Statement by the Ogden Sierra Club in response to Forest Service proposal to add motorized trails

23 July 2003

The Ogden Ranger District of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest is proposing the following changes to its motorized travel plan:

If this proposal is carried out, the net result would be a increase of approximately 25 miles of motorized travel routes. These would add to the approximately 150 miles of roads and trails in the District that are already open to off-highway vehicles. (Of the 150 miles, approximately 20 miles have been added since the District adopted its first travel plan in 1988. More than half of those additions were apparently done without public notice.)

Most of the proposed new routes are intended specifically to promote off-highway motorized recreation--mainly all-terrain vehicles. In fact, the Forest Service proposal reads like a wish-list compiled by ATV advocates. New looping ATV trails would be added in the Dock Flat, Willard Basin, Monte Cristo, and Mollen's Hollow areas. New connecting trails would cross Public Grove Hollow and the Brigham Face Wildlife Management Area. The nonmotorized trail to North Ogden Pass would be opened to motorcycles, facilitating their access to Lewis Peak and Ben Lomond.

These changes represent a significant shift in the management of the Ogden Ranger District, away from multiple uses and toward motorized recreation as the dominant use in more than 3/4 of the District. The increased promotion of motorized recreation will result in deterioration of watersheds, destruction of native plants, invasion of noxious weeds, fragmentation of wildlife habitat, and loss of opportunities for quiet and solitude in our local mountains.

All of the routes that are proposed for conversion from nonmotorized to motorized use are already being used illegally by motorized recreationists. Opening these routes to motorized use would be like legalizing smoking wherever anyone disregards a "no smoking" sign. Many of the new routes will also facilitate access to still other illegal trails, accelerating the rate at which these are being widened and extended.

The Ogden Sierra Club supports many of the details of the Forest Service proposal. The proposed route closures make sense, as do some of the proposed new motorized routes. As we prepare our formal response over the coming weeks, we will be suggesting many detailed improvements to the proposal. Taken as a whole, however, this proposal is an assault upon all of us who value multiple uses of the Forest, and who treasure our mountains as more than just high-speed amusement parks.

Dan Schroeder, chair, 393-4603
Jock Glidden, former chair, 394-0457
Ogden Sierra Club

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Last modified on 2 August 2003.