Motorized recreation is the fastest growing activity on national forest lands, and that is bad news for sportsmen who venture into the backcountry in search of fish and game. Accompanying these machines into the quiet of the West’s roadless interior is noise and exhaust, and the trails they use are often ill-maintained, making them difficult to navigate on foot or even on horseback.
Because of the go-anywhere nature of off-highway vehicles, they allow motorized access into pristine fish and wildlife habitat—a concern to hunters and anglers who “earn” their way into the backcountry on foot, on horseback, or even on bicycle. Often, once OHV users get into the backcountry, there’s little in the way of enforcement—nothing stops these powerful machines from pioneering new trails and cutting across the landscape. OHV overuse can not only fragment habitat and leave lasting physical damage to the landscape, it also has to potential to negatively impact watersheds though sedimentation and the introduction of non-native and noxious plant species. OHVs also increase the likelihood of wildfire and they generally damage the peace and quiet found in remote areas of the forest.
Because of a lack of law enforcement, a few unruly motorized users are damaging special places and threatening the future of hunting and fishing on public lands. What’s more, they are giving the motorized recreation community a bad name—hunters and anglers who choose to visit areas where motorized access is not allowed are frequently frustrated by scofflaws who disregard the rules and ruin the backcountry experience for everyone else.
Trout Unlimited is not opposed to motorized access in the national forest. We do however, believe that reckless and destructive riding must be stopped in order to protect healthy forests, clean water, and the hunting and fishing heritage on public lands. TU also believes there’s a very real need for a significant new commitment on the part of land management agencies, backed by proper funding, to properly police OHV use and enforce laws to prohibit cross-country, off-trail travel.
Because of this, Trout Unlimited started a campaign in 2007 to work on establishing a rational and fair motorized-use policy in the West. We have staff working on OHV issues in four key western states; New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.
TU is working with the Forest Service and the BLM to ensure that travel management plans are put in place to protect habitat for fish and wildlife, and to ensure the best possible fishing and hunting opportunities in the future. In addition, we are working with state officials to stop reckless and habitat-damaging riding, to protect sensitive areas and to restore lands trashed by irresponsible OHV users.
A growing population and a decreasing amount of privately-owned open space has resulted in what Forest Service terms a "phenomenal increase in the use of national forests" over the last decade.
More than 214 million people visited national forests in 2004 and by 2005. The Forest Service has predicted visits will eventually top 500 million annually. The Forest Service estimates the number of OHV users has grown from less than 5 million in 1972 to more than 51 million in 2004.
The drastic increase of motorized recreation in the national forest system caused former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth to call unmanaged motorized recreation one of the top four threats to America’s national forests.
While most OHV riders are responsible, 11 million people use the forests for motorized recreation annually and that kind of traffic does cause significant damage. On top of the sheer number of riders, there is a visible minority of riders who intentionally damage the landscape. Unfortunately, there is virtually no enforcement system in place to penalize renegade users.
Because of the heavy impact of unmanaged motorized travel, the Forest Service instituted the travel management rule in 2005, which requires each forest to designate a system of roads and trails for motorized use. Cross-country travel would be eliminated and user-created routes would be closed. Every national forest is required to complete a travel management plan by 2009.
Some forests have completed their plans and others are in progress, but as of yet, the Forest Service has not determined how it will implement the rule or even how much it will cost to do so. A conservative 2001 estimate by the Forest Service said there were about 60,000 miles of user-created roads in the National Forest system. That number has certainly increased over the last six years, especially considering the Forest Service has done almost no enforcement specific to OHVs.
Working with partners, federal agencies and grassroots sportsmen, TU is dedicated to reigning in unmanaged motorized use on public lands so we can ensure the long-term sustainability of our country’s national forests and our hunting and fishing heritage.
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