Washington

David Lester

YAKIMA, Wash. -- What happens when two opposing views use the same argument to support their position?

That is what likely will unfold when Yakima County commissioners finally take up a controversial proposal on off-road vehicles -- dirt bikes, four-wheelers, four-wheel-drive vehicles and snowmobiles -- that would allow their use virtually throughout unincorporated Yakima County without regulation.

The ORV issue is causing much light and heat as the hearing approaches, and the arguments center on property rights.

Mary Swift

The message on the sign posted by the U.S. Forest Service on Deer Gulch Road near Liberty is clear.

"This mixed-use road is open to ATVs on a trail run," the sign says. Then it lays down the rules: Stay on the designated road, no cross country (leaving the roadway travel). Respect private land and other forest users.

Bethany Overland

OLYMPIA — Lawmakers in Olympia are working on three bills that would stiffen rules for off-roading on public lands, including one bill aimed at curbing damage to sensitive nature areas.
Destructive off-roading south of Wenatchee two years ago ripped up underground springs in the Stemilt Basin and damaged intakes used by the Wenatchee Heights Reclamation District. The riders turned Orr Creek meadow into a mudhole.
Wildlife officers at the time called it the most egregious act of nature destruction they’ve ever seen by off-road vehicles.

CHEHALIS, Wash. -- A Centralia man has been charged with vehicular homicide and three counts of reckless endangerment in an off-road vehicle accident that resulted in the death of a 2-year-old boy.

Benjamin E. Jones appeared in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday to hear the charges. His arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 5 and he remained free after posting $25,000 bail.

The Washington State Patrol alleges the 41-year-old Jones was drunk Saturday night when he lost control of a 1987 Suzuki Samurai while driving it on muddy trails in a field near Centralia. It slid down an embankment and landed on its top in Big Hanaford Creek, ejecting Jones and four children.

Two-year-old Bo Workman was found unconscious more than an hour later in water downstream and was later pronounced dead. The other occupants - a 6-year-old boy and girls ages 16 and 4 - had minor injuries. Jones was a friend of the toddler's family.

Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_orv_death.html

A 36-year-old Seabeck man who told deputies he was out for a walk in the woods was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of illegally cutting down maple trees, drug possession and illegal possession of a firearm.

A Kitsap County sheriff's deputy received a call about someone cutting trees on University of Washington property in the Pioneer Road area of Seabeck.

PORT ORCHARD - A 53-year-old man suspected of striking a 10-year-old boy with an ATV while the boy was sledding told investigators he fled the scene because he "freaked out," court documents said.

Peter Michael Ohman, 53, was charged Wednesday with a hit and run crash resulting in injury. When deputies tracked Ohman down with the help of witnesses at the scene, two hours and 20 minutes later, he was suspected of being drunk. Blood samples were taken for testing, but the results won't be available for at least two months.

External combustion in our forests is bad enough. There’s certainly no need for any increase in internal combustion.

As Erik Robinson reported in Saturday’s Columbian, dozens of off-road vehicle enthusiasts from Oregon and Southwest Washington rallied outside the Gifford Pinchot National Forest headquarters in Vancouver on Friday. Members of the Gifford Pinchot Off-Highway Vehicle Alliance (GPOHVA) carried signs with messages such as “This is not the Queen’s Forest.” We’re glad that all they got for their efforts, apparently, was a plate of cookies from Acting Forest Supervisor Lynn Burditt. What the protesters really wanted, though, was an increase in trails available to internal-combustion engines in the 1.37 million-acre forest.

David Lester

A proposal that would relax current restrictions on off-road vehicle use in Yakima County has been delayed.

The proposed amendment to the Yakima County zoning ordinance on ORV use will get a hearing before county commissioners in 2009, said Vern Redifer, director of Public Services for the county.

Becky Kramer

Off-road vehicles have lost their free ride on Ferry County's roadways.

Two ordinances that allowed off-road vehicle traffic on many of the northeastern Washington county's rural roads were overturned by a Spokane County Superior Court judge. In a ruling last week, Judge Michael Price said some of the roads opened to ORV use failed to meet the state's criteria: They didn't create direct routes between cities of less than 3,000 people and designed off-road recreation areas.