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By: Robert Janis
The Trails Preservation Alliance Battles to Keep
Single Trails in Colorado Open to OHVers
Trails Preservation Alliance Riders |
As we hear about trail closings or attempts
to close trails in other states, the off-highway
vehicle enthusiasts of Colorado are fortunate to
have the Trails Preservation Alliance (TPA) to
fight for them to preserve trail use in
Colorado.
TPA was formed in December, 2007 as
the successor to the Colorado 500 Legal Defense
Fund (C500 LF). After seven years of operation,
it became a 501c3 organization and formed into
the TPA. The mission of the organization is to
focus on preserving motorized, single-track
trail riding and to provide support to
off-highway vehicle recreationists including
ATVers, 4WD enthusiasts, and snowmobilers.
The Infrastructure of the TPA
The TPA relies
on volunteers and works closely with the United
States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of
Land Management (LBM) to preserve the sport of
off-highway sport trail riding. It struggles
mostly with the BLM and USFS to get them to
provide to off-roaders a fair percentage of
access to the trails through public lands.
The organization moves in a wide number of ways
to achieve its goals. These methods include:
- Meetings to offer written responses to the
Travel Management Plans and Forest Plans for the
USFS districts in Colorado and the Recreations
Management Plans of the BLM in Colorado.
- Assists the USFS and BLM with selected trail
maintenance through volunteer or paid work of
professional trail construction companies.
- Works with state and local authorities to
develop and preserve motorized vehicle
recreation.
- Hires well qualified motorized vehicle
recreation consultants who are knowledgeable
with planning and travel management issues to
assist TPA to respond to BLM and USFS.
It is
said that during the last 25 years, the USFS and
BLM focused their travel management planning
efforts in Colorado on reducing or eliminating
OHV recreation areas on public lands. Advocates
of an open trails system in Colorado say that a
look at the record will show that the USFS and
BLM have provided significant increases in
wilderness designations, unlimited ski area
expansion, and commercial enterprises on public
lands. So every form of leisure time activity
except for motorized vehicle recreation has
received their fair access to public resources.
The TPA has been struggling with the USFS and
BLM to make access to public lands more
equitable for OHVers.
There is always time for trail work. |
As you can determine,
most decisions concerning OHV use come from USFS
and BLM. So the organization focuses its
lobbying efforts toward these agencies. When
lobbying is necessary concerning other issues
that impact OHVers, the TPA relies on national
organizations such as the American Motorcyclist
Association, BlueRibbon Coalition, the ARRA,
ORBA and other groups.
The TPA has created a
working group that does trail maintenance all
over the state of Colorado, explained Don Riggle,
director of operations for the Trails
Preservation Alliance. Moreover, TPA donates
funds to small OHV clubs throughout the state to
help them with their budgets.
The
organization works with local clubs on a variety
of levels, noted Riggle. “One is direct money
donations, the other is providing technical
assistance through our consultants when the
local clubs need to respond to USFS and BLM
public notices for OHV recreation,” he said. The
association also assists in writing state and
federal grants for money to help OHVers.
According to Riggle, the TPA has raised
$79,356.94 for its cause. “That may seem like a
lot of money, but when you look at the groups
that are trying to shut our sport out of the
public lands, it is very small,” he said. “The
task that we face in the next 18 months will
require a significant amount of outside
consultants and legal assistance. This is going
to be expensive. The goal is to build a
financial ‘nest egg’ that will allow the TPA to
take whatever actions are necessary to try to
save our sport.”
Issues that the organization
will focus on during the next one and one-half
years will include responding to a series of
USFS and BLM final draft Travel Management
Plans, participating in fund raising,
implementing OHV grant requests, initiating a
joint trail/OHV project with the Colorado
Off-highway Vehicle Coalition, and maintaining
and updating the TPA website.
Currently,
membership to the TPA is open to Colorado as
well as out-of-state OHV riders. “The TPA
represents a significant amount of out-of-state
members,” said Riggle. “They understand that
out-of-state riders are the ones that stand to
lose the most from the USFS and BLM actions.
Out-of-state riders come here expecting to see
open trails, marked trails, etc., and they will
find nothing. Anyone who rides in Colorado needs
to support the TPA, the Colorado Off-Highway
Vehicle Coalition and local clubs,” he
concluded.
For more information on and to
donate to the TPA, visit its website at:
http://www.coloradotpa.org.
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