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By: Robert Janis
Off-Road Riders Association Assists in the
Never-Ending Battle to Protect Black Hills
Riders
Continued from page 1
The Issues
The most urgent issue confronting riders in the
Black Hills area of South Dakota is a change
from the Black Hills National Forest policy of
“open unless designated closed” to “closed
unless designated open.” “Historically we had
motorized access to the vast majority of the
Black Hills,” explained Brown. “After
generations of travel freedom in the Black
Hills, when this change comes, I hope we have an
extensive, high-quality trail system in place;
or I fear our land managers will have some major
challenges getting the public to comply.” ORA is
heavily involved in this process. Its members
have GPS’ed routes of trails they want included
in the new trail system, and they have also
provided other information to the National
Forest Service. Moreover, members of the group
have taken representatives of the National
Forest Service on walks to help identify trail
location and possible maintenance issues. In the
Mystic District of the Black Hills, ORA members
spent several days riding with Forest Service
personnel to locate hard-to-find trails that had
been submitted to the Forest Service.
Another major issue is for the state to pass an
all-encompassing law dealing with off-road
recreation issues. “In 2007, Governor Rounds
created an OHV legislative task force,”
explained Brown. “ORA Director, Ed Gross, and
BlueRibbon Coalition Executive Director, Greg
Mumm, sat on that task force. In addition, ORA
board members Patty Brown and Troy Hall traveled
to the capital on numerous occasions to monitor
the task force meetings. “After the task force
submitted recommendations, we fully expected the
governor to create a legislative package
including a funding source for the trails system
in South Dakota. The funding was based on
selling a sticker. That didn’t happen. Many
legislators see a sticker program as a tax, and
new taxes aren’t very popular in an election
year. Until the state puts something together,
it’s in the hands of the Forest Service to
determine a potential funding source. However,
together with SDOHVC and the BlueRibbon
Coalition, we’ve made it abundantly clear to the
Forest Service that a lack of funds is not an
acceptable excuse to reduce the amount of
trails.”
The Website
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The Off-Road Riders Association website (www.offroadriders.org)
offers a whole lot of information of interest to
riders. There is an “In The News” section that
provides links to articles published by local
newspapers that are of off-road interest; an
“Action Items” page that outlines potential
threats to motorized recreation access, rights
to public lands and rights of private property
owners; a “Stay Safe and Stay Informed” section
that offers South Dakota ATV laws, an ORA
information packet and “What Not To Do”
information paper for download; a frequently
asked questions and answers section that
provides information that concerns off-road
enthusiasts; a section that provides visitors to
South Dakota with information on trails, travel
planning, lodging, sightseeing and more; a page
that identifies U.S. Senators and members of the
U.S. House of Representatives as well as South
Dakota legislators so you know how and whom to
contact when there are off-road issues pending
in the state legislature and/or U.S. Congress; a
section from which you can download the ORA
monthly newsletter; links to the websites of the
BlueRibbon Coalition, SDOHVC, AMA, NOHVCC, Tread
Lightly!, Black Hills National Forest
Off-Highway Vehicle Program, and Bureau of Land
Management; and links to websites of businesses
that sponsor ORA.
Some businesses that sponsor the group include
Geico Insurance, Rice Honda-Suzuki, Black Hills
Powersports, Outdoor Motorsports, Sturgis
Yamaha-BMW-Suzuki, Deerfield Lake Resort,
Covered Wagon Resort and Campground, Nemo Guest
Ranch, and more.
All of this is proof positive that “There’s
power in numbers and in team work,” concluded
Brown.
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