Public Concerns
Cross Country Travel - ATV Information
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH ATV’S-ON-ROADS, THE NATIONAL OHV STRATEGY, AND ALL
THAT STUFF?
OK, so lots of people are wondering what’s happening with various ORV initiatives that we’ve
been talking about, like allowing ATV’s on roads, the “National OHV strategy”, prohibiting
cross-country (off-trail) travel, user-built trails, etc. Here’s the scoop:
1) The National OHV Strategy, announced by the Forest Service Chief about a year ago, has
morphed into something called Travel Management Planning. The original intent was to
prohibit all cross-country motorized travel (except over-snow travel), and to designate a
system of routes where motorized use would be permitted. This end product remains the
same, but the process we have to go through to get there has gotten (sigh) more
complicated. For one thing, this whole affair now includes roads, as well as motorized trails.
Secondly, instead of the District doing our own thing, as we’d envisioned, this will now be a
Forest-wide effort. Thirdly, there is now a standardized planning process, prescribed by
headquarters, that ALL National Forests have to follow. Within the next month or so, you
should be receiving an official “scoping” letter from the Okanogan-Wenatchee National
Forest introducing this process, announcing a series of public meetings, and asking for your
help in identifying the location of user-built roads and trails. (If you’re not sure you’re on the
list, please send us your hard-copy address. We will also post that letter on Cleelumtrails.
com). Now during this coming summer, we will be inventorying those user-built roads and
trails, in preparation for a decision-making process that will begin next winter, and must be
completed by September 2009. There’s a bunch of steps we have to go through in this
analysis, (which will be an open, public process during which you’ll have several
opportunities to be involved), but the end product will be a decision document designating
which routes are open to motorized travel, and those will be the ONLY places motor vehicles
will be allowed (again, this doesn’t include over-snow vehicles). Cross-country motorized
travel will be prohibited, and any user-built trails not designated in that document will be
closed. Now, we are not planning to re-examine our existing official trail and road system.
This means that existing ORV trails, as shown on our ORV map, will continue to be ORV
trails. The big decisions will be which user-built trails to add to the trail system, and which to
close. I encourage you to stay closely involved with this process. We will keep the latest and
greatest information posted on Cleelumtrails.com.
2) If you were at the public meeting we held in the Cle Elum Senior Center last Fall, along
with Representative Bill Hinkle, you know that he and Representative Gary Condotta
sponsored a bill that allows local landowners, including the Forest Service, to permit non-
street-legal-vehicles, such as ATV’s on forest roads that they manage. You probably also
remember that we announced at that meeting that the Cle Elum Ranger District had
designated a few roads for mixed use (street-legal and non-street-legal vehicles), and that
during the winter, we’d be considering adding more. We thought, at the time, that each
District could just designate whatever mixed-use roads they felt were appropriated with a
minimum of fuss and that would be that.
Well, as it turns out, the process for designating mixed-use roads has been folded into the
travel management planning process we just talked about (remember I said things got more
complicated?) We are required to analyze potential mixed-use roads right along with making
decisions about user-built trails, and all that stuff we have to do in the travel management
planning process. Among other things, an engineering safety analysis will be required for
every mixed-use road. So the upshot here is this will take some time. The roads that we
already designated for mixed use will remain so (at least as far as I know now), but any new
ones will have to go through this process. Had we known this last fall, I would have painted a
very different picture of what we could and could not do.
BOTTOM LINE: I’m not thrilled about the complexity of this process either, but it’s a national
process, and we have to follow it. Period. The best bet for getting the trail system you want is
to stay involved. Watch for an official scoping letter in a month or so and when you get it let us
know your thoughts regarding user-built trails mixed-use roads, and whatever else may be
on your mind. Keep watching Cleelumtrails.com for the latest information, and please feel
free to contact me with questions at any time. Thanks for all you help; hope to see you on the
trail!
/s/ TIM FOSS
Trail, Wilderness, and ORV Manager
Cle Elum Ranger District
509-852-1069
tfoss@fs.fed.us
THAT STUFF?
OK, so lots of people are wondering what’s happening with various ORV initiatives that we’ve
been talking about, like allowing ATV’s on roads, the “National OHV strategy”, prohibiting
cross-country (off-trail) travel, user-built trails, etc. Here’s the scoop:
1) The National OHV Strategy, announced by the Forest Service Chief about a year ago, has
morphed into something called Travel Management Planning. The original intent was to
prohibit all cross-country motorized travel (except over-snow travel), and to designate a
system of routes where motorized use would be permitted. This end product remains the
same, but the process we have to go through to get there has gotten (sigh) more
complicated. For one thing, this whole affair now includes roads, as well as motorized trails.
Secondly, instead of the District doing our own thing, as we’d envisioned, this will now be a
Forest-wide effort. Thirdly, there is now a standardized planning process, prescribed by
headquarters, that ALL National Forests have to follow. Within the next month or so, you
should be receiving an official “scoping” letter from the Okanogan-Wenatchee National
Forest introducing this process, announcing a series of public meetings, and asking for your
help in identifying the location of user-built roads and trails. (If you’re not sure you’re on the
list, please send us your hard-copy address. We will also post that letter on Cleelumtrails.
com). Now during this coming summer, we will be inventorying those user-built roads and
trails, in preparation for a decision-making process that will begin next winter, and must be
completed by September 2009. There’s a bunch of steps we have to go through in this
analysis, (which will be an open, public process during which you’ll have several
opportunities to be involved), but the end product will be a decision document designating
which routes are open to motorized travel, and those will be the ONLY places motor vehicles
will be allowed (again, this doesn’t include over-snow vehicles). Cross-country motorized
travel will be prohibited, and any user-built trails not designated in that document will be
closed. Now, we are not planning to re-examine our existing official trail and road system.
This means that existing ORV trails, as shown on our ORV map, will continue to be ORV
trails. The big decisions will be which user-built trails to add to the trail system, and which to
close. I encourage you to stay closely involved with this process. We will keep the latest and
greatest information posted on Cleelumtrails.com.
2) If you were at the public meeting we held in the Cle Elum Senior Center last Fall, along
with Representative Bill Hinkle, you know that he and Representative Gary Condotta
sponsored a bill that allows local landowners, including the Forest Service, to permit non-
street-legal-vehicles, such as ATV’s on forest roads that they manage. You probably also
remember that we announced at that meeting that the Cle Elum Ranger District had
designated a few roads for mixed use (street-legal and non-street-legal vehicles), and that
during the winter, we’d be considering adding more. We thought, at the time, that each
District could just designate whatever mixed-use roads they felt were appropriated with a
minimum of fuss and that would be that.
Well, as it turns out, the process for designating mixed-use roads has been folded into the
travel management planning process we just talked about (remember I said things got more
complicated?) We are required to analyze potential mixed-use roads right along with making
decisions about user-built trails, and all that stuff we have to do in the travel management
planning process. Among other things, an engineering safety analysis will be required for
every mixed-use road. So the upshot here is this will take some time. The roads that we
already designated for mixed use will remain so (at least as far as I know now), but any new
ones will have to go through this process. Had we known this last fall, I would have painted a
very different picture of what we could and could not do.
BOTTOM LINE: I’m not thrilled about the complexity of this process either, but it’s a national
process, and we have to follow it. Period. The best bet for getting the trail system you want is
to stay involved. Watch for an official scoping letter in a month or so and when you get it let us
know your thoughts regarding user-built trails mixed-use roads, and whatever else may be
on your mind. Keep watching Cleelumtrails.com for the latest information, and please feel
free to contact me with questions at any time. Thanks for all you help; hope to see you on the
trail!
/s/ TIM FOSS
Trail, Wilderness, and ORV Manager
Cle Elum Ranger District
509-852-1069
tfoss@fs.fed.us