Increasing off-road vehicle use a headache for land managers

[Raven]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Features/thrive/story.asp?ID=65257&S=195

Increasing off-road vehicle use a headache for land managers
Agencies struggle to wean public from needless roads
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Motorized vehicle use on public lands has joined logging, fire fighting and noxious weeds at the top of state and federal land management issues.
As government agencies struggle to catch up to the soaring sales of off-road vehicles, citizens ranging from environmental activists to mud-bogging four-wheel-drivers are making tracks through an onslaught of meetings, documents and decisions.

Several trends have converged to magnify the headaches for public land managers.

For example, the popularity of ever-more-versatile off-road vehicles has been mushrooming during the same period the U.S. Forest Service has been trying to rein in the sprawling network of roads created by decades of logging.

Baby boomers apparently are losing their leg power just as balloon-tired all-terrain vehicles have gained horsepower and efficiency.

In the 1980s, wildlife scientists and conservationists proved that forest roads, especially those designed for the sole purpose of getting timber out of the mountains, were having devastating effects on everything from water-quality and native fisheries to weed dispersal and big-game populations.

"Sportsmen and conservationists raised these very issues regarding logging roads, road closures, and protecting wildlife 20 years ago," said John Osborn, The Lands Council founder .

"The U.S. Forest Service logging road system is a geologic force on the landscape," Osborn said, noting that roads have contributed to the bed load filling cutthroat trout-holding pools in the North Fork of the Coeur d´Alene River. "Entire watersheds are unraveling."

By the 1990s, the Forest Service was increasing efforts to block unmaintained roads or restore them to a natural state just as people were looking for places to explore on their new ATVs.

In the five years preceding 2001, Idaho off-highway-vehicle registrations for ATVs and motorcycles rose from 27,700 to 55,100. About 71,000 ATVs and motorcycles are currently registered.

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 miles of roads were obliterated on the Panhandle National Forests from 1991 through 2001, said Dave O´Brien, Forest Service spokesman in Coeur d´Alene.

But in the same period, at least 60,000 additional miles of "ghost roads" have been illegally created on national forests, largely by off-road vehicles, according to The Wilderness Society.

Although the Forest Service has no mileage estimates, officials acknowledge that illegal trails are a serious issue on the Idaho Panhandle and other regional forests.

Numerous unauthorized trails have been pioneered by motorized vehicle users across public land as well as private timber land near Potlatch. In response, Palouse District Ranger Larry Ross is releasing a draft plan at the end of March that will designate a motorized trail system and require people to stay on those trails.

Volunteers affiliated with The Friends of the Clearwater conservation group went into the field with notebooks and cameras to document motorized vehicle abuse on the Clearwater Water National Forest in 2001.

"One major problem is that trails that are open to ATVs intersect trails that are not, creating a management nightmare," the report said. "There is no incentive for a motorized user in a remote area to obey the signs at such an intersection even if the signs exist. Considerable damage is occurring in areas where ATVS and motorbikes are allowed."

On the Coeur d´Alene River Ranger District, another hot spot for motorized vehicle issues, District Ranger Joe Stringer was near the forefront of a national trend with a 2001 policy that prohibits motorized travel off designated roads or trails. Forests in Montana and North Dakota made similar policies in 1999.

"We have good relationships with many of the motorized user groups, who help us with trail maintenance or many routes wouldn´t be open," said Stringer. "But a lot of trails are being created in sensitive areas."

The Spokane-based Lands Council has filed a legal challenge to the travel plan, saying the district doesn´t have enough environmental documentation for its road-management policies. "They should have done an (environmental impact statement) before opening hundreds of miles of roads for ATV access," said Karen Lindholdt, The Lands Council spokeswoman.

Stringer said he could not comment on the lawsuit, but he has had to respond to off-road vehicle enthusiasts who cite his statistics in their objections to losing national forest access.

"They see the roads available to them have been reduced from 6,300 to 1,184 miles and they cry foul," he said. But most of those roads were constructed for timber harvest during the 40s, 50s and 60s, he added, and they were not designed for use after the sales. Many are already closed by overgrowth of brush and trees.

"Five or more roads might be run parallel to each other up a hillside," he said. "I don´t feel they need to have access every 500 feet up a hillside."

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