Forest driving wanes

Cyndy Cole

Planners with the Coconino National Forest are proposing to close about 38 percent of roads on the Coconino National Forest -- eliminating old logging roads, user-made routes and duplicative roads near streams leading to the same destinations.

This is part of a national Forest Service directive to ban most off-road driving in the 1.83-million acre forest and designate which roads will stay open.

Soil, water quality and wildlife habitat on the Coconino have been degraded by a longtime policy of allowing drivers to travel mostly wherever they want across the forest, according to the Forest Service. The exception has been wilderness areas.

The rules could go into effect in January, requiring drivers to have a free map indicating what roads are closed and which are open.

There would be no signs or physical barriers obstructing closed roads.

The map would change annually and be reprinted.

"People are going to need to get that map. That's the key," said Jim Beard, project manager.

The forest is also planning to add 25 miles of motorized trail for visitors like motorcycle riders, in addition to keeping 13,711 acres of Cinder Hills open to all-terrain vehicles.

When the Forest Service began to outline what would become off-roading and what roads were to stay open, that also led to decisions about where people can car camp and whether they can use vehicles to retrieve big game during hunting season.

Those points, along with which roads are closed, are still up for public input, but the Forest Service is leaning toward a plan that allows car camping up to 300 feet off of 628 miles of forest roads and does not allow hunters to use vehicles or all-terrain vehicles to retrieve big game.

It is considering adding 64 miles of "unauthorized" user-made roads to the open road system.

A 2005 survey estimated that 1.47 million visitors to the Coconino were there to do things not in a vehicle, like ski, ride a horse, bicycle or hike.

Another 300,000 were there primarily for all-terrain vehicle use or to drive for pleasure.

The Coconino National Forest has been working on these plans since 2005 and planned to have the most recent document released by the end of 2008.

There are rules on the books today that make it illegal to drive across a meadow, for example, and leave it deeply rutted, but enforcement is slim.

Enforcement of the new rules is also a question.

"We know that 100 percent enforcement of this is probably impossible," Beard said. "However, we think if people are informed about what the rules are, most people will comply," Beard said.

Beard and others did not recommend proposals to allow 99 miles of motorized trails, such as for motorcycles. They also set aside calls to reduce the entire road system to what the Forest Service could afford to maintain -- closing 88 percent of all the roads on the forest.

More information is expected to be posted at www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino in the coming week, under headings for "travel management."

A public comment period on these plans begins when they are published in the Federal Register.

--

Source: http://www.azdailysun.com/news/local/article_206ab5f8-ef5e-52df-94b0-e5bd80a8a48b.html

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites