Forest Service, BLM to look at travel management in five counties

Matt Hildner

Daily Press Writer

MONTROSE — Two public land agencies will start work on a joint travel plan that would have a say in how mountain bikers, ATV riders, four-wheel drive enthusiasts and hikers share the roads and trails in five Western Slope counties.

Staff for the Gunnison National Forest and the Gunnison office of the Bureau of Land Management will conduct three public open houses in different parts of the area and review the agencies’ existing maps of the primary transportation system routes.

“We want the public to review the maps and provide us with recommendations about the existing system routes. The public can take their time and come back to us later this fall with comments, recommendations and proposals for change,” said Paonia District Forest Ranger Levi Broyles.

The plan would apply to all forms of motorized travel, such as jeeps, all-terrain vehicles, and motorcycles. It would also cover the use of moutain bikes, or mechanized travel.

The process will decide which roads and trails will be open to travel and funded by the respective agencies for maintenance, public safety and resource damage mitigation.

Other types of roads, like those temporarily constructed for oil and gas development, would be reviewed in relation to applications for specific projects.

“The decisions on those roads would be made in whatever (National Environmental Policy Act) documentation was associated with those,” said Gunnison District Ranger Jim Dawson.

Travel in the area is currently governed by a 2001 interim plan.

Dawson said the travel plan, which officials hope to finalize in 2008, will serve the forest service as long as it accurately addresses conditions on the ground.

“There is no real time frame that will be associated with this plan,” he said. “We’re hoping that it has a relatively long shelf life,” he said.

The work of the Colorado Roadless Areas Task Force will have a bearing on the process. The Forest Service hopes whatever recommendations are passed along by the state and approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture can be incorporated into the planning.

The state must submit its petition to the federal government by November. Gunnison Travel Management Project Leader Gary Shellhorn said that rule would apply only to the construction of new roads in any inventoried roadless areas, which represent a fraction of the territory that will be governed by the travel plan.

“We would think we would have some definition on the roadless petition before we would make a final decision on the Gunnison travel plan,” Shellhorn said.

As with the roadless area policy debate, this one will draw strong interest from local forest users.

“It’s a high priority for our members because it’s the most tangible thing in terms of going out and using the forest,” said Dan Morse, public lands director for the High Country Citizens’ Alliance in Crested Butte.

Morse emphasized that the HCCA was not anti-motorized, noting that the area’s single track trails for both motorized and non-motirized users are an important source of tourism.

“That’s why people come here,” he said.

Roy Johnson of the Uncompahgre Valley Trail Riders Club also plans to be at one of the opening meetings. Although most of the riders in his group spend their time on trails in Uncompahgre National Forest, a small group has a stake in the process.

Johnson said some of the groups’ members have cabins in the drainage of the Little Cimarron River. Part of that river’s drainage runs through lands that lie within the BLM’s Gunnison management area.

The current travel planning addresses only summer travel. Winter travel on affected lands would be addressed following the completion of the summer plan.