Contributors to this thread:
It's been a few years since I posted here. Anyway, tomorrow evening [October 9th 5:30pm] at Marble Brewery's Eastside Taproom the New Mexico Wildlife Federation will be hosting a free event to generate forest planning comments. Forest plans only come under review every 10-30 years. The point is, these plans are long lasting.
Since I'm with NMWF there should be a fair amount of "green-decoy", radical enviro comments following this post. That's fine. Regardless of what your position is, failure to comment on a forest plan that will dictate the management of your national forests for up to 30 years is unacceptable. Get involved! Show up to NMWF's event tomorrow night at Marble Brewery's Eastside taproom on Montgomery and Eubank and call me some names. I'll be there and I hope to hear from you!
I would have attended but the posting was too late. Didn't see it until 7:30 today.
Here's the problem as I see it. Forest plans do not matter. And here's why. The Forest Service cannot and does not enforce the laws and rules on the books as it is! How do I know that you all might ask? I had a great Gila tag this year. There are signs stating no motorized vehicles beyond this point out there by the forest service. Didn't matter because people drive right past the signs and went hunting. I've seen it every time I've been lucky and drew the tag. There is noone to stop them or wants to. I took a short drive 1 afternoon looking for another spot to hunt. As short-lived as that was before I returned, I did run into a long-haired forest service worker in his 20's or early 30's. I asked him who enforces the law and road closures? He said there is noone to enforce the laws as I'm looking right at someone who works for the forest service. That's right! Him! He asks me where it's at. I show him on my GPS and his map! He tells me that's the second complaint he's had in 2 days in that area. Which is only a few miles away. Then the fing moron tells me that's not his area but he would call the game and fish to come investigate. Yeah right. They never showed up either. The forest service is a joke and has proved once again that government organizations are incompetent, inept, and not capable. Therefore should not be trusted to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing. The honest ones are the ones getting hosed........
" The forest service is a joke and has proved once again that government organizations are incompetent, inept, and not capable. Therefore should not be trusted to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing. " X2 And I will add: select application of law and prosecution, both of which are illegal.
The historian in me doesn't really trust the gabubamint to do the right thing, so I think it's just fine that they are incompetent, inept, and incapable when they do the other things.
Got to agree with Trophyhill 100%. This year in the unit I hunted there is an old road that hasn't been driven on in a long time. It was hard to see and easy to lose if you weren't paying attention in the dark. You had to walk a mile to a mile and a half to get to a great elk hunting spot. Well due to a forest fire 5 miles away the FS re bladed the road and put berms up at the start from the main FS road. Meaning the road was closed to vehicular traffic. It was a superhighway for atv's and side by sides driving around the berms. No more elk in the area. If you go into unit 21 the ranchers sure get FS out to enforce the road closures since they can still drive on it due to "ranching" so 1000's of acres of FS are walk in only except for the ranchers. Why don't we get the same response?
I also agree with all of the above but I don't believe the present Forest plans are about the road closures that were recently implemented, of which are completely unenforceable and a joke. I recall commenting on the road closures and it obviously didn't matter at all because they just did what they wanted and passed it anyway.
If I am not mistaken this current forest plan is about the future use by the public, private entities, protection plans for riparian areas or special areas like the VV and Bandelier for the next 30 years, it has been 30 years since the last plan. I also believe it won't matter what anyone says, it may be worthless but just like when they proposed the road closure plan I will submit my comments anyway, comments are free and doing so IMO gives me the right to bitch when they dismiss public comments and do what they want.
Well said JP! Well said! Guess I wasn't looking at it like that. I was very irritated with the Forest Service guys response when Jesse posted the thread. You're right, it doesn't cost anything to type an opinion to these clowns....
