You might not have noticed it but there’s been a shift recently in ads for off-highway vehicles: The stereotypical trail bike warriors of old are morphing into family-friendly images that better fit contemporary reality.
That suits Don Amador just fine, because his job as “The General” of thousands of embattled motorized recreation enthusiasts pits him against master manipulators of public opinion: Big Green’s ferocious and lavishly funded anti-OHV faction — those selfish, relentless, and effective elitists out to reduce public access to federal lands substantially, if not altogether.
Amador represents the Blue Ribbon Coalition, a non-profit advocacy group incorporated in Idaho in 1987 to work nationwide to keep scenic forest roads and public trails open to motorcyclists, snowmobilers, trail bikers, dune buggy fans and other OHVers.
From BRC’s beginning, Amador has lobbied Congress and state legislatures, helping launch the 1987 drive that won the landmark National Recreational Trails Fund Act of 1991.
That law provided federal highway funds for new trails, maintenance and repair of existing trails, plus trail-head and trail-side facilities that enhance access, including motorized access.
Enhancing trail access had always been anathema to greedy wilderness purists who want only their own footprints in wild areas — the Wilderness Society spent 15 years lobbying the Wilderness Act of 1964 into law.
Their legislation mandated that congressionally designated wilderness have no roads, no structures and no motorized access. That’s why you can’t drive your kids or their granny through a federal wilderness some nice weekend afternoon.
The 1991 trails act did not allow roads to be built in wilderness, but it legitimated motorized use of certain existing Bureau of Land Management and National Forest trails, which stymied the Greens’ campaign to close motorized access to all potential wilderness areas.
Amador earned his honorary rank as “The General” by working for it: He organized BRC’s “trail cleanup weekend army” to bring out all the trash left by careless hikers and other users.
He began to work with BLM and Forest Service rangers to find other ways that the OHV community could be better neighbors, and found that noise was a major complaint.
After gaining experience in noise control technology for recreation vehicles, he established Quiet Warrior Racing, his private consultancy that now provides noise level readings for BLM and the Forest Service.
But fundraising has always been a tough job, one that Amador constantly faces. In Congress and the courts, he finds himself outgunned when facing off against Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund ($38.7 million 2010 assets), The Wilderness Society ($53.1 million 2010 assets), Trout Unlimited ($26.6 million 2010 income), and the Foundation for National Progress/Mother Jones magazine ($9.6 million 2010 income) among dozens of other left-green outfits.
By 2005, BRC had gained a stable annual income approaching $1 million: In 2010, it was $954,141, according to the group’s IRS Form 990.
“But we needed more political clout,” said Amador. “I had talked with an environmental policy wonk back in 2002 — Dave Widell, the deputy director for the California OHV Program at the time. He told me that if off-roaders wanted to ‘get into the game’ we had to form a national nonpartisan/bipartisan political action committee that focuses solely on motorized trail access.”
After talking the idea around, Amador founded the Trail Political Action Committee late last year.
“We need to be sure that off-road voters are engaged in the electoral process,” he said. “The reason is simple: All trail decisions are political decisions.”
What’s most political about trail decisions is that they’re not just for OHV enthusiasts. They’re about keeping federal lands open for business. Think timber, mining, farming, ranching, oil and gas.
Maybe it’s time the folks who benefit from TPAC’s work lend it a hand.
Examiner Columnist Ron Arnold is executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.
