New travel plan for Bitterroot National Forest delayed

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Written by Associated Press   
Tuesday, June 01, 2010

HAMILTON - The Bitterroot National Forest travel plan, which could further restrict motorized travel, will be delayed at least until fall, according to the Forest Service.

Those representing both motorized and non-motorized users said the delay is just fine, with both sides saying they want to make sure the Forest Service does the job right.

"We don't have any problem with the delay," said Dan Thompson of the Ravalli County Off-Road Users Association. "We always thought the timeframe was kind of short anyway. ... We don't want them to force anything to meet an artificial Washington, D.C.-imposed deadline."

The travel management plan details where motorized recreation is allowed on the 1.6 million-acre national forest. The last time the Bitterroot National Forest completed a forest-wide update was in 1976.

The agency held public meetings beginning in 2007, and released a draft plan in 2009 which proposed closing some trails currently open to motorized travel.

"It's the most complicated project that I've ever worked on," said Chris Fox, the Bitterroot National Forest's north zone ID team leader. "We're talking about hundreds of miles of road and trails, some of which has been used by people for generations. Based on resource concerns and other factors, we may be changing the use on some of those. ... The social issues are major."

While off-road users oppose proposed trail closures, others worry about a proposal to open closed roads to motorized trail use.

"That is one of our concerns," said Adam Rissien of Wildlands CPR. "Managing a road as a trail can create its own set of problems. If it looks like a road, acts like a road, then it should be managed as a road."

The agency said it is sifting through more than 3,400 comments it received on a draft of the plan released last summer.

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Source: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_bab826ca-6d75-11df-8a70-001cc4c03286.html


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