Topic: Eldorado NF closed this summer

[BrotherGrim]

Press release from ENF:
Court Order Prohibits Motorized Vehicle Travel on 42 Popular OHV Routes
Release Date: Apr 4, 2012   Placerville, CA
Contact(s): Frank Mosbacher

Forty-two off-highway-vehicle routes that cross meadows in the Eldorado National Forest may be closed to motor vehicle travel this recreation season while the Forest Service completes an environmental analysis, announced Eldorado National Forest Supervisor Kathy Hardy.
The potential travel prohibitions are the result of a February 2012 court order by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton. The order said the Forest Service failed to comply with the National Forest Management Act in 2008 when it designated “open for public motor vehicle use” portions of 42 routes that cross meadows. Judge Karlton ordered the Forest Service to “set aside” the decision that designated these segments as open and to reconsider the decision.
A final court order with further direction to the Forest Service is pending. In the interim, Karlton ordered the 42 routes remain closed to motorized public use. The final order will identify specifically where travel will be prohibited until a new environmental decision is made.
“I know that prohibiting travel on these routes will be a big disappointment to forest visitors, but we have to be responsive to the order.” said Hardy. “I have a team of people lined up to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement as quickly as possible.”
The SEIS is scheduled to begin in April or May 2012 and to be completed by April 2013.
Hardy says many popular high county routes may be affected by the closure. Some of these routes include: Barrett Lake Jeep Trail; Squaw Ridge Four Wheel Drive Trail; Clover Valley/ Deer Valley Trail; Strawberry Four Wheel Drive Trail; Carson Emigrant Trail; Allen’s Camp Motorcycle Trail and the Bucks Pasture Motorcycle Trail. The Rubicon 4wd Trail is not affected by this court order.
 Maps and a complete list of the routes affected by the court order will be posted on the Eldorado National Forest website at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/eldorado. These maps will be modified to reflect the final court order once it is received. A free-of-charge motor vehicle use map that shows the routes that are open to wheeled motor vehicle use will be available at all Eldorado National Forest offices in June 2012 reflecting the final order.
“I intend to close the routes where it makes sense to do so if the final order prohibits travel on routes that cross meadows,” said Hardy. “A route may be closed near a meadow or some distance away depending on how difficult it is to turn a vehicle around.”
Some routes will also be closed indirectly because they branch off closed routes and will not be accessible.

See more about it on Pirate4x4.com

[4RunnerChevy]

This is the face of evil, that started it.  I think she's just bitter, cause she was once married to a 4x4 enthusiast.

http://www.hcn.org/issues/188/10012/

[85-4roller]

The liberal sierra club members have infiltrated the Forrest service & the judicial system. They will not be happy until the public lands are closed to all, including,  4x4, bicycles, snowmobiles, horses & wheel chairs.
Please tell all your friends & families to consider not supporting the liberals, with their sierra club friendly agenda in the next election.
They have slowly closed many of the trails & campsites that I have been using with my family for 50 years.
Every few years there are more closures or use restrictions, this must stop or there will be nothing left.....
The future of our freedom depends on this....

Writing or e mailing the Forrest service does not work. But please keep trying......

Please tell all your friends & families to consider not supporting the liberals, with their sierra club friendly agenda in the next election. ( worth saying twice)

PLEASE VOTE

[jrock]

This is bull! I can't believe this is actually happening.

“I intend to close the routes where it makes sense to do so if the final order prohibits travel on routes that cross meadows,” said Hardy. “A route may be closed near a meadow or some distance away depending on how difficult it is to turn a vehicle around.” - Really?! We can't re-route trails around the meadows? Thats what they do with hiking trails. Hardy simpley wants people to "turn around". How about turning around and leaving things alone?

[46&2]

Some good news out of El Dorado:

http://www.laketahoenews.net/2012/04/opinion-closing-forest-roads-in-el-dorado-county-is-wrong/


Posted by admin in Voices on April 23rd, 2012 | 7 responses


Publisher’s note: On April 17 at the recommendation of Supervisors Ray Nutting and Ron Briggs, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors adopted the following public statement regarding the case of Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation v. U.S. Forest Service (E.D. Cal No. S-09-2523).

El Dorado County is dismayed to learn that the plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court in the case of Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation v. U.S. Forest Service (E.D. Cal. No. S-09-2523) have asked the court to consider the blanket closure of 42 roads in the Eldorado National Forest because those roads happen to pass through very small meadow areas. The court has ordered those roads closed until a final order has been issued, which may cause the loss of a number of the most popular recreation trails in Eldorado County for this summer season.

These roads have been in use for recreation for decades (some for a century), and provide a unique and irreplaceable opportunity for citizens to enjoy the land which they own. The court’s decision on the merits of the litigation found that the U.S. Forest Service must supplement its analysis of whether the roads crossing meadows affects the hydrology of the meadow, a process that the Forest Service estimates will take a full year, mostly because of the various procedural time limits applicable to supplemental environmental impact statements under NEPA. The 42 roads total about 120 miles in length, of which less than 5 miles involve meadow areas, and 23 out of the 42 roads involve meadow crossings of less than 300 feet.

The court has extended the normal winter closure of all 42 roads into the summer recreation season, while it considers various alternative orders it might issue to be in effect during the period while the supplemental analysis is being done. The closure of all 42 roads for an entire summer recreation season just because they happen to pass through a meadow area for a short distance would be an unnecessarily blunt remedy that fails to maintain the status quo of many years of public use on those roads, and that fails to distinguish between different roads with different circumstances. For example, the Barrett Lake Trail has been in use for decades, and over the years has been upgraded and maintained by users so it is in a better condition to sustain its popularity without degradation of the environment than many other trails in the forest. It is considered a model of user-maintained road. It has several short sections involving meadows, but in many instances it has been re-routed around the meadow and in other sections it has been improved so that any hydrological problem has been eliminated. The Barrett Lake Trail ends at Barrett Lake, so that closing it at a short meadow section anywhere along its length effectively closes it entirely. The closure of this road for an entire recreation season is simply not justified by its particular circumstances. Furthermore, the closure of some of the most popular recreational roads in the Eldorado National Forest will divert users to other trails (such as the Rubicon Trail, a public road under R.S. 2477 and thus not involved in the current litigation), potentially overburdening these other trails which are not involved in the litigation.

Most important, a blanket closure of all 42 roads fails to take into account the enormous negative economic impact this will have on El Dorado County (and the other counties affected by the closure – Amador and Alpine counties). Closure of 42 roads will discourage citizens from coming here to recreate this summer, and the resulting confusion and uncertainty will no doubt discourage recreational use of the Eldorado National Forest for subsequent seasons also. It has been estimated that vehicular recreation in the Eldorado National Forest produces a net positive economic effect estimated to exceed $2 million per year to El Dorado County. An order carefully tailored to recognize the decades of prior use of the 42 routes, which recognizes the different circumstances of particular roads among the 42 at issue, can help alleviate unnecessary damage to the local economy.

The environmental and planning laws must be honored, but in a way that is both rational and realistic, without causing unnecessary damage to a fragile economy, and without unjustified restrictions on a citizen’s right to use federal land. El Dorado County believes that the roads should be kept open for this season while the remaining environmental analysis is being performed.