Off Road Vehicle Damage Closes North Carolina Trails

"It is our goal to maintain a viable Upper Tellico off highway vehicle system while reducing sediment, meeting water quality standards and improving brook trout fisheries," said Forest Supervisor Marisue Hilliard. "The purpose of this January 1 to March 31 closure is to protect water quality in the Upper Tellico River and allow the Forest Service to make repairs to the trail system."

The agency will close for a year four trail segments that are especially eroded.

The Tellico area, located in the Nantahala National Forest in the headwaters of the upper Tellico River, is one of the largest and most heavily used ORV destinations on public lands in the Southeast. The almost 40 miles of designated trails, not counting unmarked trails, are double what the Nantahala forest plan allows for the Tellico.

Conservation groups, concerned about the ongoing pollution of the Tellico watershed, expressed cautious optimism at the closure.

The conservation groups have had a series of conversations with the agency and off-road vehicle users since June when they submitted a notice of their intent to sue the Forest Service for violating multiple state and federal water quality laws, and its own regulations.

No lawsuit has been filed, although the groups' notice is still pending.

One of the ORV trails in the Upper Tellico watershed (Photo courtesy Georgia Off Road)

"This action comes not a moment too soon for the health of these streams and the critical habitat they support," said Michael "Squeak" Smith, with the North Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited. "The Forest Service is finally walking the talk, and we'll fully expect them to follow through with their intent to do a more thorough, long-lasting plan."

Muddy runoff in the Tellico watershed is devastating one of the last, best strongholds for brook trout, a native species in decline in North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Forest Service has estimated that over the years, more than 25,000 tons of sediment have been displaced from the entrenched sections of the trail system.

Recent trail surveys conducted by the agency documented hundreds of sites where sediment flowed directly from trails to nearby streams. Some sections of trail discharged as much as 59 tons of mud to streams each year for each mile of trail.

Generally, streams within the area receive 500 to 1,000 times more sediment than similar streams just outside the trail system. The runoff has been detected several miles downstream in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.

"We view this as a good-faith effort by the Forest Service to immediately address the worst problems," said D.J. Gerken, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center which represents Trout Unlimited, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Wild South.

"We intend to work with the Forest Service on its pledge of quickly formulating and executing long-lasting solutions so we don't wind up in court now or in the future," said Gerken.

"We have been trying to get some action like this since this problem was brought to our attention several years ago," said Barry Sulkin with the Tennessee chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "It is encouraging to see that the Forest Service has finally decided to take these steps, but we need to see if it is enough and if opposing parties will try and block it. These trout streams deserve extra protection and for too long they have been abused."

Off road vehicle groups oppose the closure. The Toyota Land Cruiser Association, TLCA, has mounted a letter writing campaign to persuade the Forest Service to leave the trails open.

The TLCA sample letter says in part, "With respect to seasonal closures of the entire area, your agency did not provide and I have not seen any proof that demonstrates the time of year is directly tied to increase potential for impacts. There is no data provided by your agency to suggest that sedimentation from January 1 to March 31 occurs at a higher rate than sedimentation during other months of the year, which makes a winter-time closure unfounded."

Hilliard said the Forest Service will be working this winter with stakeholders on long range planning for the Upper Tellico area. She said funding for the needed repairs will come from a combination of trail user fees, Forest Service appropriations and the volunteer efforts of local ORV organizations.

The Upper Tellico closure is similar to winter closures already in place at the Wayehutta, Brown Mountain and Badin Lake off road vehicle areas on other national forests in North Carolina.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.