Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal
Off-Road Trails Cut Back In Plan;
Proposal sets aside 3,000 miles of routes, while more than 8,000 are now used by ATV enthusiasts
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico),
August 8, 2007 Wednesday
RAAM WONG Journal Staff Writer
Officials released a draft proposal Tuesday that would designate 3,168 miles of roads and trails in the Santa Fe National Forest for use by motorized vehicles.
The controversial proposal is a net decrease from the more than 8,000 miles of routes - both authorized and unauthorized - currently in use by the soaring number of off-road motorized vehicle enthusiasts.
Motorized vehicles would be barred from non-designated areas under the proposal, which was rolled out in Santa Fe on Tuesday during the first of nine public meetings in communities in and around the forest.
But Cañada de Los Alamos residents fear the proposal - which features a map showing a few miles of designated routes in the canyon nearby - would turn their historic village southeast of Santa Fe into a playground for motorized vehicles.
"It's unimaginable how they could even consider this," said David Birnbaum, one of scores of village residents who attended the often-heated meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church.
They were among the participants who criticized the Forest Service for drafting the "travel management rule" without a means of enforcing it. Doing so would only encourage motorized vehicle use on and off the sanctioned trails, critics said.
"You can't enforce it!" yelled one participant. "This is infuriating."
The verbal darts were aimed at forest planner Robert Potts, who agreed that the number of Santa Fe Forest officials responsible for enforcing the regulations - three - was not enough.
"Is it enough? No sir, it's not," he said.
But it's a start, Potts said, adding that public lands across the country have benefited from these types of regulations.
Off-roading fans called the proposal a compromise they could live with.
Joanne Spivack of the New Mexico Off-Road Vehicle Alliance said the proposal would "hugely restrict HOVs in the national forest."
"This has nothing to do with creating new (motorized vehicle) area," she said.
Last year, the U.S. Forest Service ordered national forests to collaborate with the public in developing rules for motorized vehicles, which haven't changed since an executive order signed by President Nixon in 1969.
The Santa Fe National Forest has held more than 100 meetings and received about 700 e-mails and letters, and the result of that input was shown on maps for the first time Tuesday.
"This is a draft," Potts said. "There's nothing set in stone."
Currently, there are 4,505 miles of system roads and trails and 2,793 miles that are closed or under another jurisdiction in the Santa Fe National Forest. More than 1,000 miles are unauthorized routes carved by motor vehicles.
In choosing the proposed designated routes, officials said they considered several factors, including whether the roads in question were redundant, sustainable and near resources like waterways and critical habitat and wildlife.
"We will open some (roads) and close others," Potts said.
Forestwide, the proposal designates 2,634 miles for all vehicles, 206 miles for those highway legal, 211 miles for off-highway vehicles, 11 for all-terrain vehicles and 106 miles for motorcycles.
Santa Fe National Forest supervisor Dan Jiron said the agency is trying to manage existing uses and not attempting to introduce motorized vehicles where they don't already exist.
The draft plan includes seasonal restrictions, bans off-road travel for game retrieval and calls for dispersed camping - allowing motorized vehicles to drive to their camp sites - along fewer than 20 percent of the proposed routes.
After the third and final round of public meetings going on now, officials will make any needed changes to the "draft proposed action" before getting the OK from the forest supervisor this fall.
An environmental review - often a long and complex process - will then be performed before a final map is published in January 2010.
The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. today in the Kennedy Lounge at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., followed by meetings in Mora, Los Alamos and Española, Pecos, Coyote, Cuba, Jemez and Albuquerque. For more information, visit www.fs.fed.us/r3/sfe/travelmgt. The proposed maps have not yet been posted to the Web site but will be soon.