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Karren Brown, Superintendent April 02, 2008 Dear Ms. Brown, The National Park Service received a petition by Bluewater Network and other environmental organizations calling for a complete ban to OHV use on National Park Service units. I am writing to request that the National Park Service continue to permit OHV use within our park units. · There are 378 NPS units (see www.nps.gov/legacy/index.htm and click on parks). 59 units have OHV use on them, which equals 16% of NPS units. The Bluewater petition stated, "ORVs are being used in more than half of all possible park units, or a total of 59 units (55%)". They use this statistic to try to make you and the public believe that OHV use is at a some critical level when in fact, use occurs on only 16% of NPS units, not 55% as Bluewater would have you believe. · There are 378 NPS units. 38 units equals 10% of NPS units. The Bluewater petition stated, "38 parks (35%) acknowledge serious damage to resources….". They use this statistic to try to make you believe that OHV use is at a critical level, when in fact serious damage is alleged to occur on 10% of NPS units, not 35% as Bluewater would have you believe. · The Bluewater petition stated, "Over 30,434 miles of four-wheel drive routes are legally open to off-road vehicles". This statement is intended to lead you to believe that OHV use occurs at an alarming level. In fact, 30,434 miles of four-wheel drive routes (approximately 100 feet wide) are equal to, or comprise 368,860 acres of land. The NPS total acreage equals 80.7 million acres. Therefore, roads comprise less than one-half of one percent of the total NPS acreage (0.46%). It may appear that Bluewater Network and its environmentalists partners are concerned with park ecology, however they are addressing use on less than one-half of one percent of all our National Parks and are doing nothing to educate users on proper land use techniques. I could not find one instance on Bluewater Network's website (www.earthisland.org/bw/) where they educated the public on proper practices when visiting our National Parks. No link to TreadLightly!, no information on how to "pack it in, pack it out", no Keep America Beautiful education. This lack of educational information should lead you to question their sincerity in protecting ecological sustainability of our National Parks. This, coupled with their failure to provide accurate statistical information, should lead you to question the validity of anything Bluewater Network publishes, including their claims of OHV damage. Although the alleged problem with OHV use occurs on a very, very small percentage of NPS units, I am interested in working cooperatively with the National Park Service to find solutions to site-specific problems. Please continue to permit OHV use on National Park Service units. I look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks regarding this important issue and your response to the inaccuracies of the Bluewater Network petition. Sincerely,
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