Forest Service should build, not block trails

Stan Paulson

Unlike Pheasants Forever or Walleyes Unlimited, we in the ATV community tend not to have the unity that you get with being united in a club or national organization.

Don't get me wrong, there are these entities for us, but a lot of ATVers don't get involved in them.

I think this hurts us in that we don't get the good publicity that this can bring to us by doing community service projects and such.

ATV enthusiasts tend to just go out on their own to explore the forests we all consider our own, whether it be ATVer, hiker, or horse rider. Each one of these entities considers the forests their own, and would just assume the other two didn't exist.

The Forest Service's job is to please us all, which still leads to conflicts among these groups.

The main problem I see with the Rocky Mountain Division of the Lewis and Clark Forest is that of the 680,000 acres of land available, 380,000 acres is wilderness and the other 300,000 acres is for recreational use. Of that available land, I only know of one designated ATV trail that is 15 miles long.

Is this reasonable access? I don't condone off trail use but in this instance I can understand it.

I think the Forest Service can do better — especially considering the Jefferson Division of the Lewis and Clark Forest has 500-plus miles of trails.

The tendency of the Forest Service with the new travel plans is to further restrict ATV trails rather than to expand them. They have closed a lot of two track trails I love to ride and given us some roads they now call trails.

My favorite trail, the Middle Fork of the Judith, they turned into a wilderness study area.

That's what they do if they want to totally lock something up. They did this years ago in the Dillon area and have since decided it not to be wilderness, but it takes years to release the land again. It's still locked up.

I think the biggest problem with the Forest Service is that we as American citizens have no control over them.

No Forest Service official is elected. They are appointed. If we as Montanans don't like how our forests are managed, we are powerless to change it. At least we can vote in a new president or governor if we don't like their policies.

I personally think we need to increase our access in our forests for one simple reason. Our forests are dying.

All you have to do is drive up Roger's Pass to see the devastation the bark beetles are causing. Years of drought have made this issue explode.

I'm sure the Forest Service's answer for this is to let the natural cycle take its course. Is this what we want?

I foresee a catastrophic forest fire season like we have never seen before. All we need are the right conditions to start it. We need to make this a more controllable problem. It's not going to go away.

If the Forest Service spent as much money enhancing trails for all of us as they do barriers and gates to keep us out , our forests would be a better place for all of us.

Source: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/DC5/810160341

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