Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Under the proposal, released July 10, about 2,309 miles of roads will remain open to all motorized vehicles, and 247 miles of off-road vehicle trails will survive the cut. Currently, all but wilderness areas and a few small parcels of key habitat are open to cross-country travel in the 1.6-million-acre forest. The new plan will leave about 50 miles open to cross-country travel.

The new proposal to designate official routes on the forest is part of a nationwide effort to largely do away with open, unrestricted off-road access under a 2005 rule issued by the Forest Service. In 2004, then-Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth identified unmanaged OHV use as one of four "key threats" to national forest lands. The others are catastrophic wildfire, loss of open space and invasive species.

With 4,924 miles of roads, the Santa Fe National Forest currently has one of the highest road densities of any national forest in the Southwest.

The travel plan will reduce road miles in the forest by 54 percent, in part to protect habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, goshawk, the Jemez Mountain salamander and the Rio Grande cutthroat trout.

A road that created controversy among landowners on Glorieta Mesa, southeast of Santa Fe, will only be open to street-legal vehicles. Local residents launched a campaign last year to limit vehicle use in the area (Land Letter, Oct. 11, 2007).

Gordon Spingler of the Blackfeather Trail Preservation Alliance, a motorcycle group, said cutting route miles in half is going too far. "I think it's terrible," said Spingler, who said he enjoys off-roading in his retirement from Los Alamos National Laboratory. "The way we look at it is, all they've given us is a few roads connected by a few segments of single track trails. In terms of what we do, roads are not fun. They're boring."

Delores Maese, a spokeswoman for the forest, said off-roading is not a major problem on the forest, but OHV use has increased in recent years, and scaling back off-road travel will better protect habitat and other resources.

"We just went with our best knowledge and experience with what's on the ground," Maese said. "We know we're not going to please everybody. We listened to everyone's rationale on why they wanted routes open or closed, but in the end we think we did what's best for the land."

Cyndi Tuell, southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said she is pleased with the proposal. But the center takes issue with the agency's plan to formally designate some motorcycle trails that were cut by users, and there are still too many roads in certain areas.

"We feel the forest largely did what they were supposed to do legally," she said. "But we don't understand why the Forest Service is condoning illegal behavior by designating these routes that were cut by lawbreakers and giving them what they've created."

Spingler said off-roaders primarily use old hunting trails or logging roads. He plans to weigh in heavily at upcoming meetings on the proposal, he added. "We intend to battle this to the bitter end," he said.

The Forest Service will hold 13 public meetings July 28 through Aug. 20 to gather input on the proposal. Maese said a draft EIS should be out by next year, and a final plan is expected in late 2009. New maps showing the designated trail system will be available in 2010, she added.

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