| Copy of: News Release--Recreationists Win Legal Fight with Forest
Service
BLUE RIBBON COALITION, INC. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Under the terms of the settlement agreement the Forest Service is banned from using the Road Moratorium to close a single mile of road", stated Carla Boucher, author of the agreement and nationally recognized attorney for United. "United obtained evidence that many, if not all, of the national forests were using the Temporary Road Moratorium to create de facto wilderness areas as part of forest planning", stated Boucher, who predicted in early 1998 that this was the plan of the Forest Service all along. "This agreement prevents the creation of de facto wilderness, protecting nearly 347,000 miles of access for motorized recreationists", Boucher concludes. According to Don Amador, the western regional representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, “I believe that United’s effort to protect access to our national forests is something that benefits a broad cross-section of user groups.” “It appears the settlement agreement will help stop the Clinton/Gore administration from bypassing Congress and the public as it seeks to impose an agenda that could close millions of acres in our national forests by creating new de facto Wilderness areas. Congress, not the administration, is the appropriate body for changing land use designations,” Amador concludes. |