NMOHVA News & Announcements

Last Updated: February 1, 2009

The Blackfeather Trail Preservation Alliance (BTPA) held a very successful fundraising dinner on Saturday, Dec 13. Many thanks to Russ and Betsy Tyldesley for hosting the event at their magnificent home in the hills west of the Santa Fe Opera.

This was BPTA’s second fundraising event in the past year, with all proceeds from the gala dinner going to the NMOHVA Access Defense fund. We ‘wined and dined’, enjoyed the mountain views, and debated the virtues of various dirt bikes. Plans were laid for future trips, and we got caught up with friends.

As invariably happens, the bench racing turned to business and the conversations turned serious. All of us are very concerned about what will happen in the Santa Fe National Forest. The Travel Management process is threatening to greatly reduce where we’ll be allowed to ride. Over the past 3 years we’ve done everything the Forest Service asked for and more. We’ve attended literally dozens of meetings and provided field trips for forest staff. We’ve GPS’d trails for them. We’ve written proposals and done volunteer maintenance. We’ve reviewed numerous documents and provided both informal and more formal written scoping comments.

In short (and long), we’ve worked hard to be good citizens, to cooperate, and to participate in the process as we are supposed to do. We’ve been polite, diligent, and persistent. But in the end, the decisions could still go against us. Around the country in other National Forests, we’re seeing Travel Management decisions which close more than half the existing roads and trails to motorized recreation.

If that happens here, we will end up in court. It’s the last thing we want to do, but if it comes to that, we will be ready. The NMOHVA Access Defense Fund was created primarily for this purpose last year. Our fund raising labors over the last year and the planned upcoming events are helping raise the money to pay for a court challenge.

Thanks again to everyone involved!