Working group gets closer to identifying possible ATV trails

Source: http://www.theumpquapost.com/articles/2010/09/15/local_news/doc4c910ef236145656858825.txt

A working group will have recommendations by Oct. 30 on where ATVs should be allowed in vegetated areas of the Oregon Dunes.

The 15-member group has met since last November to identify possible trails in parts of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

Ross Holloway, a contractor hired by the U.S. Forest Service to lead discussions, said at a Sept. 11 meeting in North Bend that beach grass and ATV noise continue to be sticking points in the group’s conversations.

At the middle riding area of the Dunes NRA, near Winchester Bay, discussion had centered around tree-covered dunes called the forested fingers and a grassy foredune in the area’s southwest corner.

ATV enthusiasts fear trails designated by the Siuslaw National Forest, which manages the dunes, will take away riding area.

Rod Roberts, a Coos County Sheriff’s Office deputy who represents law enforcement on the state ATV Account Allocation Committee, cautioned the working group to consider the economic impact from ATV riders.

The allocation committee pays grants from ATV permits to law enforcement and other dunes stakeholders.

“The other groups don’t have that kind of money,” Roberts said.

The forest assigned Holloway to create a discussion group after federal land managers in 2008 were required to create travel management plans. Those plans outline how vehicles may be used off designated roadways on federally owned land.

The Siuslaw National Forest put off assigning routes in the Oregon Dunes because of the large number of existing trails created by ATVs in vegetated areas.

In the forest’s dunes management plan, vegetated areas — often called 10(C) lands — are supposed to be off-limits to vehicles unless otherwise posted.

When the forest’s travel management plan went into effect this year, 10(C) lands were closed. The Forest Service is not enforcing the closures. It’s waiting instead until it finishes an environmental impact study and designates routes in these vegetated areas.

Frank Davis, the forest’s natural resource planner, said forest managers will begin the impact study sometime after Oct. 1. The study could consider anything from wildlife and fisheries to public capacity in riding areas.

“They’ve got to consider all the aspects of managing an ecosystem out there,” Davis said.

He said input from the working group probably will be considered by forest managers as they evaluate possible 10(C) ATV trails.

“If they come up with some designated routes and they make it through the appeals process, it withstands public scrutiny, it will be added to the off-highway management plan,” Davis said.

In an online survey of the group, most stakeholders supported the use of an existing trail on the forested fingers in the middle riding area as an official designated route.

On the southwest corner, the group largely supported establishing a buffer strip of 10(C) land between the foredune and a nearby beach, which is closed to vehicles. Grass east of that strip would open for ATVs to drive in.

Working group members will approve trail options by Oct. 16. Holloway said he will submit a report on group discussions to the Siuslaw National Forest by Nov. 1.