This morning's Gazette Times takes a look at the conflict between federal regulators and the swelling ranks of ATV users. Consider this: the Forest Service estimates 11 million riders visit public lands each year. The former Forest Service chief declared unmanaged ATV use "one of the top threats facing the agency." Read more about the debate!?
Line in the sand
By Bennett Hall
Corvallis Gazette-Times
FLORENCE — The sun is shining, the temperature is pushing 60 and a swarm of dirt bikes, dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles is buzzing all over the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.
Can this really be February in Oregon?
Better believe it. In fact, even when the weather is less than ideal, President’s Day weekend traditionally signals the start of the off-highway vehicle riding season at the Oregon Dunes, where OHV enthusiasts account for an estimated 750,000 visitor days a year.
“Isn’t this cool?” marvels Lindy Minten, taking in the scene from the saddle of her sport quad, a four-wheeled ATV with big balloon tires and a powerful engine. “This is what we love.”
Minten and her family, who have a farm near Scio, trek to the coast a half-dozen times a year to spend anywhere from four to 10 days camping with friends and playing in the sand with their four-wheelers in this sprawling recreation area managed by the Siuslaw National Forest.
But the Forest Service is rewriting its regulations for off-highway vehicles, and riders fear they could lose access to some of their favorite spots.
Up to now, national forest lands have been open to OHV use unless specifically closed. Under the agency’s new Travel Management Rule, only designated roads, trails and cross-country areas will be open.
“We just did a huge flip-flop,” said Minten, who works with a number of OHV groups to advocate for riders’ rights. “We’re locking people out.”
Off-highway vehicles have exploded in popularity in recent years. According to an industry estimate, annual sales of ATVs and dirt bikes tripled from 1995 to 2003, bringing the total number in use to 8 million nationwide.
OHV use on public lands has grown at the same time, with the Forest Service now estimating 11 million rider visits a year.
The surge in off-roading prompted former Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth to declare unmanaged OHV use one of the top threats facing the agency and led to the Travel Management Rule. That rule is now being implemented in the nation’s 155 national forests, including 13 in Oregon.
For the most part, off-roaders accept the need for better management of their fast-growing sport. But they’re also mobilizing to defend their turf.
“Our group and virtually all of the organized OHV community supported the rule,” said Brian Hawthorne of the BlueRibbon Coalition, a national riders’ organization. “We’re in the mode of trying to accommodate off-road recreational use, rather than restrict it.”
Implementing the Travel Management Rule is a painstaking exercise, with each national forest soliciting public input to produce maps showing proposals for designated riding areas. More feedback is then taken before a final decision is made.
The deadline to complete the process is 2010, and planning is well under way in the two national forests that bracket the mid-valley — the Siuslaw on Oregon’s central coast and the Willamette in the central Cascades.
Of the two, the Siuslaw is farther along. Forest officials have published provisional maps showing designated riding areas and hope to make a final decision by the end of this year, after another round of public comment.
For now, no management changes are proposed for the Siuslaw’s most popular off-road areas, the 1,000-acre Sand Lake area north of Lincoln City and the 29,000-acre Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which hopscotches down the coast between Florence and Coos Bay.
A skirmish is shaping up over two smaller dune fields just north of Florence, 250-acre Joshua Lane and 50-acre Collard Lake. While little known beyond the immediate area, both are popular with local riders — but less so among the neighbors, who complain about noise, littering and rowdy behavior.
Unlike Sand Lake and the Oregon Dunes, neither area has parking lots, staging areas or camping facilities, while both have some sensitive plant species. The current proposal calls for closing Joshua Lane and Collard Lake to motorized access.
OHV riders are also concerned about losing access to some unpaved Forest Service roads. Under the Travel Management Rule, forests are considering closing some “key” roads to ATVs and dirt bikes. With more users in the forest and less money available to keep roads clear of brush, forest officials are worried about accidents.
“It’s a safety issue,” said Frank Davis, the Siuslaw’s project leader.
Riders see it differently. Some of the roads up for closure in the Siuslaw, they say, are used by hunters or by OHVers looking to link up scattered riding areas. To them, closing roads is another sign that their fast-growing sport is being marginalized by public land managers.
“By the time they forbid us on the so-called key road system ... we won’t have anything left,” said Ron Phillips, president of the Mount Baber ATV Club, a mid-valley group that claims close to 1,000 members. “And there’s no plan to build (new) ATV trails in the forest.”
Off-roaders have similar concerns in the Willamette National Forest, where OHV use is concentrated in two places, Huckleberry Flats and Santiam Pass. Willamette officials are still gathering public input for their initial travel management proposal, but those two areas are being addressed under a separate planning process.
Huckleberry Flats, off Highway 58 near Oakridge, is a well-developed trail network with 33 miles of marked routes for ATV and dirt bike riders. An additional 30 miles of trails are planned over the next several years.
The area is exclusively for motorized recreation, and there are few if any conflicts with other users.
That’s not the case at Santiam Pass, where OHVs compete for space with campers and anglers at Big Lake and with hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail. The Mount Washington and Three Sisters wilderness areas also border the pass.
Forest officials have no plans to kick ATVs and dirt bikes out of the pass. Instead, they’re proposing several alternative plans to create an organized trail system.
“What’s developed is a mishmash of pioneered-in routes and user-created trails,” said Steve Otoupalik, a district wilderness and trails manager for the Willamette National Forest. “By identifying a trail system we’re meeting the expectations of two user groups, OHVers and hikers.”
Some people, however, aren’t sure those conflicting expectations can be entirely reconciled.
Corvallis resident Randy Rasmussen, a recreation policy specialist with the American Hiking Society, said he stopped taking his family camping at Big Lake after it became a magnet for off-roaders.
“You can see the Three Sisters, the beautiful lake — and then the motors whine and kids come by doing wheelies,” Rasmussen said. “Everybody should be able to use public lands, but you shouldn’t be allowed to ruin it for everyone else.”
Officials of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics share those concerns. OHV use, they say, can damage wildlife habitat and disrupt breeding activity, tear up sensitive plants and cause conflicts with other forest users.
“There’s a difference in values here,” said James Johnston, a policy analyst for the advocacy group. “Some people want to ride around and make a lot of noise, and some people want peace and quiet.”
Still, it’s clear that off-road recreation is here to stay. A 2005 Forest Service survey estimated that 23.8 percent of Americans 16 and over engaged in some form of OHV use, including more than 580,000 Oregonians.
The state Parks & Recreation Department manages an ATV program with a
$4 million annual budget derived from permit fees and a share of the gas tax. Among other things, the program will fund up to 80 percent of land acquisition and trail-building costs for new riding areas.
Program manager Ron Price reports that grant requests from federal, state and county agencies are on the rise. “We’re looking for opportunities wherever we can,” he said.
Forest Service officials say they’re well aware of the demand for more off-road recreation opportunities — and the conflicts that can arise with other forest visitors.
“As public land managers, we’re always trying to balance the impacts for all kinds of recreational uses,” said Judith McHugh, a public affairs specialist for the Willamette National Forest. “Because we’re managing for everyone.”
Bill Blackwell, a deputy district ranger on the Siuslaw National Forest, said managing those conflicting demands just goes with the territory.
“If you work for any public agency long enough, you understand you’re not going to make everyone happy,” Blackwell said.
“You’ve got to listen to people because sometimes they come up with better ideas than what you have — but in the end you have to do what’s best for the national forest.”
Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.
The sun is shining, the temperature is pushing 60 and a swarm of dirt bikes, dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles is buzzing all over the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.
Can this really be February in Oregon?
Better believe it. In fact, even when the weather is less than ideal, President's Day weekend traditionally signals the start of the off-highway vehicle riding season at the Oregon Dunes, where OHV enthusiasts account for an estimated 750,000 visitor days a year.
"Isn't this cool?" marvels Lindy Minten, taking in the scene from the saddle of her sport quad, a four-wheeled ATV with big balloon tires and a powerful engine. "This is what we love."
Minten and her family, who have a farm near Scio, trek to the coast a half-dozen times a year to spend anywhere from four to 10 days camping with friends and playing in the sand with their four-wheelers in this sprawling recreation area managed by the Siuslaw National Forest.
But the Forest Service is rewriting its regulations for off-highway vehicles, and riders fear they could lose access to some of their favorite spots.
