Snowlands has been following the progress of the Eldorado National Forest's TMP (Travel management Plan) for some time. Despite its apparent focus on ORV use (snowmobiles are not included in the ORV definition for this plan), in fact the plan will affect early and late season recreation.
A strong stand today tells your local Forest that you care about noise, pollution, misuse and overuse, no matter what the season!Sacrameno Bee Editorial, March 22, 2008"Covering nearly 600,000 acres in the Sierra above Sacramento, the Eldorado National Forest is a weekend getaway for millions of people every year. But this national forest is much more than a playground."
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Press Release dated April 1, 2008ELDORADO FOREST TRAIL PLAN WOULD LEGALIZE VEHICLES IN MEADOWS, STREAMS, HIKING TRAILS
Conservationists seek tougher plan to protect prime fishing, camping areas, and hike/bike/horse trails
PLACERVILLE, CALIF. - The U.S. Forest Service today unveiled a plan to designate more than 1,847 miles of roads and trails for use by vehicles in the Sierra Nevada's Eldorado National Forest.
By limiting vehicles to designated routes, this action will end three decades of unmanaged off-road vehicle recreation that has increased soil compaction and erosion, increased stream sedimentation, reduced water quality, spread of noxious weeds, increased fire risk, damaged cultural resources, increased disturbance to sensitive wildlife. However, the plan would legalize numerous problem routes, and it may not go far enough to protect forest resources and traditional outdoor recreation by the majority of forest users.
As part of a national mandate to designate ORV routes on the National Forests, Eldorado Forest Supervisor Ramiro Villalvazo unveiled his plan this week. While the plan makes a long-overdue effort to keep ORVs to designated routes, it falls short of protecting the forest for the majority of us who like to hike, backpack, camp and otherwise visit the forest to experience the natural landscapes without noise and pollution.
The Eldorado National Forest provides clean drinking water, fish and wildlife, and outdoor recreation such as hiking, biking, fishing, and camping for millions in the greater Sacramento-Tahoe region. These irreplaceable assets are rapidly being degraded by off-road machines, such as ATVs and dirt bikes, that increase in number, power, and intrusion into the forest with each passing year.
"Restricting ORVs to designated routes is a huge step in the right direction. However, the Eldorado chose the alternative with the highest route mileage," said Karen Schambach of Georgetown's Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation. "So we will be looking at their analysis very carefully, to make sure they didn't sacrifice resource protection and traditional recreation in favor of hard-core off-roading."
Off-road vehicle users are a small minority - the Forest Service estimates that 93 percent of forest visitors nationally do not use ORVs - yet they have a disproportionately large "footprint" of pollution, damage to soils, streams, and trails, and noise that disrupts wildlife and traditional outdoor recreation.
What's good about this route plan?
- Vehicles will be limited to designated routes only (this is being required nationally)
- Parking will be allowed only one vehicle length from the road
- Caples Creek proposed wilderness will be free of vehicle routes.
What's wrong with the plan?
- Most watersheds would have a high density of roads and ORV trails, polluting water supplies and disrupting wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.
- Designates miles of ORV trails in sensitive meadows ecosystems.
- Wet-season closures Jan-March are based on extreme drought years, not normal precipitation - closures are too short to protect roads, trails and streams in normal years.
- Motorcycles would be legalized on the most popular hiking trail on the Georgetown Ranger District: Hunters Trail in the Rubicon River canyon. This is a violation of Forest Service direction to minimize conflicts with non-motorized forest users.
- Eldorado officials are treating R mile as sufficient distance to provide "quiet recreation" even though the Forest Service's own studies show dirt bikes can be heard for more than 1 mile.
As development brings more people to the Eldorado National Forest with more demand for larger, more powerful ORVs, the Forest faces lasting damage. Unless we have more controlled access of ORVs and better enforcement of these controls, Schambach said, the quiet, pristine forests we value could slowly disappear. Striking a balance means setting reasonable limits: what's needed is a plan that protects large segments of the forest that are off-limits to the noise, air, and water pollution caused by off-road machines.
"I'm part of the 93 percent of forest visitors who do not use off-highway vehicles. I'm a quiet user," said Monte Hendricks of Pollock Pines, a local angler and backcountry skier. "When I'm fly-fishing a stream, probably no other forest visitor knows I am there, but I can hear the ORVs coming for miles. Every year there are more ORVs on trails where they don't belong or off the trails entirely."
"We want the Forest Service to take a tough approach that allows some reasonable OHV access, but bars these machines from our streams and meadows, from the wild backcountry and roadless areas, and from the hiking, biking, horse and ski trails in the forest."
Everyone deserves access to the forest, conservationists agree, but ORV use should be separate from the places that the majority of visitors use to escape noise and pollution.
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