USFS Travel Plan / Ramona Falls August 12th, 2007 BARK Hike Leader: Amy Harwood BARK Volunteer: Katie Chipko
http://bark-out.org
http://bark-out.org/activities/travelplan.php
In the Pacific Northwest OHVs are a big problem, but pale in comparison to the damage being done by a crumbling road network.
The Mt. Hood Travel Plan Must Address Roads:
The current Travel Plan proposal introduced by the Forest Service in May is to create six new Off-Highway Vehicle play areas around the mountain, totaling over 50,000 acres. This would render OHV use in all other areas of the forest illegal, an improvement over the current situation, in which OHV use is legal in all areas unless specifically prohibited. However, the current proposal falls short for three reasons:
1) The Forest Service is sacrificing far too much of the forest to an activity that is incompatible with other uses. Other recreationists, not to mention wildlife, don’t want to use areas surrounded by noisy OHVs. And since only about 1% of the demand on Mt. Hood is from OHV users, why are they getting 5% of the forest?
2) Without law enforcement, the system won’t work. Mt. Hood has only five law enforcement officers for its 1.1 million acres.
3) The Forest Service proposal ignores the fastest growing problem in the forest: thousands of miles of old logging roads are fragmenting wildlife habitat, eroding into streams, and need to be obliterated. At the same time, roads that lead to recreation destinations are being neglected.
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