Under pressure from Congress, the Obama administration is backing away from a plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a memo Wednesday that his agency will not designate any of those public lands as “wild lands.” Instead Salazar said officials will work with members of Congress to develop recommendations for managing millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West.

“The protection of America’s wilderness for hunting, fishing and backcountry recreation should be a unifying issue that mobilizes us to a common purpose,” Salazar said. “We will focus our effort on building consensus around locally supported initiatives.”

Salazar’s decision reverses an order issued in December to restore eligibility for wilderness protection to millions of acres of public lands. That policy overturned a Bush-era approach that opened some Western lands to commercial development.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/apnewsbreak-obama-abandons-wilderness-plan#ixzz1O6kZoV5Z

On April 22, 2011, UFWDA joined a group of 65 organizations requesting that the US Forest Service (USFS) extend the public comment period expiring on May 16, 2011, for the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and proposed rule for the Forest Planning Rule.  On May 4, 2011, Chief Tidwell responded to our request, denying an extension of the public comment period.

Today, we are asking you to contact your representatives in Congress asking them to persuade the Forest Service to extend the comment period to August 16 on this complex planning rule.  Beyond the complexities of the proposed rule and the problematic timing and location of the few public meetings conducted by the agency, the public was just informed on April 28 that the agency commissioned and received a Science Review of the DEIS.  This has left us merely 18 days, including weekends, to review and formulate a response to the information contained in the commissioned Science Review, a document the agency will undoubtedly rely heavily upon in justifying the amount and adequacy of science used in reaching a record of decision for the DEIS.

Please act today to contact your elected officials in Washington D.C. Urge them to contact the US Forest Service and Undersecretary Harris Sherman to extend your public comment period on the proposed Forest Planning Rule and DEIS.  Please remind them of the long history of failed attempts to revise the current 1982 planning regulations under both President Clinton and President Bush.  Underscore the need to take the time necessary today to craft regulations that will withstand legal scrutiny in the hopes that our work in the next few months will carry our future forest management efforts along for at least the same duration as the 1982 planning regulations have done over the past several decades.

Request for Comment Period Extension letter April 22, 2011.

Denial by USFS for Extension of Public Comment Period May 4, 2011.

Congratulations to the BFG announced winners,  being Interlake Trail 19  by IFWDA and Morrison Jeep Trail  by Magic City Four Wheelers in Wyoming. It was also announced that an online vote would be held for another winner from a further four trails.

Read about the four nominated 4×4 trails submitted through UFWDA and Vote NOW.

Are you a Moab wheeler, or a Colorado mountain trail type person, or is California more your style?

Pass the link to your club members. http://bfgoodrichtrails2011.outdoorhub.com/

ANYONE is allowed to vote

Read online your copy of the Winter edition of Voice, or it can be downloaded in PDF form (11mb)

http://www.ebookonline.co.nz/doc/ufwda_voice_winter_2010

The deadline for material for the 2011 Spring edition is April 20.

Send to editor (at) UFWDA.org