Washington Fly-In
    It's time once again for the Annual Snowmobile Fly-In. The dates this year are April 6-8. The format will be Chapter Meetings on Sunday morning, ACSA meeting Sunday afternoon; speakers all day Monday; and Capitol Hill visits on Tuesday.

Please contact the ACSA office if you plan to attend. The ACSA office will schedule the appointments with your Senators and Congressmen.

We will be staying at the Holiday Inn on the Hill. Click here for the Registration Form.

International Snowmobile Congress (ISC) - 2011
    Believe it or not, it is time for the Western State Snowmobile Associations to put their bids in to host Congress in 2011. Bids are due in March, 2008.

    For additional information, please contact the ACSA office, 517-351-4362.

ISC 2008
    Don't forget to register for Congress, June 11-14, which will be held in Boise, Idaho and make your hotel room reservations.

This promises to be another fabulous meeting, with great speakers and educational sessions, lots of networking, a fun-packed offsite event, and of course lots of meetings to attend.

Click here for a registration form..

Non-Powered Rec Users Organize on Forest Service Roadless Policy
The human-powered recreation groups have formed a coalition for the protection of roadless areas in Idaho and Colorado. They fear the Forest Service (FS) will allow an increase in road building.

This group is concerned about the amount of undeveloped land area left for recreation. They view it as approximately 50% of FS lands are available for resource use. They acknowledge that 20% is protected as wilderness, but claim most of that land is remote mountain - rock and ice. The remaining 30% holds some of the highest values for recreation with nearby access.

It appears this group includes the associations that represent canoeing, hiking, bicycling, and cross-country skiers.

Attorney General Will Ask EPA Today For Tougher Emission Rules
By Steve Geissinger
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 01/29/2008 01:32:53 AM PST

   SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Jerry Brown will petition federal regulators today to set stricter emission standards on off-road toys such as snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and personal watercraft - an idea that manufacturers insist would trigger higher prices, lower performance and possibly even be the demise of some off-road vehicles.

Brown said he wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exercise its authority under the Clean Air Act and court decisions to set greenhouse-gas emission standards for new off-road equipment, which also includes tractors, forklifts and some lawn mowers.

The EPA, which has so far failed to grant California's wishes under the Bush administration, has been ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to act on global warming issues and is under increasing pressure from Democrats in Congress.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said his agency would not comment on the petition until it is filed by Brown. It seems highly unlikely, however, that the EPA - at least while President Bush is in office - would embrace Brown's position.

Most of the off-road equipment affected by the petition are construction and agricultural equipment. All told, the petition addresses more than 17 million machines in California.

Brown's move would be the latest effort in an ongoing battle by California and other states to win federal controls on greenhouse-gas emissions for cars, planes and ships, or autonomy to set their own standards.

Brown spokesman Gareth Lacy said the Attorney General's Office also is eyeing action on trains but said locomotives were excluded from today's petition because the issue involves different technological and legal issues.

In light of predicted global-warming consequences such as flooding, Brown said that "it's either this, or go to high ground and wait."

Brown acknowledged he was delving into "sensitive territory" by including recreational vehicles but said it is necessary.

Derrick Crandall, a spokesman for the American Recreation Coalition in Washington, D.C., which represents recreational equipment enthusiasts and major manufacturers, said he supports environmental protection but said the industry wants to work with government on solutions rather than see mandates.

Crandall said the consequences for strict new emission standards might reach beyond making off-road equipment such as motorcycles, ATVs and boats less powerful and lighter weight.

"It just might even rule out certain kinds of vehicles in their entirety," he said. "We need to be very careful about major new public policy initiatives."

Crandall expressed concern that recreational equipment had been included with other off-road, industrial vehicles. Non-recreational vehicles account for more than 85 percent of the 220 million metric tons of greenhouse-gases spewed annually across the nation - the equivalent of 40 million cars.

But Brown said recreational equipment is a swiftly growing part of the off-road vehicle sector. He cited a California Air Resources Board study in his petition that estimated carbon dioxide emissions from recreational equipment and pleasure craft each grew by about one-third between 1990 and last year.

The increase in emissions from construction and mining machines in the state grew at a slightly faster pace of 35 percent, while industrial machines trailed at 9 percent.

Mark Baldassare, director of the independent Public Policy Institute of California poll, said that "this global warming proposal puts to the test statements by Californians in polls that they're willing to seek changes, even if there are financial consequences."

Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, isn't sure the public would make that choice.

"People favor strong action on the environment, and are even willing to say that no price for environmental protection is too high," Pitney said, "until they themselves must pay it."

Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, a Temecula Republican who has been active in supporting off-road motorized recreation, said today's petition was "essentially useless" and would be "prohibitively costly if implemented."

The states of Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut joined California's petition today while the Western Environmental Law Center filed a similar request.

"This is going to happen," said center spokesman Dan Galpern. "The handwriting is on the wall."