OMRA Legal News 
OMRA Legal News
Contact:
Bill Kresnak
April.
8, 2003
Phone: (614) 856-1900
For
Immediate Release
Fax: (614) 856-1920
AMA
URGES SUPPORT FOR HEALTHY
PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- The American Motorcyclist Association asks
motorcyclists, ATV riders and others involved in recreation to urge their
federal lawmakers to support legislation to protect the forests.
U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) has
introduced legislation to carry out President Bush's "Healthy Forests
Initiative" to help protect the forests from devastating fires.
Bush unveiled the initiative during his State-of-the-Union address to
Congress on Jan. 28. In his address, he told lawmakers that "I have sent
you a Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the catastrophic fires that
devastate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of
treasured forest.
"Even more," the president said, "I ask you to take a
crucial step, and protect our environment in ways that generations before us
could not have imagined. In this century, the greatest environmental process
will come about, not through endless lawsuits or command and control
regulations, but through technology and innovation."
The Healthy Forests Initiative streamlines procedures to allow critical
forest-restoration and fire-prevention projects to proceed quickly in forest
areas that could easily be devastated by fire. The measure provides an
alternative to the current appeals process, and directs the courts to take
into consideration the long-term harm of inaction against the alleged
short-term harms of forest restoration projects.
"This legislation is vital to help ensure that our forests are
protected from catastrophic fires so the forests can be enjoyed by current and
future generations," said Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government
relations. "If Congress doesn't act now, we could see more devastating
fires like we did last summer. And those fires ruin forest recreational
opportunities for all."
Motorcyclists, ATV riders and others are urged to go to the
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AMA
Holds Successful Introduction to
PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- The American Motorcyclist Association held a
successful "Introduction to Washington" seminar in Washington, D.C.,
March 1-4 that featured some heavy hitters from motorcycling and government.
About 30 participants gathered at the Phoenix Park Hotel to meet and
learn from the AMA's
Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations, led a
session, as well as Tom Wyld, vice president for government relations of the
Motorcycle Riders Foundation.
Others who took part in seminar panels include Joey Syner, manager of
the national motorcycle safety program at the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, Karl Simon, deputy director of the Assessment and Standards
Division at the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, who advises EPA
management and others on rulemaking and enforcement issues, and Linc
Wehrly, a mechanical engineer who works with Simon
at the EPA and is involved in developing rules and evaluating technology.
Joel Blackwell, head of the Issue Management Company, which is a media
relations and grassroots lobbying firm, also took part in the seminar, as well
as Joshua Penry, staff director of the U.S. House
Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health.
Seminar participants also put what they learned into practice, lobbying
their members of Congress in face-to-face talks on issues ranging from
health-insurance discrimination against motorcyclists to the need for
comprehensive research into the causes of motorcycle crashes.
"We had a very successful program this year and want to thank the
speakers, panelists and participants for making it such a success,"
Moreland said.
Meanwhile, members of the Mid-South MILE from
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The American Motorcyclist Association is a nonprofit organization with
more than 250,000 members. Established in 1924, the Association's purpose is
to pursue, protect and promote the interests of motorcyclists, while serving
the needs of its members. For more information, visit the AMA website at
www.AMADirectlink.com.
PUBLIC
LAND ACCESS GROUPS FILE SUIT AGAINST DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
AND SUBORDINATE AGENCIES
Motorized Recreation Organizations Charge Federal Agencies With
Impeding Recovery of Threatened Desert Tortoise
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - A coalition of motorized
recreation
organizations filed suit today against the Department of Interior and
two of its subordinate agencies in Federal District Court in Utah for
knowingly and negligently impeding the recovery of the threatened
Mojave Desert Tortoise, violating the federal Endangered Species Act.
Also named in the suit along with the
Department of Interior are
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Plaintiffs in the case include the American
Motorcycle
Association (AMA) District 37, Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL),
the Off-Road Business Association (ORBA), California Off-Road Vehicle
Association (CORVA) and the San Diego Off-Road Coalition (SDORC).
The organizations claim that the federal
agencies failed to take
reasonable steps to arrest the spread of Upper Respiratory Tract
Disease, which is suspected to be the primary cause of the dramatic
decline in the population of the desert tortoise.
"The Department of Interior's efforts to
recover the desert
tortoise have been an abject failure," said David Hubbard, an
environmental attorney who filed the suit on behalf of the recreation
groups. "Millions of dollars have been spent and millions of acres
of federal land have been closed off to public use, yet the tortoise
continues to spiral towards extinction."
The desert tortoise, found in the Mojave and
Colorado/Sonoran
deserts of California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and
northwestern Arizona, was first listed as threatened in 1989. Since
then, the U.S. Government has designated more than six million acres
as critical habitat for the species and has spent more than $100
million on tortoise recovery.
A member of the coalition, Michelle Cassella of
AMA District 37,
said, "the federal agencies are being driven to closure decisions by
environmental lawsuits and fail to consider the science or economical
impact of the communities that are affected. Recent studies funded
by the U.S. government itself clearly indicate that in many cases the
public has little or no adverse impact on threatened species."
"Speaking for the thousands of
stakeholders who have an interest
in this critical issue, we are appalled that our federal agencies
have not shown any efforts to implement an immediate strategy to
address known existing problems such as Upper Respiratory Tract
Disease, herpes disease, shell diseases, or the raven predation
problem," said Roy Denner, president and CEO of ORBA. "Their
remedy
has been to remove cattle, vehicles, and humans from desert tortoise
habitat, which we believe will eventually lead to the total demise of
the tortoise."
Additionally, the suit charges that the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife
Service has failed to review and adjust the 1994 Desert Tortoise
Recovery Plan, even though the plan, by its own terms, requires such
review and adjustment every three to five years.
"We are not seeking any compensatory
damages with this filing,"
Cassella said. "We simply are demanding that these government
agencies comply with their own regulations and take a close
examination of the millions of acres that have been needlessly closed
to recreationists, cattle ranchers, and other groups whose livelihood
depends on the desert. The desert tortoise will soon be extinct if
the federal government does not radically change its recovery
approach."
###
--
John Stewart
Director, Environmental Affairs,
United Four Wheel Drive Associations, http://www.ufwda.org
Recreation Access and Conservation Editor, http://www.4x4wire.com
Moderator, MUIRNet - Multiple Use Information Resource Network
A fundamental law of public land access is:
Increased habitat designation for threatened and endangered species
is directly proportional to loss of access to public lands.