The Oregonian: Mount Hood National Forest restricts off-road vehicles to four areas

Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

Responding to a Forest Service directive to get a handle on the noise, damage and intrusive nature of four-wheel-drive rigs and dirt bikes in the nation's forests, Mount Hood is limiting drivers to four areas.

The Mount Hood National Forest will severely limit off-road vehicles in the woods under a decision announced this week. Responding to a Forest Service directive to get a handle on the noise, damage and intrusive nature of four-wheel-drive rigs and dirt bikes in the nation's forests, Mount Hood is limiting drivers to four areas.

The Mount Hood plan prohibits cross-country travel and restricts off-highway vehicles, or OHVs, to 146 miles of roads and trails within the sprawling forest, which covers parts of Clackamas, Hood River, Wasco and Multnomah counties, and small portions of Marion and Jefferson counties. Previously, the forest operated on an "open unless posted closed" policy and off-roaders had access to nearly 2,500 miles of roads and trails.

Conservation groups support the decision. Off-highway vehicle drivers in the Mount Hood National Forest cause environmental damage, noise and other problems far out of proportion to their numbers, said Lori Ann Burd, staff attorney for Bark, a Portland-based group that monitors forest management. Some drivers on motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and four-wheel drive rigs tear through streams and meadows, create illegal trails and endanger hikers, Burd said.

"It's a use that will always have a high impact," Burd said of off-highway vehicles.

Burd said OHV drivers account for less than 1 percent of Mount Hood forest visitors, while 53 percent are hikers. Nationally, about 2.5 percent of "recreation visits" to the forests involve OHV use, according to a forest report.

Eric Fernandez, a wilderness coordinator for the group Oregon Wild, said the Mount Hood National Forest is the first of the state's 12 national forests to finish its OHV plan. Fernandez said the forest staff deserves credit for jumping on the issue.

"I think on Mount Hood we've been successful in highlighting the problems," he said. "They were looking for solutions, and once they got the national directive, it was right in sync with that."

Other national forests in Oregon haven't progressed in a way that conservationists favor.

"On the Siskiyou, 100 miles of the OHV routes are within proposed wilderness areas," Fernandez said. "Mount Hood doesn't have any going into proposed wilderness.

The Blue Ribbon Coalition, an Idaho group that represents off-road enthusiasts, told the Associated Press it supports the idea of controlling off-roading but is disappointed to see it restricted so much.

Areas that remain open to OHVs are routes and staging areas known as LaDee Flats, McCubbins Gulch, Mount Defiance and Rock Creek.

The Mount Hood forest is not considered a major OHV site, but the sport is growing quickly elsewhere in the country, according to Forest Service. Sales of off-road vehicles tripled from 1995 to 2003 nationally. Dealers in Clackamas, Hood River, Multnomah, Washington, Wasco and Clark counties sold 2,999 four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles in 2006, and sold another 2,666 in the first six months of 2007, according to the Forest Service. Sales in subsequent years were not included in the report.

The OHV limitations come as the Forest Service considers how to maintain logging roads no longer used for timber harvesting traffic. The Mount Hood National Forest has about 3,380 miles of logging roads, built when it produced up to 370 million board feet of timber annually, as it did in 1990. Due primarily to environmental restrictions, timber sales now are about 25 million board feet annually, according to forest report. The Forest Service will decide which roads to maintain, close or decommission.