Basejumper.com - archive

It appears the administration is once again proposing dramatic increases in oil and gas drilling and off-road vehicle use on S. colorado BLM lands.

Here is a Wilderness Society link to a petition to the BLM Director [http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/utah_redrock?rk=E7xpkwE1oh3cE]


maybe someone can clicky-ify this . . .

assume many people on this forum who jump in the greater Moab area might care deeply about this issue.


best . . .

clicky-ified

Yes please blindly send your support for more State & Federal restrictions of less access and human interaction that apply for all into the great outdoors ???
In the Link provided. I really don't see anything written on what is planned by the Federal government for this great wilderness destruction of Utah. It kind of reads like another "Bush eats babies again' by the activists agenda of the Greenies hate speech propaganda .

Got anything that represents views of both sides of the story for me to read in a Linky ?
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If it was converted to Wilderness Lands, wouldn't that basically put an end to legal jumping in the area?

In National Forests, any type of mechanized vehicle is banned in Wilderness areas. By their definition that includes 4wd's, bicycles, hang gliders, and even parachutes.

Does the same [lack of] logic apply to BLM areas as well?

Yes. The Wilderness rules are the same in BLM, NPS, FS, etc--pretty much all public lands.

Tom, unless there has been a rule change in the last 7 years I am quite sure that base jumping is not illegal in NF or BLM wilderness land. This has been my first hand experience directly dealing with the authorities overseeing these lands in both NF and BLM wilderness areas.

Regardless Ray, I happen to like my wilderness parachuting experiences to be as prestine as possible (and don't necessarily care about technicalities like *rules*) I suppose some might prefer being able drive a hummer to the exit point. that is an difference in opinion anyone is entitled to. Hell with these and similar new regulations we might have new jumping sites like off oil drilling platforms or into open pit mines. I made this post because I thought there would be people like me who value the wildlands that we have and would like to see them remain as wild as possilbe, if you want to disagree Ray, fine, IF you actually care I'm sure you could fine something to post supporting these regs, maybe fox news, the washington post or Rush Limbaugh, its not my job to provide fair and balanced links to counter my opinons, you can do that.

cheers!

I think there may have been, then. I know that I spoke with both NPS and BLM rangers who told me that the wilderness regulations were the same on NPS or BLM land, and that "mechanized transport" (which, oddly includes both parachutes and mountain bikes) was illegal in designated wilderness no matter if it was NPS or BLM.

Edit: Here is the BLM's press release, on their web site, from the 1996 rules revision, which states in part:


Designated Wilderness Areas are administered under the Wilderness Act of 1964, regardless of which agency is the actual land manager. "Wilderness" is a federal designation that cuts across departmental boundaries, binding the various agencies with lands in their care to a "minimum" standard on those areas (and that "minimum" excludes parachuting activities).

The text of the Wilderness Act can be found here. The relevant portion is the "Prohibition of Certain Uses" section. The argument to be made is that parachutes are not a "form of mechanical transport" but at the moment they are in that category.


Here is a list of the regulations which apply to BLM lands (it's a BLM document off the BLM website). At the bottom of page III-8 you can find the listing for the Wilderness Act of 1964.