Oregon Congressman submits bill limiting the ability of Forest Service and BLM to create travel management plans

Representative Walden of Oregon.  (House Photo)

Representative Walden of Oregon. (House Photo)

WASHINGTON — Greg Walden of Oregon (R-2 district) introduced H.R. 1555, yesterday, which purports to require the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to obtain the consent of the local affected communities prior to implementing any travel management plans affecting access to National Forest System lands.

The Summary and Text of the bill is currently not posted so it is unclear how much limitiation will actually be included.

Congressman Walden wrote a letter earlier this month to Randy Moore and Jim Pena, U.S. Forest service Foresters for Region Five and Six, respectively. The letter was signed by all members of the Oregon delegation, five members from Washington State and one from California.

The letter complained about the manner in which the Forest Service holds their input sessions. The letter complains that the input sessions were urban focused and limited access to rural dwellers who would have difficulty traveling to the site to give their input. The letter stated:

For over 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan has profoundly impacted the communities within our districts and any revisions to the plan will have a similar effect. Holding only three listening sessions disadvantages our constituents in these rural communities. Many of our constituents would have to travel several hours and hundreds of miles to participate. The cost and time commitments involved would likely present an unacceptable hardship for many residents who would otherwise participate in these sessions.

Forest Service notices usually include electronic and mailing addresses for input, as well.

The current title of the bill is:

To stop implementation and enforcement of the Forest Service travel management rule and require the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to incorporate the needs, uses, and input of affected communities, and to obtain their consent, before taking any travel management action affecting access to National Forest System lands derived from the public domain or public lands, and for other purposes.

Bicyclist hit by US Forest Service truck to dispute ticket

A bicyclist who was ticketed after he was hit by a US Forest Service pickup Saturday in north Fort Collins said he plans to dispute the citation in court.

Roger Hoover, 51, said he was slowly riding his bike in front of the law-enforcement truck, which was blocking the crosswalk, when it pulled forward and hit him. He was ticketed with leaving a place of safety into the path of a moving vehicle.

“I thought that basically any time somebody runs over a pedestrian with a car, that it’s the car’s fault,” he said. “Apparently not.”

Read more at the Coloradoan

Coconino and Kaibab National forests implement fire restrictions Wednesday.

Santa Fe reservoir dropping rapidly. - NAG 05/17

Santa Fe reservoir dropping rapidly. – NAG 05/17

WILLIAMS—While the Santa Fe reservoir may look full from the dam side, a look at the other end tells a different story. Santa Fe and Buckskinner reservoirs filled up after the snow fall of the winter, but Kaibab and Dogtown lakes did not fill even close to capacity. With spring only half over, Santa Fe is already rapidly dropping to low-level.

This situation, of course, leads to the inevitable fire restrictions in the Coconino and Kaibab forests. The forest service will be implementing fire restrictions starting Wednesday, the 22nd. The dry, warm, windy conditions forecast over the Memorial Day weekend are likely to cause Red Flag warning conditions.

Under the restrictions, fires, campfires, charcoal, coal and wood stoves are allowed in developed campgrounds only. The restrictions also limit smoking to within enclosed vehicles or buildings or in developed campgrounds. Using a device that is solely fueled by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels that can be turned on and off is allowed in areas that are clear of flammable materials.

Visitors to the area are reminded that they are subject to heavy fines or even arrest for ejecting cigarette butts from a vehicle and are encouraged to use the car ash tray. The Williams Visitors Center offers pocket ash trays that smokers can carry with them in town, but they are not authorized for use in the forest as a substitute for common sense.

Fire restrictions will be in effect until the area receives significant precipitation. That is not likely to occur unless the area receives heavy monsoon rains which usually occur around the beginning of July.

And you thought the Obama Executive Order privileged was bad.

forest-20121004 015There has been much todo about the abuse of the presidential executive order and, perhaps, rightly so. The regular old trustworthy media outlets will let you know it is much todo about nothing.

Executive orders were intended to inform the employees how they are to carry out the laws created by the Legislative branch (Congress). They were not to be used to circumvent those laws or create laws as they have been used by recent presidents.

But how would you feel if the employee of your employee could write their own “executive orders” with full force of law:

“…punishable as a Class B misdemeanor by a fine of not more than $5,000.00 for individuals and $10,000.00 for organizations, or imprisonment for not more than six (6) months, or both.”

Such is the case with Executive Order Number: 04-13-04-R by M. Earl Stewart of the Coconino National Forest, “Done at Flagstaff, Arizona this 13th day of March, 2013..”

The order is to prevent people from “Possessing or using a bicycle off of National Forest System Roads or trails in the restricted areas.” Those new restricted areas are as follows:

1.Schnebly Hill Area: SR89A to the west, Caner Canyon to the north, Schnebly Hill Road to the east and south.

2.Transept Area: Junction of Verde Valley School Road and Forest boundary in Section 11, then north to junction with Templeton Trail, then east to switchbacks next to private property, then further east to SR179, then south along SR179 to Forest boundary, then west to Verde Valley School Road.

3.Scheurman Mt. – Airport Area: Junction of Lower Red Rock Loop Road and Forest boundary in Section 28 west and north along Lower Red Rock Loop Road to SR89A, then east to Sedona High School and then east along boundary with private/Forest boundary north of Carroll Canyon, continuing east along private boundary north of the Sedona Airport to Brewer Road, then southwest generally following Oak Creek along Forest/private boundary to junction of Ridge Trail with Chavez Ranch Road, follow Chavez Ranch Road west to Upper Red Rock Loop Road, and then west to connect with Lower Red Rock Loop Road.

4.Possessing or using a bike is permitted ONLY in the following slickrock locations that are within the restricted areas, adjacent to a designated trail: Cow Pies, upper and lower Hangover saddles, slickrock between Hiline Saddle and “the Hiline chute”, slickrock bench above Yavapai Vista, and slickrock bench at junction of Templeton and Cathedral Rock trails.

Oh, unless you work for the “forest service” in which case you can drive vehicles of any kind throughout the forest or whatever as long as it is in the performance of your duty.

“This order is needed to prevent impacts to the highly erosive soils, Oak Creek water quality, archaeological sites, and the Casner Canyon RNA resulting from bicycle use off of National Forest system roads and trails,” the order claims.

Doggone bicycles! Ruining nature. I knew you were evil.

The fact that this can be done by a bureaucratic employee is disturbing enough. But according to a recent press release concerning HB 2551, Game and Fish Director Larry Voyles said, “[C]urrently state law says that if a federal entity establishes regulations related to roads, trails, routes and closed areas, they are automatically codified by Arizona state law and if a person operates outside the parameters of the federal regulation, that individual is automatically in violation of state law.”

That means that this Executive Order enjoys full coverage of Arizona State Law. This means that an employee of the employee of our national government can willey-nilley make a law completely bypassing that nasty old Tenth Amendment, the rights of the citizens of Arizona with no due interference from our State Legislature—not to mention in complete violation of the Constitution of the United States of America. And the State employee of the national employee of the national employee has to enforce it. And all without having to file one campaign finance report.

Get it?

Senator Chester Crandell and The Arizona Game and Fish Commission support the bill, “…but the commissions support is contingent on changes that will be offered by the commission allowing the State of Arizona to decide which federal rules and regulations will become enforceable by state wildlife officers under state law.”

By the way, we are not referring to any old H.B. 2551,

“Amending title 6, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding chapter 18; providing for the delayed repeal of title 6, chapter 18, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act; relating to financial institutions.”

We are referring to the new and improved H.B. 2551strike all” amendment that would,

“Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert:

“Section 1. Section 28-1174, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

28-1174. Operation restrictions; violation; classification

&tc., &tc., ad nauseam.

You’re welcome. If we can confuse you any more, then we should be getting a check from George Soros.

The Town ‘Too Tough to Die’ embattled again

Boothill graveyard before restoration

Boothill graveyard before restoration

The name of Tombstone in Arizona brings to mind the western saga of the blazing gunfight between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton Gang. Today the “Town [Now the City of Tombstone] Too Tough to Die’ is involved in a battle that would make the founding fathers stand up and take notice. Against an overbearing National Government.

The Goldwater Institute, representing the City, reports:

The City of Tombstone is squaring off against the U.S. Forest Service over water rights in a fight to rescue “The Town Too Tough to Die.” Citing the Wilderness Act, the Forest Service is refusing to allow the city to repair its waterlines to mountain springs it has owned for nearly seventy years – and which date back to the 1880s. This refusal is threatening residents, private property and public safety with the risk of a total loss of fire protection and safe drinking water.

Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona

Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona

The Goldwater Institute is an organization fighting for the constitutional concept of limited government espoused by the founding fathers. “The Goldwater Institute is representing the City of Tombstone because the 10th Amendment protects states and their subdivisions from federal regulations that prevent them from using and enjoying their property in order to fulfill the essential functions of protecting public health and safety,” says a statement on their web site.

According to the Benson News-Sun,

Following the 2011 monsoons that caused extensive damage to the city’s pipeline, Gov. Jan Brewer declared a state of emergency to help fund the repairs. Tombstone rented the necessary earth-moving equipment to make the repairs, but was not able to secure the permits needed from the Forest Service for heavy equipment work.

While Tombstone officials contend that the Forest Service has interfered with the city’s ability to take heavy equipment into areas where they want to make repairs, Heidi Schewel, spokesperson for the Coronado National Forest, says there is a process that must be followed when wilderness areas are involved. Schewel also said those areas fall under the protection of the Forest Service, regardless of the documentation that Tombstone holds along with the city’s claims of water and property rights in those areas.

The most recent news in the saga is that the 9th Circuit court put a lump of coal in the stocking of the City on December 24th by denying an appeal for emergency repairs to the water system.

The Tenth Amendment allows States to control their own land within their borders. The Constitution gives the national government claim over lands limited to:

…all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17)

All other lands within the borders of a State are the property of the State in accordance with the Tenth Amendment. An affirmation of the people called Proposition 120 was disapproved by voters in the last election.

The entire conflict represents bureaucratic, United Nation inspired lunacy that animal life takes precedence over human beings. This bureaucratic notion did not, apparently, save the life of Macho B.

SEE ALSO: Our View: Will Tombstone raise the stakes? – Sierra Vista Herald