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Capital Budget Proviso delays new ORV Trails
Barriers to motorized vehicles on Silver Star Mountain keep ORVs from leaving DNR land and encroaching on non-motorized trails
The state legislature passed the supplemental Capital Budget this year, adding some funds the last year's biennial budget. The Capital Budget pays for equipment and property, as opposed to the salaries and program expenditures that make up the state's Operating Budget.
This year, a proviso was added to the Capital Budget that places a year-long moratorium on new ORV development on Department of Natural Resources (DNR) lands. The proviso reads:
"The department shall not plan for or construct new or expanded facilities or trails for off-road vehicles for recreation on state lands until after June 30, 2009, unless the project is already funded, has been consideresd as a part of landscape-level plan for recreation that has completed state environmental policy act (SEPA) review, which included public participation, and is the best alternative to protect environmental or trust resources and public safety from immediate risk"
Several years ago, I served on an advisory committee charged with revising DNR's administrative policies. One of the issues that DNR was and is trying to get their arms around is motorized use on their lands. DNR has a responsibity to provide revenue from state trust lands in order to pay for new school construction. Indeed, that is DNR's primary responsibility. When motorized recreation damages DNR's ability to carry out that mission, they have to act. When they do, they are subject to a great deal of rancor and scrutiny.
Right now, the Governor's office is hearing from motorized route-users on this proviso. They're calling for the Governor Gregoire to line-item veto this proviso. However you feel about the moratorium, WTA encourages you, as a hiker, to contact the Governor's office and give them your perspective.
You can find Washington elected officials here.
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What "Damage"
To imply there is any "damage" occurring is a stretch. The riding is mainly on existing logging roads, with an occasional ORV width shortcut from one road to another. The DNR's mission is revenue from their lands. ORV riders pay a fee for use. That use doesn't interfere with the logging revenue, it augments it.
Notice all the talk about SEPA, landscape rules, etc. That's just bureaucrat-speak for some certain narrow-minded interest groups, whom we must presume are attitudinally anti-ORV, have managed to get their freedom-shirking legislators to insert legalese into a bill to deny some other group their form of entertainment.
What proud environmentalists! Way to go! Good job!