Oregon

Jonathan Frochtzwajg

The Mount Hood National Forest has released a plan that substantially reduces how much of the forest is open to off-highway vehicles (OHVs) in an effort to mitigate the vehicles’ impact on the environment and the forest’s so-called “quiet users.”

Previously, OHVs were allowed anywhere they weren’t prohibited by posting – including on more than 2,300 miles of road. The new plan inverts that rule, permitting the vehicles only in four areas – including 146 miles of road – designated for their use on a map.

I applaud the U.S. Forest Service decision to restrict off-highway vehicles to four designated playgrounds on Mount Hood. While this creates what I consider to be an overly generous number of trails for a user group that comprises less than 1 percent of forest visitors, it does limit OHVs to areas of high current use and restricts them from many sensitive areas in the forest.

I regularly visit Mount Hood to hike, bird-watch, practice animal tracking, and learn about our abundant native plants and fungi. These recreational pursuits are destroyed by the proximity of OHVs and the creation of new motorized trails. The opposite, of course, is not true: The activities of a birder in the forest do not ruin the experience of an off-roader nearby.

Eric Mortenson

The Mount Hood National Forest will severely limit off-road vehicles in the woods under a decision announced this week. Responding to a Forest Service directive to get a handle on the noise, damage and intrusive nature of four-wheel-drive rigs and dirt bikes in the nation's forests, Mount Hood is limiting drivers to four areas.

The Mount Hood plan prohibits cross-country travel and restricts off-highway vehicles, or OHVs, to 146 miles of roads and trails within the sprawling forest, which covers parts of Clackamas, Hood River, Wasco and Multnomah counties, and small portions of Marion and Jefferson counties. Previously, the forest operated on an "open unless posted closed" policy and off-roaders had access to nearly 2,500 miles of roads and trails.

Ryan Cronk

Over Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Forest Service completed sound monitoring tests for off-highway vehicles in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, resulting in data that showed 50 percent of users were above the 93-decibels noise limit.

With many Florence residences in earshot of OHV riders, it was natural that excessive noise levels, coupled with enforcement issues, were the main concerns introduced at last month’s OHV Designated Routes Working Group meeting.

Nicole Plascencia

COOS COUNTY, Ore.- As part of a project to designate off-highway vehicle riding area in the dunes as called for in the 1994 Oregon Dunes National Recreation Management Plan, a working group is getting together this week in an effort to make progress in designating those riding areas.

Saturday at the North Bend Public Library will be the third meeting in a series of 6 aimed at bringing a working group together to designate OHV riding trails.

TILLAMOOK, Ore. -- The driver in an off-road vehicle crash that killed two people and seriously injured two others has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and will lose his driver's license for eight years.

Tillamook County Circuit Court Judge Rick Roll on Tuesday sentenced David Rieman of Yacolt, Wash. Rieman earlier pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, assault and drunken driving.

Seven people who were found illegally operating their All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) on Longview Timber Company during archery season near Silverton in September 2009 have pleaded guilty in Marion County Justice Court.

In September 2009 an Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division trooper responded to complaints from archery hunters regarding a group of five people operating ATVs on Longview Timber property.

Two groups of people who rode their all-terrain vehicles on private property near Silverton entered guilty pleas in Marion County court today to trespassing.

The seven defendants were riding their ATVs on property owned by Longview Timber Co. last September during archery season. Longview Timber prohibits ATV use on its property year-round.

Paul Fattig

MEDFORD — The U.S. Forest Service will make 3,176 miles of roads available for the mixed use of highway-legal and off-highway motorized vehicles in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

The long-awaited travel management plan decision released Wednesday also includes 230 miles of trails that can be used by OHV riders, out of the roughly 1,200 miles of trails in the forest.