Virginia

Diane Tennant

In the middle of a two-lane bridge over the Roanoke River Gorge, Roger Holnback stopped the car and got out.

"I want you to see this," he said.

U.S. Forest Service officials are seeking public input on a new management plan for the George Washington National Forest.

The revised blueprint will guide how the 1.1 million-acre forest is used for the next 15 years. It will address logging and other commercial uses, recreation, road and trail building, drinking-water protection and preservation of the forest's more pristine areas.

Rusty Dennen

A picture of how Fredericksburg's vast swath of riverfront easement land should be used--or left alone--is beginning to emerge.

A committee will unveil a draft watershed management plan Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. at the University of Mary Washington's Jepson Center. It will outline how the property will be managed for access, recreation and wildlife, and the public will get another chance to weigh in.

David Tate

Botetourt Co., VA - The region's only public ATV trail system in the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest has been closed indefinitely.

Forest Rangers blame the closure on adverse trail conditions.

Laurence Hammack

The U.S. Forest Service has closed an ATV trail system in Botetourt County, where erosion caused by four-wheeling has created high levels of sediment in nearby streams.

After completing water-quality monitoring, the Forest Service decided to close indefinitely the Patterson Mountain ATV Trail System, a 16-mile network that consists of a main route and 10 side trails.

Hannah Moulton Belec

In the winter issue of Trout, David Hart wrote about TU’s conservation work in the Shenandoah Headwaters, fragile brook trout habitat in western and southern Virginia. One of the tributaries Hart reported on was Dry River near Harrisonburg, Va., which has had issues with off-road vehicles carving out illegal trails and, unbelievably, driving across and in the riverbed itself. Check out these amazingly disturbing videos of off-road vehicle users proudly driving through trout streams.

Holly Prestidge

High school public-announcement systems. Barking dogs. Dirt bikes. Motorcycles.

Some or all of these have generated complaints from Hanover County residents about excessive noise.

Catherine Kozak

A protective sea turtle closure in Cape Hatteras National Seashore was vandalized last week, according to a news release from the National Park Service.

The incident was discovered Thursday morning about two-tenths of a mile northeast of Ramp 49 in an area open to off-road vehicle traffic, the statement said.

Catherine Kozak

Two beach closures that protect nesting shorebirds from off-road vehicle and pedestrian traffic were vandalized over the weekend, the National Park Service Outer Banks Group said Monday .

Under the terms of a court-sanctioned agreement, buffers around the enclosures on the beach near Ramp 23 and Ramp 27 were automatically expanded 50 meters, according to a news release. At Ramp 23, just south of Salvo, a barricade closing the ramp to ORVs was broken and tossed aside, and further down the ramp, a sign was damaged. On the beach at Ramp 27, near Avon, a vehicle ran through fencing, broke signs and entered two different resource protection areas.