Forest fun, quiet, a tough balance
Some people love their toys. Some people love their quiet. And there’s the rub.
When talking about the pristine backcountry in the Inland Northwest and elsewhere around the country, toys – four-wheelers, dirt bikes, four-wheel-drive pickups and sport utility vehicles – mix with serenity about as well as burning rubber at the Hot Rod Run in Post Falls would mix with Thoreau’s Walden. But the Wheelers, as off-road riders might be called in the land of Oz, can’t be banished from the woods with a wave of a bureaucratic wand.
The off-roaders are growing in numbers and clout; in some states, such as Idaho, they have friends in high places, including congressmen who believe, correctly, that public forests are big enough to serve the recreational needs of most backcountry users. The Wheelers should have a refuge in the forest, too, as far as possible from the peaceful preserves of hikers, backpackers, bird watchers, anglers, streams, lakes, fragile vegetation and big-game sanctuaries.
In trying to balance the wants of the disparate groups of forest users, the U.S. Forest Service has announced a sensible plan to require off-highway vehicles to stay on specified forest trails to protect waterways, wildlife habitat and solitude. The OHVers support the plan somewhat, if they get more trails. Environmentalists claim the plan is toothless because no funds were earmarked to keep track of OHVers making tracks. Both sides have legitimate points. But the USFS deserves credit for taking a giant first step in the right direction.
“We’ve got the ground,” Supervisor Ranotta McNair of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests told The Spokesman-Review. “The question is, can we come together at the table and work out differences?”
In national forests in the Coeur d’Alene area, USFS officials already are reining in off-roaders, some of whom prefer to dash off cross country when the mood and opportunity strike. The move to require off-roaders to stay on trails hasn’t caused a ruckus because North Idaho’s steep terrain and thick stands of trees make the forests impenetrable in many places. Already, Montana has banned cross-country travel.
Commendably, the USFS has promised to ask the public to help designate riding areas within a year or so. Representatives from both sides of the debate have indicated what will be needed before they sign off on the USFS proposal.
With thousands of miles of roads still usable in the Coeur d’Alene River District, the USFS has the chance to develop a first-rate off-road system that protects what should be protected while allowing the machine crowd to enjoy the forests their way. “If they allow us enough access through old roads and trails,” said Don Hull, a board member of Northwest Access Alliance, “we don’t have a problem with it.”
The USFS will have a problem, however, if it expands the area for off-highway vehicle use without the proper funding to monitor and police it. That’s a prescription for more mischief in the heart of the forest – and more confrontation between backcountry cultures.