PA State Forest Management Plan

[Rick_Bear]

       The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry announced a series of meetings seeking public comment on proposed revisions to the State Forest Management Plan.  It is important to participate, as input from these meetings will help define how Pennsylvania's 2.1 million acre forest system will be managed, including off-highway vehicle and other recreational activities.  For those that cannot attend written comments will be accepted until Oct 31.

To view the proposal click here -> http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/update.aspx

All meetings begin at 7:00 PM and are expected to last until 9:30.  The meeting dates and locations are:

Sept. 18 - Renovo Elementary School, Renovo
Sept. 19 - Brady Township Community Center, Luthersburg (near Dubois)
Sept. 20 - Potato City Inn, Coudersport
Sept. 25 - Antiochian Village, Ligonier
Sept. 27 - The Inn at Reading, French Creek
Oct. 1 - Genetti Hotel, Williamsport
Oct. 2 - Holiday Inn/Dunmore, Scranton
Oct. 4 - Hotel Carlisle and Embers Convention Center, Carlisle

For more information and directions to each meeting venue clcik here -> http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/public_meetings.aspx

To submit written comments online click here -> http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/comments.aspx

Comments will also be accepted through the mail at:

DCNR - Bureau of Forestry
State Forest Resource Management Plan Update
P.O. Box 8552
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8552

[Saharicon]

it would be cool to be able to use fire trails and stuff like that.  A lot of other states let you. 

[ddechri]

WOW! Do you realize that the State Forest service is actually coming to us!!!

Well, not to us specifically, but that is because we might not be there. If you follow the above thread to the offiicial documents, you can read that the PA State Forest Service has implemented a customer feedback clause in their forest plan. That means every 5 years they need to hold public meetings before they can implement their strategic plan. THIS IS A GOOD THING! They are willing and have to listen to their customers (forest users like us). Now the best part is that we don't have to drive halfway across the state to participate. Actually, they are coming to a town near you. In fact, the two closest meetings are in Reading (Sept 27th) and Carlsile (Oct. 4th) and they are at 7 PM in the evening, so average working folks like us can attend.

I think we all need to try to make one of the meetings for two reasons:

1. Having the oppertunity to talk to the State Forest management organization is an excellent step in the right direction. We need to commend and support this change in the policy. Just being there sends the message that we are glad they are listening.

2. The State Forest Strategic Plan for 2007 doesn't have any provisions for developing OHV recreation in the future. None that I could find! So, that means that if we don't go and say anything, they will get the impression that we are happy with the current level of access to the State Forest trail system and nothing will change.

And the typical response is: well, why would they listen to me and even if they did, they're not going to do anything about it.
WRONG! There is actually significant spending in the plan allocated for developing ATV trail networks to the tune of $2 million. The ATVers did get that kind of support without sharing their needs and desires with the State Forest Service. We should be able to use the present set by the ATV development to fuel OHV development. But, there needs to be a start and we will only get the chance every 5 years. The roads and trails are there, we just want some access, but even if there is work to be done to open them, the State Forest Service has access to Federal money to do it.

Over my years of being a PA Jeeps member, I've been involved and even led trail rides in Sproul, Tuscarora and Michaux State Forests. The trails we found and enjoyed the most are now closed. This trend will continue unless we speak up.

I'm going to the Reading meeting Thursday night and I hope that most of the members in Lancaster Co. can join me since it is so close. It might be boring and long and we may not even get a chance to share anything, but if we are on record as being there, they have to acknowledge that we are a customer base that they need to take into account in their future planning.

If you are planning to attend a meeting, review/scan at least Appendix 9 on Recreation including most of the supporting documents so that you have an idea about what is going. Let me know via email (ddechri@yahoo.com) or by phone (I'm in the directory) if you plan to attend the Readinmg meeting so we can discuss what I found in the documents and what we should discuss while we are there. Getting there early would help also.

So, I'll step off the soap box and give someone else a turn to chime in. But before giving up I want to mention that even if you can't be at one of the meetings, send comments in by mail. At the beginning of the document, there is a mailing address to send public comments to. Actually, they are asking for comments. Do it now before you forget because the deadline is Oct. 31st.

Thanks for listening and I hope to see some familiar faces on Thursday.
- Dave DeChristopher

[ddechri]

63 views, still no action .... not even any excuses...

PA Jeeps mission reads:

"PA Jeeps Inc. is a local, non-profit, educational organization which strives to protect everyone's right to use public lands, not only for safe off-highway driving but also for hiking, horseback riding, camping, etc."

How much have we been working on these efforts lately?

(By"we" I mean the general membership. I know some of the officers are working on this stuff behind the scenes and I don't want to make light of their efforts.)

[Ebeck]

I have to admit that I missed it until the post in the events area.
It is important to remember that if we don't fight for public use, we may eventually no have anywhere to hold an event.

The activity around Paragon should serve as a wake-up call to all of us.

We need to make our presence known and be at these open forums.

I will be at one of these.
Most likely the carlisle meeting

I will let you know this evening

[Ebeck]

I cleared my calender for the meeting next week in carlisle

There is two questions I would anticipate from the Bureau of Forestry

How can we assure that people who use the lands follow the Tread Lightly guidelines?

How do we maintain the roads/trails without creating extra burden/cost for the Bureau of Forestry?

We should go prepared to discuss these questions.

[Rick_Bear]

Ebeck,

I wouldn't question "Others Treading Lightly"....Stress "WE" Tread Lightly
Rather than ask ways to releive the burden of maintanence, suggest that PA Jeeps & Middle Atlantic would entertain the offering of "FREE" labor in return for access.

ALWAYS ASK FOR MORE...

BTW- Thank you for making time to attend. I work second shift and am unable to attend any meetings, but have submitted my requests in writing.

[ddechri]

Excellent Ebeck, I'll let everyone know how the meeting goes so any preparations can be made for the next one.

To answer your questions, the example already exists: the ATV community (and the snowmobile users).

The ATV user group has all the exact same management issues:

1. How do you police the users
2. How do you fund the maintenance
3. Where are the use guidelines

And in the forest planning, they have addressed them as best tehy could:

1. Policing the users - instead of trying to keep people off the trails they don't belong on (renegades), the ATV development looks and improving the trail system so that it is attractive enough (challenging, enough miles) that there is no need to be where a rider doesn't belong. There are even guideline on difficultly level and what percentage of each level there should be.

2. Funding - much of the funding comes from ATV license fees. Another big chunk comes from Federal money for trail development which is designated for motorized recreational development. For us, be don't have specific license fees that go solely for recreation, but the Fed money applies for OHV also. I think this was part of the SIMS Trail Act.

3. There was a ATV usage guided developed as a result of the 2003 strategic plan. There is also a shared use Trail Etiquette guide which was developed and includes interaction among hikers, hunters, snowmobilers, wildlife, and ATV riders.

So, the precedent on how to handle these issues is already there. I just needs to applied to or include OHV users.


I re-read the recreation document and some of the sub documents in preparation last night. I really get the overwhelming feeling that these public meeting are meant to get feedback from the users and potential users. I can only guess that when they changed their focus to be more customer based (like industry) the OHV community was too busy with private land to voice any interest. That is the only way I can explain that there is no mention of OHV and 4x4 usage in any of the 2007 plan. I found one reference at the begining of the manual of trail signs, but that was it. So, I'm curious what their current policy is towards OHV and then I hope we can give them some direction as to where we would like it to go. The bottom line is that the trails are already there, is a matter of developing the plan for managing their usage.

Hopefully we can learn some things from this meeting and send a delegation to the Carlisle meeting.

SO, EVERYONE SHOULD BE CLEARING THEIR CALENDERS IN ANTICIPATION OF BEING PART OF A DELEGATION NEXT THURSDAY. In fact, lets start a list in the Events forum Thread of who is coming.

- Dave

[ddechri]

I posted on the Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance Forum yesterday to try to drum up more interest. They already had a State Forest use thread going but there wasn't much mention of the meetings.

But someone did post this response:

_________________________________________________________________________
I attended the DCNR meeting in Ligonier last night... just to let you know how it works...

There were a BUNCH of DCNR folks there... one guy did about a 45 minute powerpoint presentation. Then there was a break & everyone split into groups at tables.... this was determined by a number that was in your informational folder you recieve when you sign in at the door.

At the table they had two DCNR representatives & it was a round table discussion, each person at the table got their chance to make a statment about one particular topic related to the DCNR. One of the DCNR guys wrote down the main jist of the statement (he read it back to you to make sure he had it right). It went around the table many times (I think it went around probably 8-10 times).

Once all the comments were taken, the DCNR guys asked if we could collectively work on a summary of the main issues that were discussed at the table. After that, a DCNR rep of each table stood up one by one & stated the main issues that were discussed at each table (which was interesting to hear the similarities/differences).

The point is.. your voice will be heard.. will it make a difference SOON...? Hmmm.. I didnt get that feeling, but the DCNR has stated that they are going to have updates to their "plan" every 5 years (vs. every 15 years before 2003)...

Oh.. and the presentation was pretty interesting, just in general, and fwiw.. I didnt get out of there until around 10 PM.

Mel
_______________________________________________________

So, there you go, everyone gets a chance to speak. The more we send, the more individual messages we send. That might mean the sooner something gets implemented.

[04RckyMtn]

The link to email comments also works just fine. I encourage more people to voice thier opinons as well. It took me all of 10 minutes to voice my opinon. Hopefully we get enough of a response so the state can accomidate us with more land usage.

[ddechri]

It was exactly as Mel described: about 20 or so Forestry Folks, and maybe 40 guests. Grant and I were only ones representing 4x4 recreation. That was discouraging.

We got there 30 min. early and it was easy to wander around and talk to several of the DNCR staff about the plan and anything else. They were very friendly and most were enjoying the meetings as a chance to reach out to the public and understand it's needs.

I learned a lot even before the meeting started by just talking to people. The 45 min. presentation was good background for why the Bureau of Forestry (BoF) does what it does and what all their goals and requirements are.  It's a tough job.

The round table meeting were educational in understand other user groups interests and struggles. Lots of discussion, we had some Q&A with the forestry guy at our table on a whole host of topics.

The evening went fast because there was so much to digest. I highly recommend if you can make to any of the meetings it is well worth the effort ... and the publicity for 4x4 recreation. If fact, I had to explain to our table's facilitator what organized 4x4 is. Imagine that?

When I asked questions about getting involved, I was told about the Advisory Committes and their meetings. There is one for ATV and Snowmobiles, but 4x4 is lumped into the general committee. Their meetings are open to the public where anyone can log comments, etc.

I made a contact with someone from the Divisions of Operations and Recreation and I hope to do more digging and get involved.

Whether you can or can't get to the meetings, email in some comments about for the BoF is currently handling 4x4 trails on State land. Unless our feed back is a large portion of the recreational interest, nothing may happen. In fact, I did some digging on the DNCR website and found the comments from the last set of public meetings. One of the first statements in the summary was that 60% of the public feedback was related to OHV. Then I read further to find out it was all negative about abuse, noise and illegal running. Then I read that it was actually ATV's that were being targeted. So, now there is an extensive management plan for ATV's including openning up trails and parks, publishing guideline and etiquette brochures, etc. But as I mentioned above, it may not be really clear who we are and what we would like to do.

When you write in (not if):

- Suggest that a 4x4 usage survey be performed. One each was done for ATV and Snowmobiles and it really gives the DCNR direction on how to target their management plan.

- Request that an Advisory Council for 4x4 be created or that 4x4 be added to the current ATV & Snowmobile Council so that there is a focus on 4x4 development and planning.

- Of course request that existing trails be openned which would be less cost intensive that building new trail systems.

- Added some local economic impact evidence of developing 4x4 recreation.

- Mention that we are organized 4x4 enthusists, interested in providing the resources for future enjoyment and willing to adhere to the guidelines that are developed.

Here's the link for comments:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/comments.aspx

Anyway, sorry it got so long, but it was a full evening.

- Dave

[emgraz]

Ok, so Dave, if I'm understanding correctly....since hubby and I cannot attend any of the meetings, if we get something together and e-mail it to the link you provided that works too???

I'm really upset that I cannot attend any of these meetings, but w/ work and school monday-thursday, there's really not much time for anything else....

thanks for keeping us updated on these important dates and issues!!!

Erica

[CJ8Ted]

Thanks Dave, I'm still trying to see what the 4th holds for me.
Ted

[Rick_Bear]

Erica,

YES, you can use the email option as well as the "snail mail" process.
I submitted my issues and concerns via a written letter.

When doing so be sure to state that you are a member of MA & United and keep it professional.

[emgraz]

Not a problem, I will write to voice our opinion and keep it professional, we certainly don't need anymore bad publicity towards our sport!!!

erica