USFS Travel Plan: ‘Stealing’Public Access
3/2009
County Commissioners Assist Fed Theft
EASTERN OREGON – There is a shift in control occurring in this country away from the protections of civil liberty and personal freedom to a more centralized system of government. Nowhere is this great change more evident than in the mountains of northeastern Oregon, where the people face the closure of thousands of miles of forest roads, and the loss of motorized access to the abundant resources and recreational opportunities in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest (WWNF).
The forces pushing toward the latest change in federal land-use management include federal agencies, the well-funded private environmental preservation organizations and our political representatives – right down to the local level. A concerned local public is just awakening to the threats posed by the Travel Management Rule and to the potential loss of our freedom to access the public lands of the WWNF. In a few corners of northeastern Oregon there is growing outrage at what is perceived as another great western land grab by the federal government, this time under the veil of the 2005 national Travel Management Rule.
Harold
