Off-road driver tears up trail

KENNEWICK – A Kennewick man has severely damaged a natural habitat and popular hiking trail in Eastern Washington by going off-roading in his 1985 Chevy truck at a county park.

The Tri-City Herald reported Wednesday that James Dunlap, 30, said he didn’t set out to damage the natural habitat on Badger Mountain, just outside Kennewick, when he and his brother drove his truck to the area around 2 a.m. Saturday. He added that he didn’t even know he was at a park. His truck was stuck Wednesday in a park ravine.

Dunlap told the newspaper he was just “doing some hill climbing.”

“I was unaware that it was illegal to go up there or anything like that,” Dunlap said. “I was unaware there were trails on the hill. Why would anybody walk up a hill?”

Benton County officials and local conservationists were in disbelief.

“There’s quite a lot of disappointment that people were actually so stupid to think they could tear up a place like that,” said Jim Langdon, trailmaster for the Friends of Badger Mountain. “Why these guys felt they needed to be up there and four-wheel, I don’t know.”

The organization was formed to preserve open space in the hills around the Tri-Cities. Volunteers with the group helped build and maintain two trails on Badger Mountain, one for hikers only and another for hikers, mountain bikes and horses.

Damage includes displacement of heavy rocks that line the trail, and wide gouges and holes to the soft soil, Langdon said, adding that the vehicle crossed the hiking trail at least three times.

But the biggest immediate challenge was figuring out a way to extract the truck from a hillside ravine without causing any more damage. Officials were also afraid the truck may pose an environmental hazard.

“Not only has he torn up a big part of the mountain, we don’t know if there’s transmission fluid, oil, brake grease or more leaking out,” said Adam Fyall, Benton County’s community development coordinator. “There’s all kinds of things that have happened or still could happen. There’s no quick fix.”

Dunlap has proposed driving a bulldozer up the hill to remove his truck.

Fyall said there’s no way the county would allow that.

At the bottom of the road leading to the park there’s a gate that says no unauthorized vehicles allowed, Fyall said.

The Benton County sheriff’s office said Dunlap can expect to be cited with an infraction. But sheriff’s Lt. Brian White said the county could also request Dunlap be responsible for covering the costs of repairs.

The sheriff’s office has forwarded its report to the prosecutor’s office. No charges have been filed.

Dunlap said he wants to remove his truck this weekend.

“I’m not going to destroy anything, and I’m going to fix anything I do,” he said. “I didn’t know there were trails up there. I guess I do now.”