OCR Text |
Show More Discussion On New OHV Ordinance We continue this week with details of the Dec. 19 meeting on the county's new OHV ordinance ordi-nance hosted by Garfield County Commissioners at the courthouse where 20 representatives represen-tatives of every land regulating agency were present. Hosting were Commissioners Clare Ramsay and Dell Lefevre, County Engineer Brian Bremner and Garfield County Trails Committee Chair Bill Weppner 'and Trails Committee member Cydne Quitter who works with Bremner at the courthouse. Also present were Weppner's wife Margie and Garfield County News Editor Nancy Twitchell. The dialogue continues: GSENM Manager Dave Hunsaker: "Well, I like what I am hearing. And I would like to continue to move that way without with-out being faced with a fait accompli here, that we have an existing ordinance that puts us in conflict. I would very much like to further develop and further fur-ther refine this process and the ordinance. "To the point where, if we start with those things in which we are not in conflict, invite the public to come participate in those areas in which we are not in conflict. And then, quietly and inexorably work on those areas in which we are to resolve those issues without putting the public at somewhat of a risk. I think we're going to serve our public a lot better." Commissioner Clare Ramsay: "I do too. You men tioned economics awhile ago, it's been alluded to two or three times and this does create a problem. If we do all we can to entice these people to come into our county and see what we have to see, and hand them a brochure with one hand and a ticket with the other, that creates a problem in my mind. And that could very easily be. We went through all those different things though before we adopted this ordinance. We thought we thought it through pretty well. But maybe we didn't." Gary Hall, Assistant Field Manager, BLM Richfield Office: "We had quite a bit of input into the development of these maps. And we appreciated the cooperation and the opportunity (See OHV on page 2A) More Discussion On New OHV Ordinance From Front Page to do that. But I guess we were kind of under the impression that roads that we were identifying identify-ing were what we wanted listed, where the ORV and ATV user would be allowed. And we didn't did-n't have any problems with the ones that were posted on the internet. But, you know, it's D roads, some of those D roads which we're uncertain about what kind of uses are proposed there. Some of those areas may be in conflict with some of our land use plans. So, what was posted on the net and what we had input into, we didn't have any big problems with." Ramsay: "Of course, as I said before. We're discovering roads almost every day that qualify as roads and that don't show up on the maps. That is a problem." Garfield County Engineer Brian Bremner: "A question. I assume with Garfield County being a cooperating agency in the RMP that you are doing in the Henry Mountain area. And considering the work that Stan is doing and everything else. I assume that relationship would continue to go and probably as we set closer to the RMP, that Garfield County and the BLM would look at changing at least that portion of. the map to more closely reflect or to reflect ' exactly, I hope, what we come up with as cooperating agencies in the RMP." Val Payne, Utah Dept. of Natural Resources: "I applaud ' the sense of cooperation and collaboration that seems to be throughout the folks here. And having worked for a rural county coun-ty previous to my current life, I acknowledge that we had some of those same kinds of issues in Emery County. "As was mentioned, you've got some folks who are using 1 the public lands, and that' includes forest as well as the formal public BLM lands. And it is their desire to make a connection con-nection with the communities. And the situation in the communities commu-nities is how do they handle those uses within the communi-ty? communi-ty? "And there seems to be, oft-times, oft-times, a "no-mans-land" between the communities and the public lands or the Federal lands. I think you've hit on a solution that may be applicable other places. But the key is collaboration col-laboration with a sense of cooperation, coop-eration, recognizing that there are differences. But also recognizing recog-nizing that there's an opportunity opportuni-ty to resolve those differences. "And I would encourage any players who haven't been intimately inti-mately involved, to figure out a way to be more involved than they have. "And I would encourage the Trails Committee to also make an effort to engage those that may not have been fully engaged to this point. I sense that there's that spirit to do that here." Clare Ramsay: "Well, I think you guys GCNRA, that was your first meeting the other night you came to? Yeah, they're just barely getting on board. Kitty Roberts, Superintendent, Superinten-dent, Grand Canyon National Recreation Area: "I think when the Trails Committee started up (and I don't know when that was) there may have been a perception, per-ception, as opposed to actually having fact, that the Trails Committee effort was more of an effort to identify trails on forest, for-est, BLM, public lands and county lands as opposed to within the Parks, because we had already gone through a General Management Plan back in 1979. So that could have been where the disconnect was." Bill Weppner, Chair, Garfield County Trauls Committee: "I'd offer, besides just having the trail meetings, which are working work-ing meetings, we can find another anoth-er way to communicate with you. And if that means me personally per-sonally finding a way to communicate com-municate with you, I'll do that. "Because I know, certainly, there's nothing that we want to hide. We'd like you to be a part of it. And if there are problems, ' we can resolve them. I'd like reason to prevail. I think things will move a lot faster that way." Cydne Quitter, Trails Committee: " I think that is, why Brian volunteered me to represent repre-sent his department, as a contact. con-tact. It would be easier for the agencies to go through the county, coun-ty, in this process, because we're the ones that are doing the mapping on our system. Is that right, Brian?" Bremner: "Well, there's also an advantage in that we're 8 to 5 you know it really works best when we're partners." Commissioner Dell LeFevre: "And one thing to remember. We can disagree and still like each other. If we disagree, we don't have to get in what I call my 'drowning man syndrome.'" Roberts: "And I agree with that, Dell." Quitter: "I would like to encourage the managers to communicate com-municate and maybe set priorities priori-ties with their local area people who are actually the ones who are participating in these programs. pro-grams. Just because of the fact that there might be that disconnect discon-nect from one to the other. And I think that's probably happened in this." Payne: Like Commissioner LeFevre says, we can have differences dif-ferences or opinions and still be friends. There's been so much good, it seems to me, accomplished accom-plished here. We all recognize that sometimes those relationships relation-ships take a whole lot of attention atten-tion and a whole lot of tender loving care, if you will, to maintain main-tain those relationships. But there's been so much good here. I'd encourage us not to let any small differences be blown out of proportion." LeFevre: "Thanks, Val." Clare Ramsay: "That's true. I think we do have these lawsuits law-suits that are coming up. And I think as a county we can't do anything to jeopardize our position posi-tion there. But we do want to cooperate and collaborate and get along wherever we can. What's the next step? I wonder if it would be to maybe consider these roads individually?" Bremner: "I think it would be easier to do it by agency." LeFevre: " I do too, Brian." Bremner: "For instance, in Capitol Reef one can really target tar-get the Burr Trail and get it over." Ramsay: "Well, that's their concern, Kitty's got a concern Bremner: "Whereas, in the Monument there is a vast greater number and, I think, the Dixie we're pretty much in line with them. We don't have a lot of conflict. I'd like to almost, you know, do agencies. Have them look at what we have, look at our maps, look at the roads that are there, see what concerns they have. They may come with a D road out in the... Canyonlands that we're more than willing to say, let's keep that off the list or designate it closed. They may come with another one saying we'd prefer this one be used instead of that one." Ramsay: "Safety, remember safety was the thing that brought it up to begin with. And I've thought about that quite a bit since. And I wonder if, I don't know, maybe we'll have to go through the process and see if there is a safety problem with ATV's on these roads. "Like the Flint Trail, I don't know, I haven't been there all that much but I doubt if there's a dozen cars there in two weeks. So I don't know whether it would be a safety." Bremner: "Next two weeks there won't be." Ramsay: "Next two weeks there won't be but two or three but even on the busy time of year, I doubt there's that many cars. In fact, on the Burr Trail there's not that many cars." Craig Axtell, Superintendent, Bryce Canyon National Park: "Clare, one thing too. Brian, there may be a way for agencies to participate in other than just having a road open. In other words, look at trying to maximize maxi-mize the recreational opportunities opportuni-ties for the county and increasing increas-ing tourism. One of the opportunities oppor-tunities I think that the county has is the ability to have a diverse array of recreational opportunities. "And certainly the use of the Park System can play a key role in providing one type of opportunity oppor-tunity and that's potentially opportunities without OHV access. But maybe what we could do too as a Park Service is, in a much bigger way, help to communicate to the public, those other opportunities that can occur on lands other than just on the National Park. Such as OHV use that might occur just adjacent to Bryce Canyon on the Dixie. "So, I guess I interpret these overall objectives and interpret the process. I think if we look as one of the objectives as being diversity of uses, and potentially the roles that agencies would play as more than just, maybe either providing OHV access but helping to communicate this vast array of all sorts of different things that could happen in the county under recreation." Brian Bellew, Agency Representative Escalante GSENM: "From having been involved with the Trails Committee basically from the (See OHV on page 3A) Discussion On OHV Ordinance From Page 2A inception (and correct me those who have been involved with it) our whole intent all the way through was that we want to ; have the best that this county can offer to the public. And early oh, it was clearly stated that we weren't going to get into those issues that we could not address. "And so even when we look at things like hiking trails, equestrian trails, there was some leverage in there that we wanted to take that would be offering the best that's there. "So, for example, here's a hiking trail that goes from one entity to beyond. ..It would be something that would offer a real deep unique experience for the public. "And so, I think one of the things we really need to consid- er is at the time when we were working on the mapping project, it was critical that Cydne, well, cause Cedar City sat down with our mapping folks to make sure there was a clear understanding of how we generate maps and what the use would be. "And from the GIS standpoint, stand-point, the mapping standpoint, what would be the most effective effec-tive means to create a map that the general user that's never been to this part of the world could say wow, this is really, really neat and want to come back here. "And if we put ourselves on the map and we were invited to the statewide Trails Conference this year... the intent with that was to express, we're putting aside issues that we can't deal with, we're taking out of it things like right now, we're doing education for riders with a certification program. Next year, one of the things we're kicking off is trying to develop equestrian facilities in Escalante. "To try to diversify so with the committee I think it's going to be important that we do look at what are those things that are best that we have to offer. So maybe your road isn't on there. Maybe there isn't every single hiking or horse trail that's on there, but it is going to be a work in progress." Quitter: "Each agency gave me the data to make these maps from. And so, it's not like we have not been in contact with them. But we did recognize that the OHV was the most controversial. contro-versial. And that's why we spent the most time on it. And the map was basically developed.. devel-oped.. .you know we need to do more. In order to do the horse and bicycling and the hiking, we need more input from those types of people who are doing that. "Right now we have more input from the OHV users. So that's some of our problem. Mostly our Trails Committee is ATV people. There's a few citi- . zens like Bill (Weppner) and a lot of them in Escalante, actually. actual-ly. But that's the kind of people we need to get in here to give us the information. "You know when I went to start picking out the routes on here, I got with Stan Adams and I said, where would you say would be the greatest place to go. Well, this is really and that's how a lot of that got on the map. Even with the Forest Service. There's not every little single dash line form the Forest Service on that map. "With the monument, I took their travel plan, from their data and that's what's there. With the exception of like Hole-in-the-Rock, the Burr Trail and Skutumpah. "But those are the ways to connect the communities and to do looping around out of the communities. That's basically what the map is about right there, cause they felt they would be the most economically important routes. Ramsay: We don't have any of the Skutumpah Road in Garfield County. Bremner: We're annexed. Ramsay: We don't even want it. Quitter: "Well, the part that these canyons go through. Ramsay: "Hey Stan, why don't you talk to us for a bit. What is your thinking?" Stan Adams, Specialist, BLM Richfield Field Office: "Well, I've just been sitting here listening. listen-ing. I agree wholeheartedly with what's been talked about here, you know, the cooperation and stuff with each deal. I think it's a good idea that was mentioned men-tioned back there. Brian Bremner kind of followed that up a little bit about meeting with each agency and seeing what things you have a problem with on this. ' "I've been connected with the Trails Committee since the day it started. I know I haven't been there a lot of the meetings, I've had conflicts. But I think that the committee is a real good operating committee. Because it isn't and that's one of the first things I said when the committee commit-tee first started, when I kind of gave my little presentation. That please, don't call this an OHV Committee, call it a Trails Committee and take into effect all opportunities on public lands. And that's what they've done. "But, like Cydne said the OHV is at the top of the list on complexity and ahead of the game, so that's what they've tackled first, but they have tackled tack-led the others also along the way. "As far as I'm concerned in our area, and the ones back there, help me out a little bit. We had a lot of communication back and forth on which routes to do this and which routes to do that. And as Gary Hall mentioned, men-tioned, the ones that we had on the map to begin with are the ones that we said, this is where we feel the most popular routes will be and we put that in there. "The only other concern that we would have, and I just echo Gary's, is that when you say all class B and class D. Then we've got to go back and look at those again and see exactly if there is a conflict. That's something that we will have to do. We would like some input beyond that. But that's really about our concern. "You know, when you're talking about OHV's. There's two things that you kind of need to remember. One, you need, for OHV riders they want two things. They want one a place they can ride legally. You know, I'm talking about the recreational recreation-al OHV'er. I'm not talking . about somebody that just wants to go out ana tney aon t care about anything. "But generally, the recre-ationist, recre-ationist, that comes here to recreate, for recreational purposes pur-poses on a trail. They want a place that's legal to ride. They want to know where it's at and . they want to have two things. They want to have a quality ride, where they can see neat things and enjoy the environment. environ-ment. And they want to have a quality, you know, they want to have enough that they don't have to unload their machines, go five miles, come back, load machines, move two miles and unload their machines again. They have loops and the places that they can connect. "I you can do that without having any environmental degradation involved. Put them on a little road for a ways, I mean even an oiled road for a mile or two to get them back to their vehicle. You'll see that there will be a lot more compliance compli-ance with your other regulations involved." Bremner: "I don't know if any of you know but we actually actual-ly have a road agreement with the National Recreation Area. It should be interesting because Kitty Roberts: "A maintenance mainte-nance one." (More Next Week) |