Forest Service Proposal Fuels Off-Road Vehicle Debate

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, September 7, 2004 (ENS) - Environmentalists, recreation groups and off-road vehicle users agree that it is time the U.S. Forest Service developed a national plan for managing the use of off-road vehicles in the national forests.

But the details of that plan are the source of broad disagreement, and all interested parties are convinced the final rule will play a critical role in the future of the 191 million acres of public land managed by the Forest Service.

Concern about the impact of off-road vehicles on public lands is nothing new - it was President Richard Nixon who first put the national spotlight on the issue.

In 1972, Nixon issued an executive order directing federal land management agencies to minimize damage to public lands from off-road vehicles, to mark open routes and to enforce closures.

But a lack of political will, funding and staff has largely kept Nixon's order from being enforced over the past three decades, as the popularity of off-road vehicles has soared.

The Forest Service's proposal aims to balance the recreation needs of off-road vehicle enthusiasts with the agency's responsibility to protect the environment. (Photo by courtesy SUWA)

Use of these vehicles can adversely impact the environment, wildlife and other recreational users of public lands, and conflicts between competing interests have increased in recent years.

Even the Forest Service acknowledges that current management of off-road vehicle use on public lands is a chaotic mix of regulations.

In addition to struggling to manage authorized use, the agency is trying to come to grips with thousands of miles of "renegade" and unauthorized roads and routes.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has repeatedly warned that off-road vehicle use is one of the four primary threats facing America's national forests and grasslands.

"This is not an easy issue to tackle, but if we wait a day, a week, or even a year, the impact on the land and the issues surrounding the problem will become even harder to deal with," according to the Forest Service Chief. "We need to address this issue now."

A draft rule issued by the Forest Service in July would tackle the issue by requiring each forest or grassland to establish a designated system of roads, trails and areas where off-road vehicles are permitted to operate and where they are prohibited.

It calls on federal land managers to cooperate with all interested parties to identify routes and develop maps, and to prohibit riding outside designated areas.

"We need an approach that will sustain natural resource values through more effective management of motor vehicle use," Bosworth said when the proposal was announced. "I expect units to make significant progress in improving management of [off-road vehicles] in the next two years."

Off-road vehicle advocates largely approve of the draft rule.

According to Larry Smith, executive director of Americans for Responsible Recreational Access, the proposal "underscores the Forest Service view that public lands belong to all Americans, not just an elite few."

Smith cautions that the agency must have the funds to do the work outlined in the proposal. "It is vitally important that the inventorying of roads and trails is both accurate and comprehensive," he said.

Critics counter that the proposal is far too timid given the scope of the problem.

The Bureau of Land Management is also wrestling with how to accomodate off-road vehicle use on its 262 million acres of public land. (Photo by courtesy SUWA)

"Without a time frame for getting work done and a commitment of resources to enforce new rules, this proposal is a paper tiger," said Scott Kovarovics, director of the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition. "Chief Bosworth approved a similarly toothless plan for Montana back in January 2001. Nearly four years later, not a single forest there has completed route designations and some have even cut their budgets for off-road vehicle planning."

Kovarovics and other critics say the Forest Service should impose a two year deadline for forest managers to designate roads and routes for off-road vehicle use, prohibit use in other areas at the end of that two year period and immediately bar the use of all unauthorized "renegade" routes.

Jim Furnish, former deputy chief of the National Forest System in the Clinton administration and a 34 year veteran of the Forest Service, said he has seen "pervasive and conflicted off-road vehicle issues in all parts of the country."

"Much of the responsibility for letting the conflict grow to such magnitude lies with the Forest Service's failure to act," said Furnish, who added that the deadline is critical and could be met even without an influx of new funding.

"Two years is reasonable and is very achievable," he said. "It is a matter of priorities."

Off-road vehicle proponents are keen to paint the issue as a debate over access and say the call for a deadline masks a different agenda.

"Leave it to the well-funded, anti-access lobbyists to find fault with an initiative that attempts to bring management consistency and further controls on vehicle access," said Brian Hawthorne, public lands director for the BlueRibbon Coalition, an advocacy group for motorized recreation. "These groups will not stop until they have closed most of the roads and trails to wheeled vehicles."

Hawthorne says there is no way the Forest Service could meet the deadlines advocated by critics of the proposal, who he says would then use that failure to bring lawsuits and prohibit off-road vehicle use.

Off-road vehicle use has more than doubled in the past two decades. Some 42 million Americans are estimated to participate in off-road travel each year. (Photo by courtesy SUWA)

"Every year more and more public lands are off limits to people who choose or are required to use vehicles, yet these people are never satisfied," he said.

Other recreational users of the national forests, particularly those who crave silence, believe it is some of the off-road vehicle advocates who are never satisfied. Off-road vehicle users account for about 1.8 million or five percent of visitors to national forests and grasslands.

"Unchecked off-road vehicle use degrades the recreational experience of others, particularly hikers, and forces us off of trails that we would otherwise have enjoyed, and may have even built and maintained," said Mary Margaret Sloan, president of the American Hiking Society. "Just because all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes can go almost anywhere, does not mean that they should,"

Kovarovics says that Forest Service data shows some 274,000 miles of roads and routes are available to off-road vehicles today, a total that is "about six times longer than the Interstate Highway System."

The Forest Service is accepting comments on the draft off-road vehicle rule through September 13. More information can be found here.

Comments can be sent by email to: trvman@fs.fed.us