It was an interesting meeting, actually more of a seminar than a meeting. Basically there were a few NFS personnel there explaining what the status of the 42 trails closed by court order is.
The Readers Digest Version:
All of the trails will retain their designation as OHV routes, with two exceptions. Both exceptions are short sections on trails I've never even heard of.
Long version;
The NFS went back and completed the SG100 portion of their study on all 42 trails and the trails remain designated OHV routes. The judge closed the trails because these studies was not completed. What SG100 does is look at the areas where trails cross meadows and determine the impact the trail has on the hydrology of the meadow. In some cases the areas shown as meadows were not in fact meadows, in others the roads were shown crossing meadows when they actually did not. In some cases the NFS determined that the impact was low enough that the benefits of the trail outweighed the impact the trail had. This was done at the discretion of the Eldorado National Forest Supervisor and the decision will stand unless there is another court action. I get the feeling that the NFS supervisor wants to keep designated trail open so people can actually get out and see stuff.
