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Last updated: 04/04/03

BLM To Hold OHV "Listening Meeting" in Washington, D.C., on July 28

The Bureau of Land Management will hold a "listening meeting" on its development of a national Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) management strategy on Friday, July 28, at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C., from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The purpose of the listening session, one of more than 30 such meetings that the BLM is holding across the country, is to solicit ideas and comments from the public on how best to ensure environmentally responsible OHV use on the public lands. The BLM will develop a strategy based on public input to address land-management issues prompted by the growing popularity of OHVs.

"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 the public 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 goal of the strategy is to provide local managers a framework for addressing such issues as current OHV designations; executive orders; regulations; trends in management and management approaches; route inventory and resource issues; special management and sensitive areas; monitoring; education; law enforcement; and budget.

A critical piece of the national strategy development is public participation, and interested parties may comment in a number of ways besides attending the July 28 meeting. An OHV mailer will be sent to anyone who contacts the Bureau of Land Management at 1849 C Street N.W., LSB 406-C, Washington, D.C. 20240, Attn: Comment Manager. Comments may also be submitted electronically through the BLM's national Web site at http://www.blm.gov.

The BLM's management of OHVs is guided by an Executive Order issued in 1972, when only about five million OHVs were in use nationally. Since then, the number of OHVs has risen dramatically, and technological advances now make it possible for these vehicles to travel over lands that were formerly inaccessible. Many of BLM's land-use plans do not adequately address increased OHV use, and the agency'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 BLM guidance by November 30. Once the guidance is written, the BLM's next challenge will be to implement it locally with adequate resources and with the help of public and private partners to achieve on-the-ground goals.

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 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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