SJFS finalizes motorized mecca

Off-road vehicles are getting their own playground on the San Juan National Forest. The San National Forest Service has enhanced motorized recreation opportunities in the Missionary Ridge and Middle Mountain areas.

In July of 2004, the Forest Service announced that it would be taking steps to reduce damage to public lands from off-road vehicles. The announcement came in response to huge growth in motorsports in just a few years and the appearance of more than 60,000 miles of renegade ORV trails on national forest lands throughout the nation. At the time, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth proclaimed that ORV abuse was a top threat to national forests and ordered regional and local offices to confine ORV use to designated roads and trails and prohibit cross-country travel.

San Juan National Forest took a roundabout approach to Bosworth’s order. Rather than cracking down on illegal ORV use or further policing the situation, the Forest Service set out to direct use to certain areas and create specific for off-highway vehicles.

“In 2004, the chief of the Forest Service released a travel management rule that confined motorized travel to designated routes and roads,” said Nancy Berry, recreation forester for San Juan Public Lands. “We had pods of areas where you could travel across the landscape as long as you didn’t do resource damage. Our goal was to get the use onto designated routes and keep people out of the delicate areas.”

The San Juan National Forest selected the “Lakes” area as that ORV sanctuary. The Lakes encompasses a large portion of Missionary Ridge as well as Lemon and Vallecito reservoirs and the Middle Mountain and East Florida areas. The San Juan Trail Riders, a local advocacy group for motorized users, was instrumental in spotlighting the region.

When it was announced, the approach for the Lakes landscape was hailed by a variety of users as an intelligent solution to an impasse. Trails 2000 supported the effort to concentrate ORV use on that section of Missionary Ridge, arguing it will eliminate user conflicts elsewhere in the forest.

The final regulations were released this week, along with a special order requiring motorized vehicles to stay on designated roads and trails in the Middle Mountain and East Florida areas. Per the regulations, motorized travel is now allowed only where signs have been posted indicating motorized use is appropriate. In addition, forest roads and trails open to motorized uses may be restricted to specific types of use, such as motorcycles only, vehicles less than 50 inches in width or highway-legal vehicles only.

“We tried to provide motorized opportunities, and we tried to take care of some resource concerns, including the bighorn sheep up above Tuckerville,” Berry said. “We worked to balance everything as best we could, and I think we accomplished the goal. There were no appeals of the decision, and I suppose that means that everyone is at least satisfied.”

The Forest Service is now carrying the Lakes success into another section of the forest. The agency is close to completing its review of the Beaver Meadows-Sauls Creek Landscape and has made allowances for motorized recreation there as well. The decision should be released in coming weeks.

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Source:http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/10-01-14/quick.htm

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