Red_Chili
Hard Core 4+
Boulder Ranger District OHV meeting report (some high points anyway):
I gotta come clean, I got some schoolin' on the OHV rule last night. I think I have misled people on one fine point of the OHV rule as being implemented by the USFS. My interpretation has been that the OHV rule would not necessarily close user-created routes, and that it demanded they be inventoried then evaluated. This was a huge open door to get some routes included in the mapping. Unfortunately, what I missed (because the OHV rule is a bit vague) is that this really applies to open travel areas in the USFS, of which there are very very few in Colorado. So I am wrong on this for the most part.
No, this is NOT a cynical way to close more trails/roads. There is not a grand conspiracy in the USFS to do that (I do believe there are hypergreens who do look for justifications to close OHV routes due to impact, and they need to be challenged, but that falls far short of a grand cynical conspiracy. Enuff about that.). The fallback for which trails are open and which are closed has to be the prior travel planning which was done according to NEPA, done legally (if we might disagree with points of it), and which was not intended to be undone by the OHV rule. The OHV rule was an attempt to deal with the "open unless posted closed" vs. "closed unless posted open" controversy and differences in land management. Motor Vehicle User Mapping (MVUMs) will be produced as a result of the OHV rule, and these will have a Draft phase and a Final phase.
Pay attention to this mapping, especially the Draft phase. READ THEM CAREFULLY and COMMENT when they are available (~late 2007 at the earliest). It is possible due to the tremendous amount of data and the terrible shape it is in, that legitimate trails/roads will be found to have no supporting data, or adequate data, and THAT IS WHY GPS MAPPING OF EXISTING FAVORITE ROUTES IS CRITICAL. You can help with this, contact Val at www.cohvco.org for more information (I am a GPS newbie and would only mislead you. There is an instructional DVD available for free through Val though).
Sorry to have created confusion, and I hope this clears things up a bit. I'm kinda new at life...
Dan Straight, one of the honchos of the Rollins Pass Restoration Association, is thrilled with our work done at Yankee Doodle Lake. That work is very important in sending a message to the reticent Boulder County Commissioners that OHV users take managing impact SERIOUSLY and that the Needles Eye Tunnel route SHOULD BE OPENED. Dan has gotten Gilpin and Grand Counties on board, and only Boulder County remains.
(By the way, Ige, you gotta tell me about this stuff!! Everyone at the meeting knew about our honor except me... DOH! It's all good though. Kinda funny.)
We are going to remain persistent on this fight. Boulder Wagon Road remains my preferred route, but opening Needle's Eye could happen first and actually would not make BWR less likely. BWR has many issues but I believe they can be overcome. We cannot affort to take environmental impact any less than deadly seriously though, that tundra is extremely fragile.
Any time you see someone riding the tundra, gently but firmly confront them. The hypergreens are not wrong about their concern with people tearing up tundra and destroying the stability of a fragile ecosystem.
It's up to us.
Next meeting: March 15
Boulder Ranger District
2140 Yarmouth Avenue
Boulder, CO 80301
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/about/o...rd/index.shtml
__________________
I gotta come clean, I got some schoolin' on the OHV rule last night. I think I have misled people on one fine point of the OHV rule as being implemented by the USFS. My interpretation has been that the OHV rule would not necessarily close user-created routes, and that it demanded they be inventoried then evaluated. This was a huge open door to get some routes included in the mapping. Unfortunately, what I missed (because the OHV rule is a bit vague) is that this really applies to open travel areas in the USFS, of which there are very very few in Colorado. So I am wrong on this for the most part.
No, this is NOT a cynical way to close more trails/roads. There is not a grand conspiracy in the USFS to do that (I do believe there are hypergreens who do look for justifications to close OHV routes due to impact, and they need to be challenged, but that falls far short of a grand cynical conspiracy. Enuff about that.). The fallback for which trails are open and which are closed has to be the prior travel planning which was done according to NEPA, done legally (if we might disagree with points of it), and which was not intended to be undone by the OHV rule. The OHV rule was an attempt to deal with the "open unless posted closed" vs. "closed unless posted open" controversy and differences in land management. Motor Vehicle User Mapping (MVUMs) will be produced as a result of the OHV rule, and these will have a Draft phase and a Final phase.
Pay attention to this mapping, especially the Draft phase. READ THEM CAREFULLY and COMMENT when they are available (~late 2007 at the earliest). It is possible due to the tremendous amount of data and the terrible shape it is in, that legitimate trails/roads will be found to have no supporting data, or adequate data, and THAT IS WHY GPS MAPPING OF EXISTING FAVORITE ROUTES IS CRITICAL. You can help with this, contact Val at www.cohvco.org for more information (I am a GPS newbie and would only mislead you. There is an instructional DVD available for free through Val though).
Sorry to have created confusion, and I hope this clears things up a bit. I'm kinda new at life...
Dan Straight, one of the honchos of the Rollins Pass Restoration Association, is thrilled with our work done at Yankee Doodle Lake. That work is very important in sending a message to the reticent Boulder County Commissioners that OHV users take managing impact SERIOUSLY and that the Needles Eye Tunnel route SHOULD BE OPENED. Dan has gotten Gilpin and Grand Counties on board, and only Boulder County remains.
(By the way, Ige, you gotta tell me about this stuff!! Everyone at the meeting knew about our honor except me... DOH! It's all good though. Kinda funny.)
We are going to remain persistent on this fight. Boulder Wagon Road remains my preferred route, but opening Needle's Eye could happen first and actually would not make BWR less likely. BWR has many issues but I believe they can be overcome. We cannot affort to take environmental impact any less than deadly seriously though, that tundra is extremely fragile.
Any time you see someone riding the tundra, gently but firmly confront them. The hypergreens are not wrong about their concern with people tearing up tundra and destroying the stability of a fragile ecosystem.
It's up to us.
Next meeting: March 15
Boulder Ranger District
2140 Yarmouth Avenue
Boulder, CO 80301
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/about/o...rd/index.shtml
__________________
