FS and ATV

[Nemont]

Keyword Search:

July 8, 2004


Forest Service policy would restrict off-road vehicles
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) - ATVs, motorized trail bikes and other off-road motorized vehicles would be restricted to designated roads, trails and areas in federal forests and grasslands under a proposed national policy unveiled Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service.

If finalized, the proposal would help stitch together a patchwork of off-road motorized travel restrictions that vary from forest to forest. It would provide more consistent guidelines for setting restrictions, though final designations would be made by local supervisors.

Snowmobile use would not be affected by the proposed policy.



The plan comes as more people are visiting national forests for activities ranging from camping and hiking to ATV riding, posing a threat to the ecosystem and creating conflicts between users.

"We want to improve our management by achieving a better balance and helping users of the national forests have a better recreation experience and reducing the impacts on land," said Jack Troyer, the agency's intermountain regional forester.

Environmentalists and hunting and recreation groups said the proposal would be a good start but that it should include such things as more effective enforcement and the money to pay for it, and a public analysis of environmental impacts and user-conflicts.

"We think it's well-intentioned but it needs to be significantly strengthened," said Suzanne Jones, regional director of The Wilderness Society's Denver office.

Under current regulations, national forests have diverse restrictions for off-road motorized vehicles. For example, Colorado has a system of designated routes while fewer restrictions are in effect in other areas.

onthenet
USDA Forest Service

"The proposal makes a national policy that says wheeled motor vehicles must stay on designated roads, trails or areas," Rocky Mountain Regional Forester Rick Cables said. "There is no such national policy in place right now."

Under the proposal, each forest and grasslands district would work with the public to draft a plan identifying routes, trails and areas suitable for off-road vehicles. An environmental analysis would be required on each proposed site to determine potential effects, Cables said.

The result would be a "use map" to create a clear idea of what activity is allowed in what area.

Cables said the proposal also would halt the proliferation of new roads and trails which would help with maintenance and enforcement issues.

If the draft becomes final, it could take up to four years for the designated policies to take effect across the nation, but they could be implemented in some areas more quickly.

Between 1976 and 2000, the number of off-road vehicle users increased from 5 million to 36 million, causing conflicts with other users such as horseback riders as well as with the growing number of homeowners who live adjacent to national forests.

The increase also has led to problems with illegal off-road vehicle use that can compound the potential threat to the ecosystem.

"We have had a difficult time - even in our current designated roads and trails where we have them - in doing the enforcement work," Cables said.

A national, consistent policy could help stem that problem, he said. Troyer also said the agency has received valuable assistance from off-road groups that help with enforcement.

Troyer acknowledged that the proposal does not include specific funding but said money for implementation and enforcement could be taken from budgets for specific areas within the agency.

Environmentalists, ranging from The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club to the American Hiking Society, also recommended that the agency set a two-year deadline for final implementation and immediately bar off-road vehicle use on unauthorized routes.

"If you pass this with no money to implement it, it's useless," Jones said.

The Forest Service will accept public comment on the proposal for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Hey Nemont,
You need to edit the topic title on this post, and put "Fat-Assed" in it, so people will read it....

Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth advanced the initiative to address an explosion of uncontrolled off-road vehicle use that he has described as a leading threat to the nation's public lands.

In Oregon and across the nation, the use by some individuals of off-road vehicles has wrought scarring damage to sensitive wetlands and forest ecosystems.

National forests subject to the new policy make up about one-fourth of Oregon's land area and have been crisscrossed in places by unauthorized roads blazed by off-road traffic.

"You begin to get these user-built trail systems where people see that someone else has driven, and so they follow," said Kurt Wiedenmann, La Grande district ranger for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. "They are almost never where you want them. They may be on steep slopes where you have erosion problems or across streams and wetlands."

Although most off-roaders drive responsibly, officials said, haphazard regulations that vary from forest to forest have not kept up with the growing maneuverability and horsepower of vehicles ranging from Hummers to dune buggies. Oregon's Siuslaw National Forest, home to Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, counted the second-highest number of off-road vehicle users among all national forests.

An especially extreme brand of off-road driving known as "mudbogging," in which vehicles churn through muddy terrain, has torn up sensitive meadows and wetlands in some Oregon forests.

The new policy, now open to public comment, requires all national forests to identify specific roads, trails and areas where off-road driving will be allowed. Areas not specifically opened to such traffic would be considered closed.

That would reverse the current situation where many forest lands are assumed to be open unless closed, allowing drivers to roam at will.

The Bush administration supports the new policy, which started out with Bosworth, said spokesman George Lennon. He said Bosworth would have preferred to issue it much sooner but it has only just emerged from the bureaucratic pipeline.

Federal officials said new controls are essential because the number of people driving off-road in the United States more than doubled between 1982 and 2000 and the number of all-terrain vehicles in use rose by 40 percent from 1997 to 2001. Rutted landscapes have become more common in national forests, they said, compromising soil, water quality and wildlife habitat.

Although off-road driving may conflict with recreational uses such as wildlife watching, officials said, many people drive vehicles off roads in support of other recreational activities such as fishing and hunting. ATV users now account for about 5 percent of visitors to national forests and grasslands.

Steve Reeves of Boardman, a regional director of the Pacific Northwest Four Wheel Drive Association, said he is as disturbed as anyone by harmful off-road driving and reports any offenders he sees. But he said the new policy must strike a balance between protecting public lands and allowing people to use them for different forms of recreation.

"There are some areas that need to be set aside, that need to be protected, but there are areas where we can coexist with what's there," he said. "Some roads need to be done away with because they're trashed, but some roads need to be left open because people use them." Gosh, I wonder who "trashed" the roads??? Maybe the Fat-Assed ATV riders???

Environmental activists said the new policy is essential but needs to be strengthened with deadlines for forests to impose the new regulations.

"The key is really how this gets implemented," said Brett Brownscombe of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council in La Grande. "It's not a no-use policy, but it's an important step toward a responsible-use policy."

The Forest Service will accept public comments on the new policy for about two months. Once the policy is made final, national forests around the country will begin to update their regulations to enact the new approach considering further input from local officials and the public

 

[Ithaca 37]

I can just hear the fatasses whining about this already!! Kinduv a big setback for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, isn't it?

 

[Ithaca 37]

I think I've read here that the major financial support for the BRC comes from the ATV industry so, naturally, they're going to be against anything that restricts ATV use by their fatass customers.

 

[Oak]

Last year, the district issued 600 citations, most for illegal vehicle use. "That's probably a half of one percent of the total infractions," Landis said.

That's in a 250,000-acre district. So only a small percentage of the fatasses are breaking the law??

Oak

 

[Oak]

Want to know what the BRC thinks? It's at the bottom of this article. I guess they would like to see the status quo.

Off-roading limits weighed for forests
By Theo Stein
Denver Post Staff Writer

Exploding use of national forests by off-road motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and four-wheel-drive trucks has forced the U.S. Forest Service to develop a national policy to restrict their use, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The agency said it intended to limit off-road vehicles to designated trails and roads, potentially barring them from thousands of miles of unauthorized, rider-created routes that have proliferated in the last 30 years. The proposed rule is open for comment for 60 days before a final decision will be made.

Damage caused by the millions of recreational motorists who visit federal forests each year is one of the top four threats to the forest system, agency officials say.

"We're seeing impacts now that we just can't live with," said Jack Troyer, the intermountain regional forester based in Utah. "We want to improve our management by achieving a better balance and helping users of the national forests have a better recreation experience and reducing the impacts on land."

But a visit to the Pike National Forest near Colorado Springs shows just how difficult this task will be.

For 14 years, the Pike Forest has limited off-road vehicle use to designated trails, as the Forest Service proposed Wednesday. Yet ATV, motorcycle and truck users systematically flout the regulations and carve new illegal routes every week.

On Wednesday, Frank Landis, a forest protection officer in the Pike Ranger District, showed two visitors where trucks had churned deep ruts through a lush stream and carved new routes up a steep, sandy bluff to get at illegal trails that Landis' staff had recently blocked.

"That is just a complete lack of respect for public lands," said a frustrated Landis. "I mean, what do we have to do, fence the whole road?"

And the damage to Limbaugh Canyon was just a small slice of the impact caused to the 250,000-acre district by motorized users. At the Rainbow Falls trailhead nearby, spiderwebs of illegal ATV trails snaked away from the main forest road. Farther down, eroded scars of impromptu hill-climb courses striped the hills.

The Pike Ranger District has 180 miles of trails and roads designated for motorized recreation. But that pales against the estimated 1,500 miles of illegal trails and another 1,500 miles of roads in the mountainous district.

"It has really exploded in the last five years," said Landis.

There are so many illegal trails, even riders who want to obey the rules have trouble understanding where they can and cannot go.

Lack of enforcement is another problem. Under current funding, the Pike District has five forest protection officers like Landis and only one law enforcement officer.

Last year, the district issued 600 citations, most for illegal vehicle use.

"That's probably a half of one percent of the total infractions," Landis said. "We need to do a better job."

Nationwide, the number of off-highway vehicle users increased sevenfold to 36 million from 1972 to 2000. Annual off-road vehicle registrations in Colorado have surged from 55,000 to 86,000 in the last five years, state records show. Since the April 1 registration date, 77,000 users have registered this year.

Forest Service officials admit their long delay in addressing the problem will make it difficult to change rider expectations and a "go-anywhere" ethic fostered by print and television advertisements that glorify trucks churning through mudholes and powerful ATVs that spit dirt as they rocket down a trail.

"It's not going to be easy; there's no question about that," Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told The Denver Post in an interview this spring. "But if we wait, it's going to be even more difficult."

Once the national rule is finalized, individual forests' staff would work with the public to inventory all existing roads and trails to determine which are needed and which are environmentally damaging. The staff would then decide whether to continue to allow vehicular use, limit access to hikers, bicycles or horses, or close the trail completely.

Environmental groups called the effort well-intentioned but criticized the lack of funding and firm deadlines for establishing trail networks.

"The fact is, without money they won't be able to put enforcement people out there, designate trails and educate visitors," said Vera Smith, conservation director of the Colorado Mountain Club. "Nothing will really change."

One major off-road-vehicle group is hoping for no significant closures.

"I don't want to see anything closed automatically without good analysis," said Bill Dart, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition. "If it's not causing environmental damage, it should stay open."

 

[Nut]

There are people going to message boards to solicit help to fight against this issue.

One did it at Realtree and I am taking the Buzz,Ithaca stance.