A resolution to speed up the BLM’s management of off-road motorized vehicles in Colorado dominated the BLM’s Southwest Resource Advisory Council meeting in Durango on Thursday.

The council, a board of 15 members who represent a variety of public land users, unanimously decided not to endorse the Colorado Mountain Club’s resolution, but placed the ORV issue on the agenda for the next meeting.

The club is asking each of the three Colorado RACs to request the Colorado State BLM office to move to a "closed unless marked open" policy for off-road vehicles for at least an interim period, which they estimate would cost $5 million to implement.

In addition, the club asked the RAC to advise the BLM to complete travel inventories and final designations within three years, beginning with high-priority areas.

"To me this is the only responsible way to manage motorized use," explained Vera Smith, the conservation director of the Colorado Mountain Club.

The club views the increased use of off-road vehicles across country on public lands as a crisis that is causing a loss of habitat for animals and creating a "spaghetti system of new roads."

According to the resolution, 91 percent all Colorado BLM land is currently open to some ORV use, and off-road vehicles are allowed to travel cross-country on 47 percent of Colorado’s BLM lands.

But the resolution also acknowledged that motorized travel on designated roads is valid for monitoring livestock, fire protection, emergency rescue, access to inholdings, and for "non-errant" recreation.

"We don’t want them kicked off (ORV-users), but we want them regulated in a reasonable way," argued Jeff Widen, the Southwest Colorado Director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

"We do need to be responsive to the public," explained Art Goodtimes, a RAC member who is a San Miguel County Commissioner. "But I just think it would really serve us better if the Colorado Mountain Club would work with the ORV group."

"I think it’s a very slippery slope if we start responding to every special interest position statement," explained RAC member Ed Zink, who represents off-highway vehicle interests. "I don’t think it’s the position of our RAC to endorse or deny some special interest group proposal."

Zink’s initial motion to not endorse outside resolutions and accept the club’s resolution solely as public input was defeated.

In a written response to the proposal, Alan Staehle, a RAC member and Ouray county commissioner, stated the proposal is "so extraordinarily prejudicial and slanted that it really makes me angry every time I read it even months later."

Staehle told the council, "their proposal (the club’s) shows how lacking in sensitivity they are to people who have interests in motorized recreation."

"The frustration for me is seeing people who have no understanding of motor vehicle recreation trying to make rules for those who do," Staehle explained.

"This is pretty one-sided," agreed Don Cardin, who represents commercial recreation interests. "There are two sides to the OHV story, and this is only one of them."

But other RAC members supported the resolution.

"The damage is obvious, and the part that bothers me so much is the 10 to 15 years needed to address it. I don’t see this (the resolution) as being antagonistic. I see this as being an appeal to begin," said RAC member Pati Temple.

"BLM has to draw some hard and fast lines. We just don’t have time to wait," said M.B. McAfee, a Lewis resident who represents environmental interests. "I believe that those of us who have hiked a lot of these areas have seen this damage."

Mark Stiles, the council’s designated federal officer, announced the Colorado BLM is beginning an Environmental Impact Statement for managing ORV use. The EIS would propose to eliminate motorized vehicle cross-country travel on all Colorado BLM lands, but will not address the thorny issues of what is and what is not a road or trail.

"If you get caught driving over vegetation by a BLM ranger it wouldn’t be an acceptable use of public lands," explained Roger Alexander, a BLM public information officer from Montrose.

Stiles estimated the EIS will take 18 months to two years to complete.

But an inventory of the roads and trails on Colorado BLM lands will likely take 10 to 15 years to complete, since each resource area must change its travel management plan.

"I find that unacceptable," said Smith. "All we’re asking for is common-sense management here."

The Colorado Mountain Club is a statewide outdoor recreation club with 10,300 members and 14 chapters, including one located in Durango.

The state RACs addressed ORV use in their August, 2000 recommended recreation guidelines, which are based on the standards for public land health in Colorado.