(Feb. 1, 2007)  The Public Lands Council (PLC) is working with the BuleRibbon Coalition to develop an initiative that would better manage vehicular recreation and grazing on public lands.  The issue arose as more public-lands ranchers incurred damages on grazing allotments due to the misuse of recreation vehicles. The goal of the partnership is to reduce multiple-use conflicts between public-lands ranchers and recreation users. PLC hopes to accomplish this through focused education of livestock producers, recreation users and law enforcement agents, greater incorporation and communication with local law enforcement officials and increased producers and recreation-user involvement in recreation planning and management.

The primary goal of this partnership is to educate producers, recreation users and law enforcement officials about the management of off-highway vehicles and the impact they have on federal land grazing. PLC plans to use brochures, spokespeople, signs and trade publications as educational tools. The partnership will develop materials that focus on the multiple uses present on federal lands and promote the importance of staying on trails, impact of the season of use and involvement in agency planning. PLC also hopes to cooperate with instruction manual preparation by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to include multiple-use messages in educational efforts and agency personnel training.

PLC and the BlueRibbon Coalition plan to launch this effort with a meeting this spring to flesh out the elements in the plan and to identify steps for implementing the action items.  Representatives from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have been asked to participate and invitations will be extended to other livestock, recreation, resource management and federal and state law enforcement organizations.

The American Sheep Industry works in conjunction with PLC on many issues affecting public lands and views this partnership as an excellent opportunity to improve the management of public lands grazing.