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AMA OPPOSES SHUTDOWN OF 4 MILLION ACRES TO
OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLES
California areas designated as critical
habitat for desert tortoise
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA)
has expressed its opposition to a recent federal court
ruling that has the potential to shut down an additional 4.1
million acres of the California desert to all off-highway
vehicles.
REVERSAL OF FISH & WILDLIFE OPINION
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Susan
Illston issued a ruling that could end all off-highway
motorcycling and ATV riding in areas of the desert that are
designated critical habitat for the desert tortoise, which
is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered
Species Act. Illston's ruling reverses an opinion by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that had allowed activities
including cattle grazing and motorized recreation on some
tortoise habitat controlled by the federal Bureau of Land
Management within the 25-million acre desert.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by
opposing forces in the debate over access to the desert: AMA
District 37 and the Center for Biological Diversity. The AMA
district organization argued that the Bureau of Land
Management should look into other factors leading to a
decline in the tortoise population, most notably, diseases
affecting the tortoises' upper-respiratory systems and their
shells. The district asked that the BLM be ordered to
consider some 900 pages of research pointing to the diseases
as primary causes of tortoise deaths when developing its
plan for recovery of the species.
Meanwhile, the Center for Biological
Diversity argued that restrictions on motorized recreation
and cattle grazing imposed by the BLM did not provide
sufficient protection for the tortoise.
"OHVs PLAY LITTLE, IF ANY, ROLE IN DECLINE"
In ruling against District 37 and in
favor of the Center for Biological Diversity, Illston
essentially decided that no matter how minor a role
off-highway motorcyclists and grazing cattle play in the
decline of the tortoise, the BLM is obligated under federal
law to eliminate those activities throughout the tortoise's
critical habitat.
"This ruling completely ignores the fact
that off-highway motorcycling and ATV riding have played
little, if any, part in reducing the tortoise population,"
noted Nick Haris, AMA Western States Representative.
"Motorized recreation is already extremely restricted on
most of the tortoise habitat land. In fact, motorized
vehicles are either banned entirely or restricted to using
existing routes and ways in nearly every part of the
desert."
"The amount of public land available
for recreation has shrunk dramatically over the years, until
today, the areas available for open riding amount to a mere
2 percent of the overall desert," Haris added. "Closing an
additional 4.1 million acres to all off-highway vehicles
would be another giant step toward eliminating this
legitimate form of recreation from the desert."
AMA District 37 will appeal to the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to get
Illston's ruling reversed.
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The American Motorcyclist Association,
founded in 1924, is a non-profit organization with more than
265,000 members. The Association's purpose is to pursue,
protect and promote the interests of motorcyclists, while
serving the needs of its members. For more information,
visit the AMA website at
www.AMADirectlink.com, or call
1-800-AMA-JOIN. For the latest news releases, visit the AMA
News Room at
http://home.ama-cycle.org/newsroom.
Contact: Bill Kresnak
Phone: (614) 856-1900
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