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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:Out of Bounds A Kettle Range Conservation Group report on the state of ORV management on the Colville and Okanogan National Forests
Introduction The "reach" of off-road vehicles (ORVs)—the ability of the machines to penetrate wilderness—has increased dramatically in the last decade. Modern ORVs can move at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour, and easily travel more than 100 miles in a single day. Even where their use is prohibited, such as in federally designated parks, monuments and wilderness areas, regular violations occur. Today’s machines are fast and agile, easily overcoming barriers that would have blocked them only a few years ago. As the popularity of off-road motorized recreation continues to grow, more and more ORV enthusiasts are looking to the forests of Eastern Washington for places to operate their machines. Forest monitoring reports attest to the rapid rise in ORV use in the region, the increasing impacts on forest resources, and the need for a consistent, effective forest-wide policy to regulate ORV use and minimize the associated impacts. An increasing number of newspaper articles and letters to the editor attest to the growing public controversy regarding ORV use on our local national forests. It is our hope that this report will serve as a wake-up call to federal and state agencies to address a problem that, barring immediate action, will only get worse. Eastern Washington has yet to experience the magnitude of ORV problems now facing other parts of the country. Taking immediate action to prevent such problems from occurring will avoid user-outrage and preserve the solitude of Washington’s last wild public forests. Impacts of ORVs A 1976 study offers an insightful explanation for the enormous potential of ORVs to disrupt the environment in which they operate: "The magnitude of the off-road recreational vehicle problem lies in the fact that the off-road vehicle user can extend himself so pervasively into the physical and attitudinal space of virtually all other outdoor recreationists. He does this by his mobility, by the conspicuous sights and sounds he generates, and by the physical impacts or traces his vehicle so often leaves behind. The off-road vehicle is, in effect, a multiplier of man. An individual equipped with an off-road vehicle may equal the physical and aesthetic impact of many traditional users in an area." (Badaracco 1976). ORVs have the potential to adversely impact the environment in a number of ways:
Threatened and endangered species are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of ORVs. Lynx are adversely affected by snowmobile trails and roads maintained for winter recreation and forest management activities, which enable coyotes and bobcats to access their winter habitat. Woodland caribou are physically displaced by ORV activity, moving them from key habitats and pushing them into the same remote areas occupied by their predators. Grizzly bears are affected by physical fragmentation of and alienation from their habitat, often avoiding an ecological zone-of-influence, generally considered to be approximately 500 meters, in the vicinity of roads and areas of motorized activity. In addition to environmental effects, ORVs have enormous potential for adverse impacts on non-motorized recreation such as cross-country skiing, hiking, showshoeing, wildlife photography and other activities where solitude or at least a low level of human disturbance is a prerequisite to the experience. More powerful engines, wider tires, and other advances in technology have increased ORVs’ capability to travel off road and into the wilderness, exponentially adding to the cumulative impacts on the air, soil, water, wildlife, and solitude of public lands. Rising Sales of ORVs During the last three decades, the sale and use of ORVs has skyrocketed:
The recreation industry has achieved a high level of effectiveness and cooperation through organizations such as the American Recreation Coalition (ARC) and the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC). These industry organizations are largely comprised of manufacturers of motor boats, jet-skis, RVs, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, and sporting equipment. Membership also includes public land concessionaires, campground associations, sporting equipment manufacturers, tour associations, and petroleum companies. The ARC makes no bones about its involvement in national policy decision-making, stating that the ARC "provides a unified voice for recreation interests to ensure their full and active participation in government policy making." Furthermore, the federal government sees no problem with ARC’s role in such policy making. The BRC is perhaps best known for its recent lawsuit to keep Yellowstone National Park open to snowmobiles. Like the ARC, the BRC has opposed recent EPA proposals to adopt tougher standards that would more significantly reduce air pollution and better protect public health, arguing that pollution from ORVs does not adversely affect public lands. Lack of Compliance with Laws and Regulations A number of legal statues and regulations guide the development and management of ORV policy on National Forests, ranging from Executive Orders (EO’s) signed by presidents to Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMP) developed by each individual National Forest. Keys provisions of these regulations require federal land manager to do the following:
Based on records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, KRCG has concluded that both the Colville and Okanogan National Forests have failed to adequately analyze impacts to forest resources in designating ORV-use areas, have not clearly marked areas open to ORVs, have not enforced a "closed unless marked open" policy, have failed to monitor the impacts of ORVs in areas where they are permitted, and have not adequately enforced existing regulations. Examples of Conflict and Impact In the Kettle River Range, located in the Colville National Forest (CNF), non-motorized and motorized recreation areas are highly interspersed: valley bottoms are mostly roaded and open to motorized use while high alpine ridgelines are designated non-motorized. Near the summit of Sherman Pass, Albian Hill Road (FS 2030), Sherman Creek Road (FS 2020), Hall Creek Road (FS 2054-100) and Twin Sisters, semi-primitive motorized recreation-use zones are located downhill and within direct line-of-sight and earshot of semi-primitive non-motorized zones, significantly degrading the non-motorized experience for hikers, snowshoers and cross-country skiers. Monitoring of this conflict by the Forest Service is completely absent, despite complaints registered by Kettle Range Conservation Group (KRCG) and others. In the Okanogan National Forest (ONF), helicopter-skiing reaches deep into secluded backcountry, affecting areas otherwise closed to motorized vehicles year round. Though helicopter-skiing use occurs in mountain goat habitat that was designated "to optimize habitat condition and perpetuate a healthy mountain goat population," and in spite of the fact that numerous studies have concluded that helicopters have a negative impact on mountain goat populations, there exists no meaningful monitoring of the mountain goat population. Without monitoring and inventory data, it is not possible to determine if there has been adverse disturbance to this unique indicator species for mountain habitat. Conclusion and Recommendations The known effects of ORVs on natural resources, wildlife, threatened and endangered species, non-motorized recreation, water quality and air quality are substantial. Over two decades ago, Executive Orders were signed by two presidents demanding that these effects be taken into account in the management of public lands. Numerous sections of the Code of Federal Regulations make specific requirements of land managers in meeting the objectives of the Executive Orders. Since these laws went into effect, the population of Eastern Washington has grown considerably. Use of ORVs for recreational purposes has risen dramatically. ORVs are more powerful and user-friendly, rendering them far more capable of reaching into the rugged wildlands than their counterparts of the 1970’s. Native species especially sensitive to the impacts of ORVs have been added to the threatened and endangered lists. ORV incursions into roadless wildlands have increased. The importance of compliance with federal law and policy regarding ORVs is much greater today than it was twenty-five years ago. Likewise, compliance with the requirements of local Forest Plans to effectively manage recreation is more critical today than ever before. And yet these legal requirements have been largely ignored. Many National Forests in more populated areas waited too long to take the ORV situation seriously and have discovered that after an area becomes a major attraction for ORV operators, it is very difficult to restrict or regulate use. The old saying, "possession is nine-tenths of the law," seems particularly applicable to ORV-use areas. Whenever restrictions are imposed in a specific area, the primary complaint from the motorized-recreation community is that federal land managers are denying users access to areas in which they have traditionally operated for years. The fact that the intensity of the use, and therefore the impact of the use, has increased exponentially over those same years is almost never acknowledged. To bring recreation management into compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and in order to protect the Okanogan and Colville National Forests from the consequences of inadequately managed motorized recreation, KRCG asks that the Forests take the following actions:
In short, we are asking nothing more than what the laws and regulations written and promulgated twenty-five years ago promised the public: a consistent, forest-wide policy regarding the use of ORVs on the National Forests, based on scientific analysis of the potential and existing impacts to forest resources form ORVs, enforced by law, and monitored for its effectiveness in preventing adverse effects from ORVs. |