American Council of Snowmobile Associations E-News (Christine Jourdain)
Published on February 5, 2012 in Legislative Affairs, National, News & Updates
Tags: access, legislative, National, public lands

Victory for Snowmobilers
ACSA partnered with the Michigan Snowmobile Association to fight the efforts of a single person to ban snowmobiling and gun hunting in the Huron Manistee National Forest. This week the Forest Service relased their Record of Decision to the 6th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In the RoD, the Forest Service recommended:

• Continue to allow snowmobiling on designated trails.
• Change Management Area designation of 11 of the 13 previously designated Semiprimitive Nonmotorized Areas to Special Areas.
• Change Management area designation of 2 previously designated Semiprimitive Nonmotorized Areas to Management Area 4.2
• Maintain the Management Area 5.1 (Wilderness) designation for the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area.
• Change the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum classifications for all of the 14 challenged areas to match their current condition, as described in the Record of Decision.

We will keep you advised of the status of this as it moves forward. Thanks to all of the snowmobilers, organizations, and clubs that wrote letters and attended meetings.

RTP
On Tuesday evening, January 31st, the language was finalized for the House Transportation Bill. The bill was marked up in committee for more than 17 hours on Thursday/Friday. I am happy to report to you that RTP was included in the language that was submitted to the Committee and it survived in the marathon mark up!!

This is very important to the snowmobile community. Our trails community has been very active from the formation of the program. Many of you made phone calls and wrote letters. We know, we heard from many of the legislators! Your efforts paid off. Thank you very much!

It is expected this bill will continue to move and is expected to be finalized by President’s Day. Remember, we were not so fortunate in the Senate. While the Senate maintained RTP, they stripped the dedicated funding. So, our work is not done. Again, we will keep you posted.

DC Fly-In
We Need You! Don’t let Congress turn back the clock on decades of hard-fought progress toward creating a more snowmobile-friendly America. Join us at the 2012 DC Fly-In to help defend critical funding programs and maintain the access we have to our public lands.

ACSA is the proud sponsor of the Snowmobile Fly-In. This event is held annually and is the only motorized recreation event in our nation’s capital! It brings snowmobilers from all over the country together to educate and influence lawmakers and offers the opportunity to share strategies. ACSA ensures that snowmobilers are working together  as a unified front. Join other snowmobile leaders as we unite for three powerful days in Washington, DC. The dates are March 17-20, 2012.

The American Council of Snowmobile Associations is your voice for snowmobiling on national issues. Please contact the ACSA office with any comments, suggestions or questions.