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Montana Trail Rider News Summer 2019

Montana Custer Gallatin NF Releases Draft Plan & EIS for Public Comment

From Ric Foster, Policy Director BlueRibbon Coalition

The Custer Gallatin National Forest Plan Revision Team has released the Draft Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement initiating a 90-day public comment period running March 1 to June 5, 2019.   

The Forest will be hosting 10 public meetings, 8 webinars and 10 resource-specific podcasts available for download (March 18th). Maps and other materials will be available for review at public meetings, and planning team members will be available to answer questions.

Upcoming Public Meetings, Webinars & Podcasts

OHV USE BY HUNTERS

By Dan Thompson

The Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) concluded their Travel Planning process in 2015.  A case can be made that the dominant theme of the Travel Plan alleged that there are wide spread conflicts among forest visitors that needed to be resolved as part of the Travel Planning process.  One of the lines of evidence brought forward by the BNF to support their “conflicts” claim were comments submitted during the process by Montana FWP that hunters complain about use of OHVs during hunting season.  The exact, complete quotation from FWP’s scoping comments is:

“Each year FWP staff in the Bitterroot gets the chance to talk to several thousand of these hunters at the Darby Check Station.  And each year comments about OHV use ranks first or second among complaints, rating right up there with comments about wolves.”

The lack of specific details in FWP’s comments coupled with my own personal hunting experiences got me to wondering about who exactly is complaining about what exactly.  So, I launched a little research project to try to figure that out.  Specifically, what proportion of elk and deer hunters use an OHV to assist them during the hunt?

Excerpts from the MONTANA TRAILS IN CRISIS Report

By Bob Walker

The public land access that we enjoy now isn’t an accident.  The generations that preceded us took care to preserve our public lands and build the trails that we depend on, and it’s now up to us to do the same.  As pressure on Montana’s public land infrastructure increases, it is essential that we invest in our trails to preserve our way of life.

More than ever, our trails allow more Montanans to make a living in the place we call home.  Whether it’s a well-groomed snowmobile track, a rocky pack-and-saddle route, or an artfully banked mountain bike path, people will pay to get to the trailhead and beyond.  Over the last five years, outdoor recreation spending in Montana has increased 22 percent, from $5.8 billion in 2013 to $7.1 billion today.  That spending generates $2.2 billion in wages and 71,000 jobs (Outdoor Industry Association).

MTVRA Membership Information

From Cathy Covert, Membership Chair

For MTVRA, I keep the membership data base updated by entering new members and removing non-renewing members.  We try for five years to get a non-renewing member to respond and pay the membership dues.  If after the fifth consecutive yearly attempt there is not a paid renewal, then the inactive membership is removed from the data base.

MTVRA has added a convenient “Pay Online” feature to the MTVRA website for renewing your membership.  You can go to https://www.mtvra.com/pay-online if you would like to renew your membership on-line.

Unfortunately, since I have been filling this role as Membership Chair, I have removed 5,586 non-paying memberships our MTVRA data base. This equates to a potential $129,492 in annual revenue.

There are two things that make an association successful: Memberships and money-period.

Use Amazon.Smile to Get Donations to NOHVCC

From NOHVCC and Carl Siroky

Do you shop on Amazon?  If so, you could help support NOHVCC with your purchases!  The screen captures below show what this means to NOHVCC.

From Amazon’s website:  “AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you.  NOHVCC is one of the organizations that you can choose to support.  As noted above, Amazon makes the donations – at no cost to you.  Simply, visit smile.amazon.com, login or create an Amazon account and follow the on-screen directions to select NOHVCC as your charity of choice.  Once you are finished – all your purchases through smile.amazon.com will include a donation of 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to NOHVCC. when you shop on AmazonSmile.  For more information about the AmazonSmile program, go to http://smile.amazon.com/about.

The RTP (and CRT) Still Needs Your Help!

Sign Your Club/Association/Agency Up To Support RTP Moving Forward

The importance of the Recreational Trails Program cannot be overstated. It is likely the most important government program for OHV recreation. For any who may not be aware of the RTP, it is a grant program administered by the Federal Highway Administration. The program embodies the user-pay, user-benefit philosophy by utilizing a portion of funds generated by motorized vehicle users who pay the gas tax on any fuel they purchase for use in their off-highway vehicles to provide grants to fund trail building, maintenance and other trail-related projects. For more information click here.

Montana Trails Rider News Editor Needed

Bob Walker notified MTVRA Board that he will serve as the volunteer editor of the Montana Trails Rider News through the Fall-Winter 2018 edition.  He said, “It has been a pleasure putting the newsletter together since 2012 and I will always be dedicated to and a supporter of MTVRA!”

“I find myself overwhelmed by all the work still needed and demanded to enhance trails in Montana.  I volunteer my time to an array of trail recreation organizations, both motorized and non-motorized, and to the department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks which manages your OHV grant program as well as snowmobile and RTP.  I was recently appointed to your OHV Advisory Committee to assist FWP with the OHV grant program.  I also was recently elected Chair of the Montana Trails Coalition, an organization that brings all statewide and some regional trail organizations together to address fiscal and programmatic needs of trails in Montana.  I plan to dedicate the majority of my volunteer time to those efforts.”

Important number: AMA/ATVA Membership

From Mona Ehnes, Secretary Treasurer, MTVRA

You will note that on the MTVRA membership renewal form there is a spot for your AMA number (if you have one).   It is important that if you are either AMA or ATVA member that you list your number.  The $100 charter fee for the year can be waived if we send a list of at least 25 AMA member with their AMA numbers.   While we have some, we do need to verify the numbers and add those missing.

The Montana Trails Coalition Membership

Finding Common Ground for Trails and Recreation 

By Bob Walker, Chair, Montana Trails Coalition Board of Directors

The Montana Trails Coalition (MTC) works in partnership with individuals, organizations, and communities to support trails and outdoor recreation opportunities on lands open for public use in Montana.  The Coalition’s many objectives include, among others, sharing information about existing sources of funds and securing adequate resources to meet Montana’s trails and outdoor recreation needs.  The MTC’s immediate primary efforts involved studying the potential sources of funds for trails in Montana and recommending actions to secure funds.  We published the Montana Trails In Crisis report that clearly describes the demand for trails in Montana and the dire lack of adequate funding.

Fitness on the Trail for OHV Riders

By Karen Umphress, Past Staff Person, NOHVCC

I have been active in the outdoors all of my life. Camping, hiking, fishing, canoeing, and swimming were all parts of family recreational time. When I lived in Washington State for a while one of my favorite forms of outdoor recreation was hiking on Mount Rainier; and one of my favorite hikes was along the Carbon River and Glacier. This was a seven-mile trip out to the Tolmie Peak lookout and back going over Ipsut Pass. The total length of the hike is 14 miles and has several thousand feet of elevation change. It takes a full day and is a great workout.