Editorial: Herger bill brings sense to road plan
The Redding Record Searchlight, January 10, 2011 [here]
It won’t draw the national attention of this week’s scheduled House of Representatives vote to repeal the health care law.
On the upside, though, a bill introduced Friday by Rep. Wally Herger might not be doomed to failure in the politically divided Congress. And, if it passes, the bill could defuse an increasingly bitter feud between the U.S. Forest Service and Northern California off-road recreationists and county governments. …
Herger’s bill would specify the commonsense point that, when it comes to off-roading, rough dirt roads through the backwoods (maintenance-level 3 roads, in Forest Service parlance) are not “highways.”
It would also require further review of the use of existing “unauthorized routes” — many of which are long-popular trails, though not officially part of the Forest Service road system, rendered illegal by the Travel Management Rule — before the travel maps would take effect.
This legislation would tweak, not scrap, the Travel Management Rule, and it would do so in a way that would heed the people who live nearest and use the forests. Not coincidentally, it would remove the largest beef that is driving many Northern California counties toward expensive litigation with the Forest Service. … [more]