The Challis Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management has fielded close to 100 comments addressing a draft travel management plan that will dictate travel on 2,530 miles of roads and trails in the coming decade.
"I've been generally pleased with the volume," said Project Team Lead David Howell. "It's nice to know people have a concern about public lands."
The draft environmental impact statement covers everything from paved county roads and state highways to single-track and two-track trails. It considers only roads and trails for which the BLM has jurisdictional or maintenance responsibilities. Each of the alternatives considers changes identified by the public and BLM staff.
Three alternatives were developed for consideration:
· Alternative 1 describes the current management situation. All methods of motorized travel would be allowed only on existing roads and trails with no specific route designations. Under this alternative about 97.4 percent of existing roads would be designated as open.
· Alternative 2 uses a 2006 travel map as the basis for designating a system of roads and trails and addresses route-specific recommendations or requests. Under this alternative about 95 percent of routes identified as legal in the 2006 travel map would be designated as open.
· Alternative 3 examines routes at a landscape level, as recommended by the BLM's Resource Advisory Council, by dividing some of the field office into distinct travel management areas. Areas labeled as such are conspicuous units with broad-scale resource concerns such as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern or Wilderness Study Areas. About 88 percent of routes identified in the 2006 travel map would be designated as open.
Howell said analysis has begun of the approximately 100 comments, which were due March 14.
"They run the spectrum," he said. "They run the limits of people wanting to close everything versus people wanting to keep everything open. We're really getting into the weeds to see what folks are concerned about.
"We're going comment-by-comment, pulling out important things about what people think the BLM should or shouldn't do. As a team we hope we can either better explain them or consider whether or not they have some merit. Maybe there's something in there we didn't consider."
Among the sticky locations in the study is a proposal from the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department to build a trail around private property at the mouth of French Creek. A trail there climbs the drainage to the border of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and the rare plant species of Railroad Ridge.
"We've gotten quite a lot of comments from both sides," Howell said. "A motorcycle trail versus ATV trail versus no access at all. We have to weigh all of those things in the balance as well as consult with the SNRA and talk to them about what the long-term future is for that area. As far as a specific spot on the ground it is one of the stickier spots in the plan."
The Challis BLM's process got the attention of the Idaho Conservation League earlier this month. ICL Central Idaho Director Linn Kincannon advocated passage of Alternative 3, which would eliminate cross-country travel for game retrieval. The BLM currently allows ATVs to travel a quarter mile off any road or trail to retrieve game.
She also called for protections for wilderness study areas.
"Even the roads and trails they show in Alternative 3 will add motorized use and allow more routes to be pioneered in the wilderness study areas," Kincannon said.
Howell acknowledged the wilderness study area issue as significant.
"It's raised a number of questions for us as well," he said. "It's created quite a discussion. A lot of concern is about the WSAs that are wrapped up in Congressman Simpson's (Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act) proposal.
"These two are meant to be separate processes. In the meantime we have to deal with what to do with our roads and trails network."
Howell said it's a familiar spot for the federal agencies.
"While a lot of things are happening in other people's minds and other people's processes, we still have to deal with the day-to-day processes of administering public lands. So we continue to soldier on."
Howell said a final environmental assessment will be released in three to four months.
