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| Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition Files Federal Lawsuit on Routt National Forest | | Tuesday, October 22, 2002 | For Immediate Release
For Further Information Contact: Jerry Abboud, 303-291-0232
Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition files federal lawsuit on Routt National Forest.
October 22, 2002
DENVER, CO. - Today the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the U.S. Forest Service for failing to follow federal law and procedure in two connected projects in the Routt National Forest in northern Colorado.
The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act in its decisions to close the Arapaho Ridge Trail to motorized use and to add motorized trail mileage to the trail system in an area known as Radial Mountain. Among other things, COHVCO argues that the two connected and closely-related projects should have been analyzed together in a single government document.
\"We hesitate to take the Forest Service to task on the rare occasion where they add mileage to a trail system,\" says John Martin, President and Chairman of COHVCO, \"but we must insist that they follow their own laws when they do, especially when they also shut us out of an incredible and unique route like the Arapaho Ridge Trail.\"
The Routt National Forest, located in northwestern Colorado just east of Steamboat Springs, straddles the continental divide and covers over 1.1 million acres. The Routt is immensely popular among all types of recreational visitors due to its varied terrain, incredible beauty, and ease of access from Denver, Ft. Collins, and other cities on the Front Range. Motorized recreation has always been one of the Routt’s biggest draws.
\"The Routt is a very popular destination for off-highway vehicles,\" says Martin. \"COHVCO will not sit by and watch these opportunities disappear one by one. The demand for motorized recreation on the public lands continues to increase, but for some reason the government responds by limiting our access even further or by failing to designate new trails in perfectly appropriate areas.
In the case of the Arapaho Ridge Trail, we lose a unique and challenging single-track experience that just can\'t be duplicated elsewhere. As for Radial Mountain, that area contains 4,000 acres that are supposedly set aside for year-round backcountry motorized access. Yet, the government hasn’t designated a single mile of trail there.\"
\"The \'public\' lands are just that-public,\" says Martin. \"That means that they are open to all types of people and methods of access. If everyone would just learn to share, we just might find that there is room for everyone in these huge public playgrounds.\"
Concludes Martin, \"the government has yet to account for the fact that off-highway motorized recreation contributes over 300 million dollars annually to the Colorado economy, providing a huge benefit to many small communities. We\'ll do everything we can to save our rights of access to public lands and to insure that these rural communities survive.\"
COHVCO is a non-profit corporation formed in 1987 by a group of leaders from the four-wheel drive, motorcycle, snowmobile, and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) communities to work toward the common goals of off highway vehicle (OHV) recreationists in Colorado. COHVCO works closely with federal, state and local governments to promote regulation and legislation favorable to OHV recreation. COHVCO developed, promoted, and assisted in the creation of the Colorado OHV Act registration program, which collects fees and provides grants for local OHV groups and individuals to maintain trails, erect positive signage, and educate motorized users about responsible OHV use on public lands in the state. Since its inception, this program has allocated over $5 million to such local projects.
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