Winter Travel Management
Snowmobiling on national forest public land has expanded over the last 50 years, generally without any environmental analysis of the impact that unregulated motorized recreation in the backcountry would have on wildlife, vegetation, water, air, and other visitors. As a result of two lawsuits, the United States Forest Service agreed to undertake winter travel management on five California forests.
Planning for the management of over snow vehicle (OSV) travel was started in late 2014 for Eldorado, Stanislaus, Tahoe, Plumas and Lassen National Forests. Planning has been completed for three of those forests: Stanislaus, Lassen, and Tahoe. The OSV projecs for the other two forests have been put on hold temporarily because of the lack of personnel and priority of recovering from serious wildfires. Planning projects for Inyo NF and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit have since begun, but are years away from completion.
A statement of Snowlands Network objectives in the winter travel management process
This paper outlines Snowlands’ objectives to promote and increase non-motorized recreation opportunity with little impact on most existing over-snow motorized recreation. Our position will not only better serve the public who recreates on public lands, but also benefit the economies of many local communities that increasingly depend on recreational tourism.
A framework for analyzing OSV impacts to non-motorized recreation
This framework discusses snowmobile impacts and discusses a framework for understanding user interests and user conflicts. The framework analyzes three activities engaged in by both non-motorized users (skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers) and snowmobile riders:
- Trail Touring
- Backcountry Exploring
- Alpine
Future position and comment papers will debunk certain misrepresentations commonly made by advocates for increased motorized recreation, outline issues and impacts to be considered in the winter travel management process and detail Snowlands’ proposed alternatives for each of the forests. We will post these papers here as they are published.
Management restrictions
A variety of management restrictions can be employed to address specific conflicts in the winter travel management process. The use of a variety of restrictions may be initially confusing, but allows the Forest Service to minimize conflicts while imposing the least set of restrictions. We discuss the general types of restrictions below and through the menu on the left separately discuss unique considerations pertinent to each forest.
Complete closure
Complete closure of areas to motorized use is the most restrictive measure, but necessary to the backcountry touring and alpine types of activities in areas that may develop a modest or high degree of use. In some cases, a designated snowmobile route may be permitted through such an area.
Prohibition of OSV cross-country travel
Prohibition of OSV cross-country travel; i.e. restriction of OSVs to designated routes, is appropriate to separate motorized and non-motorized uses where the primary motorized activity is Trail Touring. Non-motorized users are not similarly restricted to designated routes because they do not have the same level of impact as motorized users.
BAT restrictions
BAT restrictions restricts motorized use to vehicles employing Best Available Technology.
BAT snowmobiles have significantly lower impacts. They emit lesser amounts of toxic pollutants, including noise. BAT machines are well-suited to trail touring and backcountry exploring activities but generally lack the ultra-high power to weight ratios necessary for aggressive Slope Riding.
In particular, BAT restrictions can significantly reduce conflicts in areas used by both motorized and non-motorized users for Trail Touring. BAT restrictions also reduce general environmental impacts of snowmobiles and are also important for areas of increased environmental sensitivity.
BAT restrictions have been used successfully to reduce snowmobile impacts in Yellowstone National Park. There is precedent for the Forest Service to distinguish between vehicles based on emissions, noise and power in extensive Forest Service regulations restricting watercraft. There is also precedent for distinguishing between 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines in the ban on older technology personal watercraft established by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Temporal Restrictions
Shared use of forest lands can also be facilitated by limiting the period in which motorized use can occur. Such restrictions can be applied on a day of the week basis or otherwise. In the Chugach National Forest, snowmobile use is managed through alternative year restrictions. Temporal restrictions can be crafted in many ways and have been successful in facilitating many types of shared use in popular areas.
Separate trailheads
Separate trailheads for motorized and non-motorized users reduces some impacts of OSVs and facilitates shared use in areas where some type of shared use is necessary, in particular where both sets of users share an extensive trail network.
Separate trails
Separate trails for non-motorized use has minimal impact in reducing conflicts unless OSV riders are also restricted to designated routes. It is the minimal restriction necessary in areas of infrequent use, where shared use is feasible without greater restrictions.
Ideas with regard to specific alternatives that utilize some or all of these techniques in each of the national forests are being developed.
For questions and answers about the lawsuit and the winter travel management process, click here.