Mud-bogging leaves nasty scars

LEWISTON, Idaho – Jim White and Marcie Carter peer into the cloudy water of a fresh mud bog.

The scar is just off the Hoover Point Road on Craig Mountain and on land owned by the Nez Perce Tribe. It begins as an irregularly shaped wetland at the edge of the road and a mountain meadow. Two tracks, likely from a 4-wheel drive pickup truck or Jeep, have carved 18-inch-deep finger ruts about 20 feet into the lush meadow.

“It just boggles my mind why people do these things,” says Carter, a wildlife biologist for the tribe.

Both the tribe and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, where White works as a wildlife biologist, have fought a losing battle each spring against people who enjoy off-roading through meadows, streams and mud holes. Both entities own land on the mountain south of Lewiston where people like to hunt, hike and drive off-road vehicles.

Carter and White say mud-bogging – driving through wet areas – damages water quality and wildlife habitat, leaves ugly scars and steals money from other programs that could be helping wildlife and restoring the environment.

Those scars can be seen all over the mountain. They range from roadside mud puddles to entire sections of streams that have been rerouted by tracks left by mud-boggers. White says the tracks can change the natural drainage of meadows and streams.

All tribal land on the mountain is closed to nontribal members, Carter says. But the tribe has only two gates on roads crossing its land there. The land isn’t gated because tribal members want access to the land. But it also leaves it vulnerable to trespassing.

Most of the roads crossing land managed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are gated. But that hasn’t stopped mud-boggers from driving off road through meadows, ponds and wet areas. Of late the department has been fencing off much of the roadside meadows and wetlands on its property to keep mud-boggers out. But fences are expensive.

“When we picked up the property the majority of it was not fenced. People could basically go where they wanted,” he says. “We decided to take our worst spots and start fencing them.”

Every dollar spent repairing a meadow or building fences and gates to keep mud-boggers out is money that can’t be spent on habitat for fish and wildlife or infrastructure for recreation.

Catching mud boggers is difficult. White says unless they are caught in the act there is little that can be done. Even if law enforcement agents encounter a pickup truck on one of the main roads of Craig Mountain that is covered in mud they can’t cite them. There also is private land on the mountain where mud bogging could be legal if the landowner gives off-roaders the OK.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has even put planes in the air in an attempt to catch mud-boggers in the act. But putting planes in the air and then having the personnel on the ground to respond to any illegal activity observed is expensive.

The fight against mud boggers also is causing the state to be more restrictive with its access policies, White says.

He points to an old ranching fence at Larabee Meadows and says the state had planned to pull the fence last year. But White says he noticed pickup and ATV tracks entering the meadow where the fence was falling down.

“They just tore up a big piece of ground down there,” he says.

Now the state is going to run a fence between the meadow and the road.

Carter and White say the scars won’t go away for years unless the agencies use earth-moving equipment to erase them. But White says there is no sense in doing that until fences can be installed to keep the ruts from returning.

Besides being ugly the ruts that rip through the lush meadows damage wildlife habitat and foul water quality, White and Carter say.

“Their meadow systems up here are real important wildlife areas. They support a lot of different types of wildlife.” White says.