COMMENTARY
By Don Amador
March 10, 2025
It is not often that I am at a loss for words when it
comes to making recommendations on Forest Service planning efforts that affect
access to high quality trail-based recreation opportunities and related forest management
programs.
However over the last 3-4 weeks in preparing to submit formal
public comments on the Northwest Forest Plan Amendment Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS) by the March 17, 2025 deadline, I am having trouble articulating
my ongoing concerns about the truncated plan timeline and how it failed to
analyze – as a significant issue - the Recreation/Transportation Road and Trail
System.
I am also trying to figure out that omission aligns with
recent policy directives from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and the new Chief
of the Forest Service, Tom Shultz, stating their commitment to … “Working with
our partners, actively manage national forests and grasslands, increase
opportunities for outdoor recreation, and suppress wildfires with all available
resources emphasizing safety and the importance of protecting resource values.”
I continue to question the practical value of this
multi-state regional planning document given the critical staff shortages and
other factors at the Forest level which severely limit the agency from
implementing current on-the-ground forest health, fuel, and recreation
projects.
After attending a Forest Service Planning Rule public
meeting in 2014, I noted the agency had received a lot of input regarding
developed recreation and travel management and that portion of the planning
efforts should be enhanced. In
addition, there seemed to be consensus that planning efforts should be
on-the-ground product oriented instead of the “planning being the product.”
Just as with the Planning Rule, the NWFP Amendment process
had robust participation by national and regional motorized and non-motorized
recreation groups - but failed to follow the Rule’s example of recognizing that
developed recreation and transportation are important factors in programmatic land
management planning efforts.
I believe the NWFP Amendment process continues to face
some serious hurdles or challenges due to loss of institutional knowledge and
operational capacity because of the ever growing number of retirements, endless
litigation, unfilled staff positions, impacts to relationships because of the
agency’s “move to promote” human resources’ plan, conflicting regulations that
prevent substantive fire/fuel treatments, and most recently the mass layoffs of
its “Boots on the Ground” workforce.
Despite the hard work of the NWFP Amendment team, the
Trail Community would be naïve to overlook the fact that good words and even
good intentions have too often failed to penetrate the bureaucracy and reach
the ground, particularly for the recreation enthusiast.
I think at this time the three options are to either recommend
the agency creates a hybrid preferred alternative that incorporates best
management practices of all the alternatives including the recreation tenets in
Alternative B or pursue a Supplemental DEIS that includes
recreation/transportation as a significant issue.
Of last resort, the final option would be to pull the
plug on the entire effort that, in my opinion, would be wasting of a lot of tax
payer dollars and discounting the hard work put in by the agency, RAC members,
and the public.
The one thing I am sure of is that recreation partners
must remain engaged and continue to occupy a seat at the table for the
foreseeable future. Sitting on the
sideline is not an option.
# # #
*BACKGROUND READING MATERIAL
Amador’s 2014 Opinion on FS Planning Rule
FS Chief, Tom Shultz, Statement
https://forestpolicypub.com/2025/02/27/forest-service-has-new-chief-tom-schultz/
Don Amador has been in the trail advocacy and recreation
management profession for over 34 years.
Don is President of Quiet Warrior Racing LLC. Don serves as the Western
States Representative for the Motorcycle Industry Council. Don is Past
President/CEO and current board member of the Post Wildfire OHV Recovery
Alliance. Don served as a contractor to the BlueRibbon Coalition from 1996
until June, 2018. Don served on the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle
Recreation Commission from 1994-2000. He has won numerous awards including
being a 2016 Inductee into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and the 2018
Friend of the AMA Award. Don served as the government affairs lead for AMA
District 36 in Northern California from 2019 – 2023. Don is a Co-Founder and
current Core-Team member on FireScape Mendocino. Don served as an AD Driver for the FS North
Zone Fire Cache during the 2022, 2023, and 2024 wildfire seasons. Don is a
contributor to Dealernews Magazine. Don writes from his home in Cottonwood, CA.
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