12 June - Last Call for Nat Forest OHV Route Designation

[psfpilot]

Folks,


We are going to go down to Hot Springs tomorrow to see what this whole thing is all about. Frankly, I haven’t been keeping up with the developments all that much, but the gist of it is that our entire National Forest/Grassland system is switching from open access for OHVs to access only on designated roads and trails. I’m going to go to the meeting in Hot Springs to see what kind of trails and routes we will be left with after it is all said and done, and to give my two bits’ of opinion regarding trail designation. Once they finish designating the trails to remain open, it will be much more difficult to beg permission to open “new” trails, even if it is a formerly well-established trail that somehow didn’t make it onto the list. It’s up to us to ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy driving our Cruisers as they were meant to be driven, and not limited to the paved highways.

I’d like trails such as the waterfall trail near Cass that Turbo Turtle led us down in May to remain open for future users.

Here is a link to the meeting info: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/doc...openhouses.doc

[psfpilot]

Here's a copy of the email I sent out on the emailing list:
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Well, it was a small open house. I think we were two of about 30-40 people that showed up throughout the four hour period. We chatted with the Forest Service folks for a few minutes, looked at a couple of maps, and drove back to Little Rock.

The Ouachita and Ozark forests are managed independently of each other, and the Ozark forest is ahead of the Ouachita forest with regard to implementing a designated road plan. Because this open house was for the Ouachita system only, we didn’t get a chance to look for the Spirit Creek trail in the Ozarks that we drove a while back with Bob. The maps of the Ouachita seemed to show most of the logging/service roads seen on a common 1:200,000 topo, with a few exceptions. It looks like a few of the roads that will be open to us will be closed to ATVs.

The one common theme from the FS folks I talked to was that this issue is coming about largely because of the rise in popularity of ATVs. Groups of them are allegedly blazing trails and driving up and down stream beds instead of directly across. The resulting erosion and sedimentation is detrimental to the life of stream dwellers such as mussels, of which we have a few threatened species here in Arkansas. Apparently riders from surrounding states where there isn’t much public land, notably Texas and Louisiana, are increasingly traveling to the national forests to recreate, and the unfettered access that we’ve enjoyed simply won’t work any longer.

I have a hard time arguing with that. We have a finite supply of land, and an increasing population. Something has to give at some point. I just hope we can work with the Forest Service to designate trails that will be pleasurable to drive while also impacting the environment at an acceptable level. I think it would be helpful for us to take a GPS and map some trails to submit to the USFS for consideration if they aren’t already on the list.

If we as a club would like to volunteer some time, I’m sure they would appreciate it.

Here is a list of suggested volunteer activities that they listed:

- Installing Signs
- Serving as a Trail Ranger
- Clearing trails of debris after storms
- Scouting and inventory of designated trails (this involves riding trails and using GPS to identify routes)
- Participating in photo inventories (this involves taking a photograph at a certain point at the same time each year to monitor site conditions)
- Other (please specify)

Here’s a link to the USFS website for both forest systems. The maps with designated trails are available on both websites. http://aokforests.com

The comment period for the Ouachitas ends June 29th, so if you don’t see “your” trail, hurry up and map it and send it in. If you need a map to send in and the ones from the website aren’t sufficient, you should be able to call them and have them mail out a free map for you to mark with your favorite trail(s) and return to them.

Regards,
Jon