Road is clear for Mt. Hood OHV Plan

Road is clear for Mount Hood OHV plan
Both groups that had appealed the plan withdraw their objections
By Jonathan Frochtzwajg

The Sandy Post, Nov 17, 2010

Both groups that had appealed the Mount Hood National Forest’s new off-highway vehicle (OHV) management plan withdrew their objections late last month after winning concessions from the U.S. Forest Service.

That clears the way for the agency to implement the plan Tuesday. From that day on, the Forest Service will allow OHVs only in three areas – encompassing about 143 miles of trail – designated on a map. Currently, the agency permits OHVs anywhere it doesn’t prohibit them by posting, including on 2,300 miles of road.

The plan seeks to lessen the vehicles’ effect on the environment and “quiet users” of the forest, such as hikers.

The Northern Oregon Motorcycle and ATV Club, an OHV-user organization, had appealed the plan on the basis that concentrating OHV users into a smaller area would be dangerous. Bark, an environmentalist group that focuses on Mount Hood, had objected to the plan on a number of grounds, including that it did not outline an adequate system for enforcing OHV-use rules.

But after meeting with the Forest Service at the end of October, the two organizations agreed to drop their appeals.

In exchange, the Forest Service granted Bark’s request to remove from the plan the Mount Defiance area, a 5-mile OHV system near the Columbia River Gorge.

“It’s adjacent to (the Mark O. Hatfield) wilderness, and there are some really nice lakes in that area,” said Lori Ann Burd, Bark’s staff attorney. “It was a huge burden for law enforcement because it’s pretty remote.”

Burd also noted that the area is adjacent to land Hood River County has designated for OHV use. The Northern Oregon Motorcycle and ATV Club got the Forest Service to add to the plan about 3 miles of trail in the Raft Creek area.

Attempts to reach Neal Bursell, the group’s president, were unsuccessful, but Burd said the trails are already being used by OHVs and are in an area where their impact on other forest users will be acceptable.

The Forest Service also agreed to implement a plan for monitoring OHV use.

“If we’re seeing ongoing issues in any of the areas, then that will be a place where we can address those concerns … with the Forest Service,” Burd said. “And it will be a good place for us all to evaluate how things are going.”

Rick Acosta, communications officer for the Mount Hood National Forest, said prior to the October meeting that it’s not unusual for the Forest Service to try “to work something out” with appellants.

“I think it was a real success,” he said Monday. “We worked long and hard with the public on this project … We always said we weren’t really a destination for (OHV use), but we felt it was a legitimate use, and we’re going to have some good quality trails for the OHVers now.”

Burd said Bark and the Northern Oregon Motorcycle and ATV Club alike “recognized that it’s really vital for the Forest Service to implement this decision as soon as possible.”

“Both sides had to drop certain things that meant a lot to us in order to move forward,” she said.

Copyright 2010 Pamplin Media Group, 6605 S.E. Lake Road, Portland, OR 97222 • 503-226-6397
http://www.sandypost.com/news/story.php?story_id=129002349607102900