For Release: Thursday, June 15, 2000
Contacts: Barb Perkins 303.239.3670
Dennis Zachman 303.239.3883

BLM HOSTING MEETINGS ON OHV USE AND MANAGEMENT

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to hear from you about the management and use of off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on the public lands it administers. BLM will hold meetings across the U.S. to listen to the public's ideas on how best to address land-management issues prompted by the growing popularity of OHV use. Two of these meetings will be held in Colorado:

* Lakewood - Friday, July 7, 1- 5 p.m.
Sheraton Denver West, 360 Union Blvd.

* Grand Junction - Thursday, July 20, 1-5 p.m.
Holiday Inn, 755 Horizon Drive

"We need the public's help to find ways on how to keep pace with the growing use of OHVs, while conserving our natural resources," BLM Director Tom Fry said. "We don't have all the answers, and we're hoping folks will help us develop reasonable guidance and direction. We need to focus our efforts towards on-the-ground solutions rather than tying up our scarce resources in litigation, protests, and appeals."

The BLM will develop a strategy based on public input. The goal of the strategy is to provide local managers a framework for addressing issues such as current OHV designations, executive orders, regulations, trends in management and management approaches, route inventory needs, resource issues, special management and sensitive areas and resources, monitoring, education, law enforcement, and budget. Once the guidance is written, BLM's next challenge will be to implement it locally with adequate resources and the help of public and private partners to achieve on-the-ground goals.

A critical piece of the national strategy development is public participation. The public can comment in a number of ways: 

A comment mailer will be sent to people who contact the Bureau of Land Management at 1849 C Street N.W., LSB204, Washington, D.C. 20240, Attn: Correspondence, or by submitting electronic comments through the national website at http://www.blm.gov; Comments will also be gathered at State meetings, such as the Denver and Grand Junction meetings scheduled for Colorado. 

BLM management of OHVs is guided by an Executive Order established in 1972, when only about five million OHVs were in use nationally. Today, that number has risen dramatically. In addition, technological advances now make it possible for these vehicles to travel over lands that were once inaccessible. Many of BLM's land use plans do not adequately address the increases in OHV use. In addition, BLM's budget-related resources - including the number of recreation specialists and law enforcement personnel - have not kept pace with the past decade's growth in OHV use. These factors, plus litigation over OHV management issues, have created the need for a national OHV management strategy.

Comments will be collected through August and will be analyzed and used to help create guidance by November 30. 

"BLM is currently working on a strategy to address OHV issues in Colorado," BLM Colorado State Director Ann Morgan said. "These national listening meetings will help set the stage for our efforts."

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land - 264 million surface acres - than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, which has a budget of $1.2 billion and a workforce of about 8,000 employees, also administers more than 560 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM preserves open space by managing the public lands for multiple uses, including outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, and mining, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources found on the public lands.

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