ATVsToday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Hawthorne Phone: 208-237-1008 ext 102 208-390-5770 Date: March 4, 2009 BlueRibbon Coalition Applauds Idaho Congressman for Requesting Hearings on Children's OHV Ban Pocatello, Idaho (March 4) -- The BlueRibbon Coalition applauded Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson for requesting hearings on the ban of children's off-highway vehicles and snowmobiles. Today, Congressman Simpson sent a letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman requesting an oversight hearing to explore the affects of certain mandates of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPISA) of 2008. Simpson is specifically concerned that the implementation of the bill has now banned the sales of children's off-highway vehicles (OHVs). "This is welcome news, and we sincerely hope Chairman Waxman will grant Congressman Simpson's request," said Don Amador, BRC's Western Representative. Millions of off-highway vehicle enthusiasts and thousands of powersports businesses have been requesting a withdrawal of the ban for weeks. BRC praised Congressman Simpson for the letter and also called on their members to continue to press for a removal of the ban. Congressman Simpson's Letter to Chairman Waxman http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/Letter_to_Chairman_Waxman_re_CPSIA.pdf

BRC Critical Action Alert -- THEY WANT TO CLOSE TELLICO! You MUST take action to save Tellico NOW! Today the Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) met with the USDA Forest Service (USFS) and heard a presentation on what will be in their Environmental Assessment (EA). While they have 7 alternatives that they are considering, their preferred alternative is to CLOSE TELLICO. While we know that this is completely unacceptable and will cause immediate and intense emotional reaction, we are asking that everyone maintain a level head and concentrate on what our task is now. STEP 1: The USFS Forest Supervisor issued a TEMPORARY CLOSURE ORDER that will keep Tellico closed until they decide what the fate of the area will be. This means that TELLICO WILL NOT REOPEN ON APRIL 1ST! Please read the order here: http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/nepa/tusquitee/tellico/temporary_closure.pdf. and provide comments to the temporary closure. Be sure to talk about all the plans you have to use the area and all the events that are already scheduled and that you have paid to attend. We MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN! STEP 2: We must, at all costs, provide as many SUBSTANTIVE comments about the EA as humanly possible. And we are ready. SFWDA requests that you download the study that we commissioned (Recommended Trail System Repair and Maintenance Plan Upper Tellico OHV System) and that you download the USFS EA which is posted here (Upper Tellico OHV Area ) and that you compare the two side by side and start making comments. Our study will give you the data that you need to make comments about the surveys that have been done, the lack of maintenance they USFS has completed, the science, the engineering, the economics, EVERYTHING. We will work to have a letter generator up, but honestly, we need for you to take pencil to paper and think this through. Copy this announcement and send it to your friends, family, and everyone you know. STEP 3: The other thing we need, and you know what it coming, is money. In this tough economic time, it’s hard to find a few dollars to support a cause, but if you enjoy the Tellico area, or even the dying sport of OHV and 4X4 recreation, please consider a donation to Rescue Tellico so that we may continue to fight for Tellico. Rescue Tellico Fund STEP 4: In an effort to show that we will not accept these actions, Crawford’s Campground is committing to continue on with the plans for Spring Fling on April 4th. Please consider attending and showing your support and helping to raise money for Rescue Tellico. So you know, SFWDA is working very closely with United Four Wheel Drive Associations (UFWDA) and the BlueRibbon Coalition to review these documents. BE ASSURED that the lawyers will be reviewing all of these documents in detail and that we are all ready to take whatever action is warranted to further the fight to KEEP TELLICO OPEN! Thanks you for your help, SFWDA, UFWDA, and BRC

The Trail System is located on the North Side of the Valley of Fire about 50 miles north of Las Vegas and the scenery is incredible and breathtaking: Fiery Red Rock Formations, Sandstone Cliffs, Native American Petroglyphs dating back thousands of years...these are just a few of the highlights of this awesome Off Road Area. Trail from beginner to advanced, next trip to Vegas bring your machine or rent one and head for Logandale , you'll love it.

This is an outrage for sure. Gonna hurt a lot of dealers.

On February 10, 2009, a new law regulating lead content in certain products went into effect. This is adversely affecting companies that manufacture or distribute youth model all-terrain vehicles and off-highway motorcycles. Dealers that sell and service those products are being impacted as well. The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) and the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) have urgently requested the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and federal legislators to take a common sense approach to implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act's lead provisions. SVIA and MIC have filed petitions with the CPSC for emergency relief from the provisions. They are also seeking a temporary final rule to exempt ATV and motorcycle parts in order to avoid major disruptions to enthusiasts, to the member companies' businesses, and to the companies' dealer network of thousands of small, independent businesses, which employ tens of thousands of Americans. BRC is asking all OHV users to continue this contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission and their elected officials today! Use the following links to send your comments and to contact your Congressional Representatives and the CPSC. Included below is a sample letter regarding the functional ban of all youth-oriented OHVs, which started February 10, 2009. BRC Letter to CPSC http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/BRC_Letter_to_CPSC_02.19.09_FINAL.pdf CPSC Comment Page Send a message to CPSC's Information Center BRC Rapid Response Center to contact Members of Congress Rapid Response Center - BlueRibbon Coalition Missouri State Representative Tom Self Representative Tom Self | Official Website Congressional Western Caucus Letter http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/CPSC_Western_Caucus_Letter_Feb_6_20090001.pdf CPSC NAM Request for Emergency Stay http://www.sharetrails.org/files/CPSC-NAM-Request-for-Emergency-Stay.pdf Thanks in advance for your support, Don Amador Western Representative BlueRibbon Coalition (925) 625-6287 PS: BRC needs your support via membership and donations to help us continue our efforts to champion responsible OHV access to public lands. To sign up as a member or to make a donation, visit http://www.sharetrails.org/donate Sample Letter: As a member of the OHV community, I want to voice my strong support for petitions filed by the Motorcycle Industry Council and Specialty Vehicle Institute of America to seek emergency relief from provisions, which went into effect on February 10, 2009. While I do support efforts by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect children from lead content in products that truly present a risk to children, I do not believe the Commission intended that metal parts on ATVs and motorcycles be included in that regulation because they do not present a lead risk to children. As the spring OHV recreation season rapidly approaches and dealers face the prospect of being put out of business, I ask you to support efforts to exclude youth-oriented OHVs from being unnecessarily impacted by this ban. Sincerely, Your name & Address Ambassador, BlueRibbon Coalition State Environmental Affairs Coordinator, CA4WDC PO BOX 127 Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245 C: (209) 304-7693 Email: [email protected]; or [email protected] “Protecting recreational access and the economic value it brings to America’s rural communities means you’ll be leaving the world a better place; it is a worthy and noble cause to provide for a future America.” Greg Mumm, Executive Director, BlueRibbon Coalition, Jan. 2009 # # # The BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible use of public lands and waters, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1,200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. 1-800-258-3742. BlueRibbon Coalition: Preserving your recreational access to public lands.

BLUERIBBON COALITION EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT HOUSE VOTE ON OMNIBUS LAND BILL POCATELLO, ID (February 4) - The BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC), a national trail-based recreation group, today voiced concern that the U.S. House of Representatives will "grease through" over 160 public lands bills, thereby avoiding the public review these bills deserve. In addition, BRC cautioned that recreational access tenets in some of the bills may have been intentionally removed in closed-door proceedings. The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 was fast-tracked through the U.S. Senate and could see a vote in the House as early as next week. The bill (S 22) is over 1,200 pages long with over 160 different bills, designates 2.2 million acres of Wilderness, identifies three new national parks, 10 national heritage areas, and designates over 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers. BRC expressed concern that access protection provisions were apparently stripped from several of the bills involved. For example, new sections were added in the Washington County (Utah) Growth and Conservation Act regarding closure of roads and trails and limiting how Bureau of Land Management funds generated by the Act can be used. "It is important that local collaborative efforts be sustained as legislation moves in Congress. Pushing these bills into law via the omnibus package allows powerful special interest groups in Washington D.C. to eliminate hard-won local consensus and ram through provisions that are contrary to the desires of those, on all sides of the issues, who actually visit these remarkable lands." said Brian Hawthorne, BRC's Public Lands Policy Director. "This bill collectively reduces recreational opportunity, feeds millions of earmarked dollars into pet projects, will cost billions to implement, and provides very little of the protection it is touted to deliver," added Greg Mumm, the Coalition's Executive Director. "If this behemoth bill is any indication of the aggressive agenda in store for this congress, the American recreating public faces difficult challenges ahead," Mumm concluded. Mumm said BRC will be encouraging its 600,000 members and supporters to contact their political representatives and encourage them to work to restore the locally-generated compromise provisions in these bills and oppose changes demanded by the large preservationist lobby in Washington D.C. # # # The BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible recreation, and encourages individual environmental stewardship.. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1,200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. 1-800-258-3742. BlueRibbon Coalition: Preserving your recreational access to public lands.

BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT! Attention BRC Action Alert Subscriber, HELP STOP THE FEBRUARY 10TH BAN ON YOUTH OHVS On February 10, 2009, a new law regulating lead content in certain products will go into effect. This could adversely affect companies that manufacture or distribute youth model all-terrain vehicles and off-highway motorcycles. Dealers that sell and service those products would be impacted as well. The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) and the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) have urgently requested the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and federal legislators to take a common sense approach to implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act's lead provisions. SVIA and MIC have announced their intention to join several of their member companies in filing petitions with the CPSC for emergency relief from the provisions. They are also seeking a temporary final rule to exempt ATV and motorcycle parts in order to avoid major disruptions to enthusiasts, to the member companies' businesses, and to the companies' dealer network of thousands of small, independent businesses, which employ tens of thousands of Americans. BRC is asking all OHV users to contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission and their elected officials today! Use the following links to send your comments and to contact your Congressional Representatives. Included below is a sample letter regarding the potential ban of all youth-oriented OHVs, which starts February 10, 2009. CPSC Comment Page Send a message to CPSC's Information Center BRC Rapid Response Center to contact Members of Congress Rapid Response Center - BlueRibbon Coalition Thanks in advance for your support, Ric Foster Public Lands Department Manager BlueRibbon Coalition PS: BRC needs your support via membership and donations to help us continue our efforts to champion responsible OHV access to public lands. To sign up as a member or to make a donation, Click Here: _______________________________________________________________ Sample Letter: As a member of the OHV community, I want to voice my strong support for petitions filed recently by the Motorcycle Industry Council and Specialty Vehicle Institute of America to seek emergency relief from provisions, which go into effect on February 10, 2009. While I do support efforts by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect children from lead content in products that truly present a risk to children, I do not believe the Commission intended that metal parts on ATVs and motorcycles be included in that regulation because they do not present a lead risk to children. As the spring OHV recreation season rapidly approaches, I ask you to support efforts to exclude youth-oriented OHVs - and the businesses that sell and service them - from being unnecessarily impacted by this ban, especially during this economic crisis. Sincerely, Your name & Address

©2008 by Del Albright, Land Use, Access and Rubicon Trail Home Page by Del Albright including Volunteer Training and Outdoor Photography . Use by permission only. Page 1 A New President! Now What? Recreationists Must Unite and Mobilize By Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador Recreationists who enjoy the backcountry, waterways, off‐pavement trails and SUV exploring have a huge new door of opportunity open to us – as well as a new challenge. The time has never been more critical for us to unite and mobilize to enjoy this new door and meet this new challenge. No matter how you wanted this election to turn out, we have to step up, work together, and mobilize our forces to help this new administration understand our sports and access issues. Inherent with new Presidents, rotating congress critters, and term limits, we will always be in the game of educating new elected officials. It is our destiny if we are to survive. I think there are a few steps we can take to ensure the future of our sports, no matter how you view this change in American politics. And one thing is for sure: we can all be proud of the fact that it is America and we can affect change by speaking up and working together. This is not the time to sit by and wait. We must act and help the newly‐elected politician at all levels understand that we are the responsible stewards of our public lands and that we deserve access. Here are my suggestions for “now what?” Step one is to unite our various sports and access interests at every opportunity. Leadership meetings and Summits, intra and inter‐state, will help us find new ways to cooperate. Differences must be put aside and past intra‐sport conflicts must come to an end. We need an Army now, more than ever. National groups like the BlueRibbon Coalition are an obvious membership for every recreationist in this country because “mixed use” will be an important strategy for keeping trails and riding areas open. Groups like the North American Motorized Recreation Council (NAMRC) and the new BlueRibbon National Land Use Advisory Council (NLUAC) that facilitate regionalized communication will help us breech gaps in communication and facilitate long‐term solutions to local and regional problems, as well as national issues. But no matter who works for us, we all need to be united in our efforts. Step two is to engage recreationists at all levels to join up and be part of organized recreation. There are millions of us out there waiting for a reason to join up and get involved. This new Administration is the reason. They need us to help them understand who we are and what we stand for. A quick internet search shows that those who oppose our access outnumber us by well over a million members and hundreds of millions of dollars. Just the numbers for a few key groups are shocking: The Wilderness Society has over 300,000 members and supporters, with $60 million bucks in the bank. The Sierra Club with over 730,000 members and over a hundred million dollars in their kitty. The National Audubon Society with net assets at the end of 2007 at over $300 million and tens of thousands of members. So why do we have so many off‐pavement and waterway recreationists who are not members of something? The reality is that our state, regional and national organizations have not yet found the magic formula to engage all these pending members. I think this election changes that. We all now have reasons to jump in with both feet and to engage our friends and fellow recreationists to turn this Article: New President; Now What? door of opportunity into one we’ll never forget. We have to be the solution with our large organizations and become the empowerment to get others to join the cause. Membership in our standing organizations and clubs is absolutely critical to the survival of responsible recreation. Step three is to adopt more of our public lands and engage with our state and federal land management agencies. We have to partner up with land management agencies at every opportunity and find ways for us to be involved in the use, management and future of those lands and waterways we love to play on. We need to be at the table when decisions are made, problems are identified, and solutions are implemented. We have to take “ownership” of our resources. Oh, excuse me, we do own America! Let’s not forget that. When it comes to public lands, they are YOUR public lands. So we need to do everything we can to ensure our lands are protected FOR the public instead of FROM the public. ☺ (That is the motto of the BlueRibbon Coalition). ### BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible use of public and private lands, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. Call 1-800- 258-3742 and visit BRC online at BlueRibbon Coalition: Preserving your recreational access to public lands.. Also visit Del’s website at Land Use, Access and Rubicon Trail Home Page by Del Albright including Volunteer Training and Outdoor Photography.

This is a very serious threat, they are determined to wipe us out. ATVs Today.net

Obama is opposed to drilling as is Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Gas prices will skyrocket. Please don't vote for Obama. Read what else is in store for us if he's elected. "Obama's Carbon Ultimatum" - From the Wall Street Journal - October 20, 2008 "For years, Democrats -- including Senator Obama -- have been howling about the 'politicization' of the EPA, which has nominally been part of the Bush Administration. The complaint has been that the White House blocked EPA bureaucrats from making the so-called 'endangerment finding' on carbon. Now it turns out that a President Obama would himself wield such a finding as a political bludgeon. He plans to issue an ultimatum to Congress: Either impose new taxes and limits on carbon that he finds amenable, or the EPA carbon police will be let loose to ravage the countryside." -- The Wall Street Journal "Obama's Carbon Ultimatum" Wall Street Journal Editorial -- October 20, 2008 Liberals pretend that only President Bush is preventing the U.S. from adopting some global warming "solution." But occasionally their mask slips. As Barack Obama's energy adviser has now made clear, the would-be President intends to blackmail -- or rather, greenmail -- Congress into falling in line with his climate agenda. Jason Grumet is currently executive director of an outfit called the National Commission on Energy Policy and one of Mr. Obama's key policy aides. In an interview last week with Bloomberg, Mr. Grumet said that come January the Environmental Protection Agency "would initiate those rulemakings" that classify carbon as a dangerous pollutant under current clean air laws. That move would impose new regulation and taxes across the entire economy, something that is usually the purview of Congress. Mr. Grumet warned that "in the absence of Congressional action" 18 months after Mr. Obama's inauguration, the EPA would move ahead with its own unilateral carbon crackdown anyway. Well, well. For years, Democrats -- including Senator Obama -- have been howling about the "politicization" of the EPA, which has nominally been part of the Bush Administration. The complaint has been that the White House blocked EPA bureaucrats from making the so-called "endangerment finding" on carbon. Now it turns out that a President Obama would himself wield such a finding as a political bludgeon. He plans to issue an ultimatum to Congress: Either impose new taxes and limits on carbon that he finds amenable, or the EPA carbon police will be let loose to ravage the countryside. The EPA hasn't made a secret of how it would like to centrally plan the U.S. economy under the 1970 Clean Air Act. In a blueprint released in July, the agency didn't exactly say it'd collectivize the farms -- but pretty close, down to the "grass clippings." The EPA would monitor and regulate the carbon emissions of "lawn and garden equipment" as well as everything with an engine, like cars, planes and boats. Eco-bureaucrats envision thousands of other emissions limits on all types of energy. Coal-fired power and other fossil fuels would be ruled out of existence, while all other prices would rise as the huge economic costs of the new regime were passed down the energy chain to consumers. These costs would far exceed the burden of a straight carbon tax or cap-and-trade system enacted by Congress, because the Clean Air Act was never written to apply to carbon and other greenhouse gases. It's like trying to do brain surgery with a butter knife. Mr. Obama wants to move ahead anyway because he knows that the costs of any carbon program will be high. He knows, too, that Congress -- even with strongly Democratic majorities -- might still balk at supporting tax increases on their constituents, even if it is done in the name of global warming. Climate-change politics don't break cleanly along partisan lines. The burden of a carbon clampdown will fall disproportionately on some states over others, especially the 25 interior states that get more than 50% of their electricity from coal. Rustbelt manufacturing states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania will get hit hard too. Once President Bush leaves office, the coastal Democrats pushing hardest for a climate change program might find their colleagues splitting off, especially after they vote for a huge tax increase on incomes. Thus Messrs. Obama and Grumet want to invoke a political deus ex machina driven by a faulty interpretation of the Clean Air Act to force Congress's hand. Mr. Obama and Democrats can then tell Americans that Congress must act to tax and regulate carbon to save the country from even worse bureaucratic consequences. It's Mr. Obama's version of Jack Benny's old "your money or your life" routine, but without the punch line. The strategy is most notable for what it says about the climate-change lobby and its new standard bearer. Supposedly global warming is the transcendent challenge of the age, but Mr. Obama evidently doesn't believe he'll be able to convince his own party to do something about it without a bureaucratic ultimatum. Mr. Grumet justified it this way: "The U.S. has to move quickly domestically ... We cannot have a meaningful impact in the international discussion until we develop a meaningful domestic consensus." Normally a democracy reaches consensus through political debate and persuasion, but apparently for Mr. Obama that option is merely a nuisance. It's another example of "change" you'll be given no choice but to believe in.