Printable VersionRick Mooneyham thinks the Bureau of Land Management shouldn’t have called a recent public meeting an open house.
After attending the meeting, Mooneyham and his wife, Cassandra, sent word out to fellow four-wheelers, dirt bikers and ATV riders in the area about proposed closures to several trails in and around Lake Havasu City. The couple posted fliers, used Facebook postings, attended meetings and sent e-mails to dozens of friends asking them to write to the BLM. Those efforts resulted in nearly 600 letters, e-mails and comments that BLM officials cited Thursday as the reason for an extension to the public comment period regarding the plan to Oct. 31 from the previous Sept. 17 deadline.
“We sent out the word and the next thing you know, those letters came flying in,” Rick Mooneyham said. “Our first goal was to get the scoping period extended. The next step is to let them know what trails we use.”
The Environmental Assessment is expected to “evaluate all of the motorized and non-motorized routes of travel and their affected resources in the current inventory of existing routes in the study area,” according to a press release from the BLM.
“The assessment will have three transportation route network alternatives designating each route as open, limited or closed,” according to the release. “The Havasu Travel Management Planning area generally includes public lands in the Lake Havasu Field Office south of Interstate 40 (both sides of the Colorado River), extending to five to seven miles north of the Bill Williams River.”
The Mooneyhams said they plan to scope out as many of the nearly 1,000 trails as possible when the weather is cooler.
“We’re going to map out everything that has a red line through it on the BLM map and find out if it’s a legitimate trail that people use,” he said. “And we’re going to want as much input as we can get from others that ride the same trails.”
The BLM currently is proposing several options for the Havasu Travel Management Plan, said BLM Lake Havasu Outdoor Recreation Planner Myron McCoy.
“The main reason we’re looking at closure for some of the trails is resource protection,” McCoy said. “That would be concerns with wildlife habitat, cultural property, soils and a combination of other various resources.”
Rick Mooneyham said he was also told of trail proliferation, or the simplifying of routes, and possible effects on endangered species in the area as reasons for proposed closures.
“A lot of the trails that are staying open are the ones that go from point A to point B directly,” Rick Mooneyham said, referring to trail proliferation. “But if you’re on an ATV or four-wheeler or a dirt bike, you don’t want to go from point A to B.”
Maps of the Havasu Unit can be reviewed online at www.blm.gov/az/st/en/fo/lake_havasu_field.html or by contacting BLM Lake Havasu Field Office Outdoor Recreation Planner Myron McCoy at 505-1216. Comments may also be faxed to 928-505-1208 or e-mailed to lake_havasu@blm.gov. Public comments for consideration during the Environmental Assessment preparation need to be postmarked by Oct. 31, according to the release.
Those interested in contacting the Mooneyhams are asked to send e-mails at rickmooneyham@yahoo.com or at the Facebook group “Save Havasu OHV access!”
You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com
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