not including the BLM wilderness acreage)
- 58.5 million restricted acres in U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
Inventoried Roadless Areas (one third of all USFS land)
- 6.53 million restricted acres in USFS under other
Congressional designations (National Scenic, Recreation, Historic, Volcanic
Areas, etc.)
- 12.7 million restricted acres in the BLM's 545 "Wilderness
Study Areas" (which are described as `roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres offering
opportunities for solitude'). The BLM manages these areas to "preserve their
suitability for designation as wilderness."
- 6.6 million restricted acres in USFS Wilderness Study Areas
(1993 GAO report). Of these, 2.1 million acres are in Alaska. The other big numbers are California: 624,035; Colorado:
670,461; ID: 1.3 million; Montana:
1.4 million.
- 3.15 million restricted acres of National Recreation Areas
(2.95 million is USFS)
- 89 million restricted acres managed by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service (They manage 145 million acres as the National Wildlife Refuge
System, but it's not all federal land.)
The 25 million acres managed by the Dept. of Defense are not
included; these lands are considered "reserved". The land managed by the
Army Corps of Engineers is also not accounted for in these numbers.
GRAND TOTAL: 370.58 million acres of the 640 million
acres of federally managed public land that already has use and access
restrictions. That's 57.9%.
These numbers include only those areas that are totally
restricted throughout the boundaries. In all other areas of federal land, there
are areas of restriction within its borders. These include areas
designated as "Area of Critical Environmental Concern," "Critical Habitat Areas"
or areas that are managed for their "Wilderness characteristics." All of these
additional restrictions also add up to a large number of additional acres that are
`preserved' against motorized access.
We've already lost access to well over half of all federal
lands. This is before the Travel Management Rule decisions or anything else.
This is before the next Omnibus land bill being planned right now.
We agree that OHV recreation is not appropriate in every
place. We understand that some non-motorized recreationists don't want to hear
or see OHVs. But it is also apparent that non-motorized recreationists have
ample opportunity to recreate on all of the 370 million acres of federally
managed lands where motorized use is not allowed.
Bring these numbers the next time you go to a public
meeting. Ask them to designate motorized-only trails that don't allow access
for non-motorized folks to ensure those people don't have to hear our motors
running. See how far the non-motorized people are willing to negotiate
losing some of their access to the remaining so-called `unrestricted' federal
lands.
*Editor's Note: For information regarding where Joanne
found the numbers, download this fact-check document she
compiled.
