ORVs Category

Over the July 4th holiday (and some days after), a large group of people rented out the Bitterroot National Forest's East Fork Guard Station and caused an incident with forest officials. During the time they were up there a few motorcycle riders rode cross-country off the nearby Needle Creek trail #434 (the trail is in an official Roadless Area).

The damage was witnessed by a recreational stock user and reported to Tip-Montana, who contacted Bitterroot law enforcement. When the ORV ranger went to investigate the incident the group renting out the cabin, with former Stevensville Senator Fred Thomas as the main perpetrator, drove him off with verbal assaults. The federal official came back with agency law enforcement, a deputy country sheriff and Thomas was allegedly issued a citation for interference, but the group was allowed to remain at the cabin.

Details about the incident, including what damage the motorcyclists were actually cited for, remains unclear due to the Forest Service’s refusal to release any information. When asked about the incident Supervisor Dave Bull responded,

“There was an incident involving off road motorized vehicles in the area around the East Fork Cabin on Sunday, July 6. A Forest Service law enforcement officer was contacted by TipMont and the Bitterroot National Forest's OHV Ranger was contacted by private citizens in the area. Our OHV Ranger made the initial contact with the group. A subsequent contact with the group was made by two Forest Service law enforcement officers and a Ravalli County deputy sheriff. A federal citation was issued for resource damage. The responsible parties will rehab the disturbed areas. Other aspects of the incident are still under investigation, and I cannot provide you with any further details at this time.”

It remains unclear what damage was actually cited, the impacts around the rented cabin or those witnessed in the Needle Creek IRA. Additionally, eyewitnesses and the stock user were reluctant to speak with reporters for fear of retribution by local motorized users in an area commonly called “Bonanza Lands.” Residents here are supposedly known for their reclusive and sometimes hostile nature.

Since the Forest Service was not forthcoming with details, and pictures of the damage were unavailable, I went out on July 12th to investigate the illegal use. Once there I found several places where single track routes leave the main trail, and also where motorized use widened corners on the main trail. Additionally, there were no trail markers or Wilderness boundary signs, in fact without a GPS device it is difficult to tell which portion of the trail you are on as it moves from the motorized to non-motorized designation. Below are photos from the area.

The Montana Wildlife Federation ran a two part series in their last newsletters detailing how motorized use can spoil hunting opportunities and chase big game onto private land where hunters cannot follow.

In Part 1, MWF identified four categorical issues, in addition to habit damage and impacts to wildlife, that continue to be significant in Montana: user behavior; user education; the inability of agencies to enforce regulations due to the lack of manpower and funding; and the lack of regulations or laws governing ORV uses while hunting.

Part II looks more closely at possible state regulatory solutions including more involvement from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission.

You can read both these articles by following the links below:

 Part I: http://www.montanawildlife.com/publications/archives/Feb2008Lead.doc

 Part II: http://www.montanawildlife.com/projectsissues/bighornriver.htm

Jeffery St. Claire, author of Red State Rebels, has a great post today on his blog of the same name. His article, Wasting the Wayne, Ohio’s Only National Forest, covers a report by the regional forest protection organization Heartwood. The report concludes that "the Forest Service’s 15-year management plan for southern Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) ––Ohio’s only national forest––does not maximize net public benefits as required by law."

St. Claire also focuses on what the report says about the Forest Service's off-road vehicle management plans. Good stuff:

Air pollution in the region, including particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrous oxides (NOx), will also be increased by the Plan’s proposed expansion of Off-road Vehicle (ORV) trails by up to 125 miles. The Forest Service plans to expand the ORV trail system in an attempt to decrease unmanaged ORV activity, identified as a major threat to National Forests by USDA’s 2004 National Strategic Plan.

“The Forest Service expects to spend over $3 million on new ORV trails. Many of these new ORV miles could be converted from illegal trails. So the Forest Service will reward illegal activity at great public expense and with no clear public benefit,” Mark Donham, Heartwood Program Director, noted. “The Forest Service admits that it can’t even adequately monitor existing trails. It also provides no data to show that converting illegal to legal trails actually decreases illegal activity,” he added.

ORVs are banned from the Monongahela (WV), Hoosier (IN) and Shawnee (IL) National Forests. The study provides extensive data on the higher popularity and greater economic value of other recreational activities in the Wayne, including nature viewing, hiking, sightseeing, and picnicking. Since these activities are largely incompatible with ORV use, the Plan harms rather than benefits the region economically by favoring ORVs over these more environmentally benign and more popular activities.

I stumbeled across the article below in the most recent issue of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers journal. The entire journal is online in PDF format, but I've reproduced the article here to encourage more folks to read it. The author, Mark Clifford, was born and raised in northern California and completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Pathology at the University of California, Davis. His passions include hunting, fishing and habitat conservation.

Off-Highway Vehicle Abuse Can Ruin the Hunt

By Mark Clifford, California

This past archery season I found that my childhood hunting area had been spoiled by thoughtless riders on off-highway vehicles. My brother and I have hiked and hunted this steep and rugged terrain on and off for the past 20 years, always enjoying the solitude and challenge. In just one afternoon the individual on the off-highway vehicle had impacted the habitat more than our 20 years of hiking and hunting.

The "hill" as we called it, is located along the edge of the Shasta Valley. The foothills are covered with acorn-rich oak trees, dense manzanita and buck brush, and as you climb higher these species give way to dense stands of pine, fir, and cedar. On different occasions we've seen owls, bobcats, black bears, turkeys, squirrels, foxes, skunks, quail, rabbits, badgers, snakes, vultures, coyotes, plenty of blacktail deer and have also found fresh mountain lion kills. We've put some nice bucks in the freezer...but you've got to hunt hard.

Going up there this past August, I found that someone on an off-highway motorcycle had mangled the trails and cut trees and bushes just to get to the summit—a place where we've been going on foot since we were children. This is the same story that you'll hear all across the West. Off-highway vehicle abuse is directly impacting land and water habitat, compromising our fishing and hunting opportunities. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't be allowed to have their fun off-road, but no one has the right to damage our publicly owned National Forests. In a perfect world we could trust individuals to use common sense and good ethics, but it seems like these days even sportsmen are running rough shod over game habitat. Why would we desecrate the very habitat on which our game species rely?

As published by Trout Unlimited (Public Lands Initiative) the roadless backcountry is where Idaho's biggest mule deer bucks and bull elk are found, and of the remaining 7% of Idaho's healthy native bull trout populations, 87% of these are in roadless areas. Like many states in the West, even the populous State of California is blessed with large tracts of public lands available for public use and for the protection of animal habitat.

For some time it appeared that hunters and anglers were stuck in the middle between groups that want to destroy habitat, and groups that want to ban hunting and erase the Second Amendment. Conservation-minded sportsmen had little representation, despite the large number of Americans who do consider themselves sportsmen and women (34 million Americans went fishing or hunting in 2006).

Thankfully today there are groups working for solutions like BHA and Trout Unlimited As stated by Theodore Roosevelt, "I recognize the rights and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize a right to waste them or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us".

Apparently, some pro-ATV provincial officials in Canada used state funds to purchase some kiddie ATVs and the resulting controversy has stirred a call for a wider investigation of how all ATV-related regulations are being implemented. The retired journalist who penned this guest editorial in a Halifax newspaper suggests that the Department of Natural Resources is getting pressured to forestall ORV route closures. Perhaps this points to a need to initiate a similar investigation in the Western US.

The Forest Service recently added 47 miles of designated ORV trails to the Ocala National Forest, with a speed limit of 20 m.p.h. While I don't support the addition of more motorized miles to the current system, I did find a quote from Ranger Rick Lint interesting. "Our mission is to provide trails that encourage study and enjoyment of nature, highlight the importance of conservation, provide for scenic and visual enjoyment -- that doesn't sound like racing or high-challenge recreation," Lint said. "If you're coming here for that, it's a little like going to a hardware store for a hamburger. You're not going to find a golf course here either."

I can only hope that Ranger Lint's perspective that our national forests are not for thrill seekers, but for those coming to appreciate nature, will spread through the Forest Service. I would also hope that sentiment would lead to a decreased number of motorized trails and roads, since those trying to appreciate nature in a quiet way are getting relegated to ever smaller allotments of land and motorized recreation has an ever larger impact on the nature people come to enjoy.

Click here for the full article in the Orlando Sentinel.

While the Deep Creek Drainage on the outskirts of Missoula, MT is closed to off-road vehicles, it receives a great deal of off-road vehicle use, mainly from ATVs and dirt bikes. The majority of the users park and unload their machines at the Deep Creek Bridge, and from there, they either remain in the local vicinity, riding up and down the creek bed itself and across Harper’s Bridge fishing site, or they climb up to the ridge top and access the backcountry. From there, they access USFS lands in two different districts closed to motorized vehicles, trespass on private property, or ride directly behind—and in one case straight through—the Deep Creek Shooting Range. As is typical, they don’t stay on the roads or trails, but high mark and hill climb whenever the terrain provides opportunity.

Last summer Deep Creek residents contacted Wildlands CPR seeking help in dealing with this persistent and growing problem. We provided several recommendations based on our "Six Strategies for Success: Effective Enforcement of Off-Road Vehicle Use on Public Lands," and local residents set their sights on stopping the on-going abuse.

Working with county officials, and with the cooperation of the Plum Creek Timber Co., the Deep Creek residents won a great victory when county law enforcement officials turned away over a dozen off-roaders who expected to ride illegally in the area. The increased attention and enforcement by the officials show that locals can band together and have a real effect in beginning to control the wide-spread off-road vehicle abuse.

To read more on this story click the links below:

Missoulian -"County turning away ATV riders in Deep Creek area"

KPAX Missoula - "Missoula officials bust illegal ATV riding"

The Alamagordo Daily News published an article today on off-road vehicle conflicts with New Mexico's traditional ranching culture, as well as other lower-impact land users. "NM Tradition Clashes With Off-Road Users on Public Land," quotes ranchers and residents of the Glorieta Mesa area on the impacts they have seen from ORV use.

"What we’ve witnessed with the four-wheelers, the ATVs, the motorcycles…you can go out there right now, you can find human waste, toilet paper, bags of garbage, trash, bottle piles, can piles, you can see where they have girdled the cottonwood trees that survive in this ecosystem outhere and leave 'em to die and come back again and use ‘em for firewood. With the higher-powered machines that they have now…they didn’t used to be so high power, but now they’ll leave strips for hundreds of yards where they completely tear out every bit of vegetation that they come across. And this is a desert area, it takes years and years for that stuff to even think about trying to grow back.

 

"They have caused a lot of problems...people would like to get out and enjoy this peaceful and quiet beauty. But they have no noise restrictions on the machines that they bring out here, you can hear them for miles. There’sat times up to a hundred individual camps..."

 

"We live here, so we know where they’re coming from. Colorado has put a lot of restrictions on what trails people can use, the places they can go, making sure they’re licensed, so on and so forth. The BLM from Utah funnels ‘em out here, I guess because it’s far enough from Moab that they’re not concerned about it... They buy all their gas in Colorado, they buy all their groceries, everything. They don’t make one dime’s worth of investment here in this area. They come out here, ride around, tear things up, do whatever they want, leave their garbage, and then go home."

 

“I would say the damages are long-term. They've killed a lot of the trees. They ride up and down everywhere they can, so nothing can grow or hold like it used to. It's totally different than it used to be. I flew over the the wash at Easter, and I almost cried. I'd ridden that thing on horseback my whole life, but it just looked like a spiderweb of trails. I could not believe it. Trails everywhere, weaving in and out all through that rough country. It just looked like a maze. Where are the bighorn sheep going to go? I haven't seen the bighorns there for two years. You used to be able to go to Busted Butte and see the bighorns, every time."

 

“We've had them run cows to death while they're calving, and we lose the cow and the calf. You can't keep cows in the wash at all—the ATVs run 'em out. No way. The best springs in our whole permit are in that wash.”“The local law enforcement agencies complain that they don’t have enough manpower to police the areas surrounding Moab. People know that when they come out into this beautiful desert. You’ll see trails running right around those 'restricted area' markers. You’ll see the signs pulled out, or run over. If they try to keep people from running up and down a hill , the hill next to it will be all torn up. You can’t afford to let them to do that. If we do, it’s going to be a big mistake for this area."

Starting Monday and ending on Friday, KPAX TV News (Ch 8 - Missoula) has been running a series highlighting issues surrounding off-road vehicle use. View the first three segments here: http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/category.asp?C=137562

Monday’s segment featured disabled, retired police officer Bill Burgund who was struck by a speeding ATV on a closed road. See http://quietusecoalition.org/stories/atv-hit-and-run-sparks-community-support-r Tuesday’s segment focused on the motorized users. Wednesday’s segment featured back country horsewoman Kathy Huntley, hunter Greg Munther and local landowner Mary Stromberg. Friday's final segment will focus on the Forest Service’s viewpoint. (There is no episode Thursday).

To view the final episode Friday night, go to the KPAX website at 10 p.m. http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/global/category.asp?c=50436

Look under the "Top News" box, click the 10:00 news camera icon.

What was supposed to be a brisk, weekend outing turned into a disappointment when hikers reached the top of Red Pryor Mt.and found monster trucks churning up the wet ground; none of the trucks had license plates. A letter by one of the hikers written to the Forest Service explained:

"[m]y concern in reporting our sighting is that these vehicles appear to be capable of traveling almost anywhere on the Big Pryor/Red Pryor mountain block and to be quite damaging to existing roads and areas that are currently roadless. The trucks are highly modified with large tires (tractor tires in one case) and with shortened wheelbases. On the day of our hike, the top of the mountain was snow-covered and the vehicles appeared to stay mostly on the road or on the snow. However, a return visit to Red Pryor yesterday (May 13) revealed many more tracks; a steep slope on the southeast side of Red Pryor Mountain had obviously been used for a hillclimb on a large snowdrift and in places the trucks had clearly been traveling off the snow and off the road. Their tracks were also plainly visible in many places (particularly in the soft Amsden “red beds”) on the mountain access road (Red Pryor Mountain Road), 10 days after their visit."

The response from the Acting Beartooth District Ranger was to call a law enforcement officer (LEO) on the adjacent Gallatin NF because the Custer NF's LEO position will be vacant through the summer.

The Pryors Coalition will be following up on this incident and monitoring the area duringthe summer. To learn more about them please visit http://www.pryormountains.org/.