The following discussion is from the CJ2A site Blalnding trip thread
http://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/sept-trip-to-utah_topic25507_post223727.html#2....
Oilleaker1 posted;
The Forest Service is closing trails also. No input from the public either. They own them, not the public that pays their wages. They put up brown fiberglass stakes that say "closed for administative use only". If you stay on the trails, I don't see any harm. If they want to fine and arrest people, why don't they do it to the offenders and not the correct type of use. BLM too! Where I live, they now want you to purchase a annual sticker for trails that are marked off road use. The Black Hills National Forest encompasses SD and Wyo. The sticker in SD costs 25.00. The one in Wyo. costs 15.00 . Neither is good on the other side of the state line. You have to buy one for each vehicle and it's not transferable. They threaten to confiscate your vehicle, and the fines start at 500.00, then 1000.00, then 1500.00 and then confiscation. For firewood, you used to be able to cut dead or downed trees. Now only in marked adjoining road areas. We have a beetle infestation that is projected to destroy 78% of the total forest. They have a mess on their hands and fire danger that is out of control. Sorry, you got me started talking about the BLM down there. Glad you were able to drive on private land and not worry about the Black suited , gun toting Tree Cops! John
I posted;
Calvin, Lucille and I and several other Jeep drivers went to a Blanding City Council meeting to which they invited the two top persons from the BLM Monticello office for a question and answer session. Two of the Councilmen tore into them with a vengeance. They wanted to know why all the roads on BLM lands are closed UNLESS posted otherwise. At first they said they aren't and when Joe Lyman pointed out in THEIR OWN PRINT OUT that they said that ALL the roads are closed they started backtracking. Then they said the roads are open unless otherwise marked closed.
Then the subject of the environmentalists making signs and putting them up or moving BLM signs was broached. The Councilmen suggested the BLM pursue and prosecute those violators just as they have the innocent Jeepers and ATV drivers for using the trails and trying to repair them and keep them clean. They said they are aware of those violators and are trying to do something. To which they were asked when will they do something besides providing signs to the environmentalists to use. They had no answer for that.
Because the public was not allowed to speak during the meeting, at the end of the meeting while most were still there I confronted the two BLM officials and told them loud enough for everyone to hear that I drove about 1700 miles in two days to spend a month on the Jeep trails and I resented that they have closed all the trails to me and others. The woman leader said that the trails are open unless otherwise marked to which I replied, you just stated that all the trails are CLOSED unless other wise marked so which is it. She said to get the maps and you will find only 316 miles of trails are closed. This is a statement contrary to what they just said and then counter-stated at the meeting and which was argued back and forth during the meeting to no ones complete satisfaction.
With what was recorded at the meeting of their statements we WILL drive the trails we want to and if confronted will refer the officer to his commander. This is the first time I have been able to attend a meeting involving the BLM and I think we made our point BUT, they are just employees doing a job with little control over the policies of the BLM.
Tomorrow I will visit their office and get their alleged maps and see what is closed and what is open. The fight is not over and I sure as hell wish I lived here to fight them face to face.
Oilleaker1 posted;
Your trails looked like fun. You weren't doing any harm. Frankly, erosion will eventually close the trail for the BLM, or only a rock crawler could drive them. That's unless the BLM grades them which is out of the question. I was pleased you had a chance to voice your opinion with them. That's what they need to hear from all special interests not just environmentalists. I worked two years for the Forest Service in Montana and got to see them from the inside. It's gone crazy since then. Policys handed down to the districts from higher up------Washington and the Dept. of Agriculture, are from all the special interest groups with organised pressure for them to do whatever the group wants. Department heads and District Rangers are always looking over their shoulders trying to keep their record clean so they can advance and get higher pay. The old stabbed in the back thing. I've been to State Game Fish and Parks meetings over them trading land to developers for land that adjoins one of THEIR ventures to have a wild mustang horse ranch. The land being traded was next to my house. I picked it because the state land gave me a curtain of protection from development. The room was full of home owners. The state people got educated about doing only what they wanted with state land. Unless you do what you did and speak your piece, you get regulated. A few bad apples out on the trails are spoiling our fun for us. Those bad apples are what the Tree Cops need to focus on. Closing it to all is not management of public use. Now, if you need a guide in the SDFFC, stop by! John
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Trip to Blanding Utah (Read 14566 times)
