First in a two-part series exploring a controversial set of travel plan revisions for the Sawtooth National Forest's three ranger districts, which Idaho conservationists have appealed.
Motorized recreationists were given a greater share of influence during the drafting of revisions to the Sawtooth National Forest's travel plan for the Minidoka Ranger District, conservationists and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have claimed.
An April letter from Fish and Game's Magic Valley Regional Supervisor David Parrish to Minidoka District Ranger Scott Nannenga protests the south Idaho district's purported reliance on feedback from motorized users.
"It is regrettable the district chose to develop a proposed action alternative based primarily on several years of exclusive input from motorized-user groups," Parrish wrote.
The final revisions to the Sawtooth travel plan—developed in part to satisfy a 2005 federal rule released by then-U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth that required all national forests in the country to eliminate cross-country, off-trail travel by motorized vehicles—were released in February. However, the changes won't go into effect until the signing of a final record of decision. The management changes—implemented on the forest's Minidoka, Fairfield and Ketchum ranger districts—come at a time when off-road vehicle use on the nation's public lands continues to skyrocket.
Prior to the revisions, Sawtooth rules allowed unrestricted off-trail travel by motorized recreationists on portions of each of the ranger districts, including south of Warm Springs Creek on the Ketchum district. Certain areas on the Sawtooth forest as well as on other national forests around the country already prohibited off-trail motorized travel prior to the directive by Bosworth. The rule required officials to begin a process to designate roads, trails and areas that will be kept open to motor vehicle use. It also stated that designations should be made regarding what vehicles are allowed on certain routes and during what time of year.
Once fully implemented, motorized vehicles won't be allowed off the forest's designated system of travel routes.
In light of their claim that motorized users were given too much influence as well as a belief that the new plan doesn't adequately protect fish and wildlife and the rights of other forest users, the Idaho chapter of The Wilderness Society and Idaho Conservation League have appealed. The groups filed the joint appeal with Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Jane Kollmeyer on April 14.
Though conservationists are challenging the revisions for all three of the ranger districts at least partially on the grounds they didn't allow adequate public involvement, their resource concerns are primarily focused on the preferred alternative Nannenga picked for the Minidoka district. The Minidoka is located south of the community of Twin Falls and covers portions of Twin Falls, Cassia, Oneida and Power counties in southern Idaho as well as Box Elder County in northern Utah.
Unlike on the contiguous Ketchum and Fairfield ranger districts, the Minidoka is broken into five separate divisions, each containing a distinct mountain range. Except in a few locations, existing rules for the district allow cross-country motorized travel on most of the Minidoka. The district has a denser network of motorized roads and trails compared with the Sawtooth's other two ranger districts to the north.
Officials from Fish and Game's Magic Valley Regional office in Jerome submitted a lengthy list of recommendations to Sawtooth officials during the several-year process to develop the new travel rules. They also drafted an appeal to the plan in early April because of concerns related to the Minidoka, but ultimately chose not to submit it, Parrish said Monday. In his letter to Nannenga explaining the rational behind the draft appeal, Parrish said that while recommendations they submitted to the Ketchum and Fairfield districts were incorporated into their travel rules, the Minidoka recommendations were not. Parrish wrote that these recommendations, which he characterized as "conservative" and included requests to close many of the district's redundant and short, dead-end spur roads—represented a minimum of what should have been considered to protect the district's fish and wildlife.
"We believe a more balanced proposed action could have been developed by inclusion of other interest groups, at the same level as the motorized groups, during the process," he wrote in the letter.
Speaking by phone Monday, Parrish said Fish and Game decided not to file the appeal after sitting down with officials from the Minidoka district. He said Nannenga assured him the district would work with Fish and Game on future travel planning issues.
However, despite these assurances, Parrish said his department's original concerns related to high road and trail densities on the Minidoka remain firmly in place.
"That's been a longstanding concern for us," he said. "They're high enough that they're probably having an impact on wildlife.
"It's a huge issue for us."
Parrish said the Minidoka district's revised travel plan doesn't address a lack of enforcement on the Minidoka, which is a significant concern for the department.
Parrish said Fish and Game and Minidoka district officials have developed a memorandum of understanding that will allow officers with the state wildlife agency to help their Forest Service counterparts enforce travel restrictions on the Minidoka. Still, he said the district needs to do more to keep motorized users from continuing to travel off-trail and on closed routes.
"Enforcement needs to be addressed in their budgeting process," he said.
Parrish said that while the Ketchum and Fairfield districts didn't incorporate every one of Fish and Game's recommendations, they were very responsive.
"They did work hard to address our issues," he said.
Parrish said a reduction of redundant and dead-end routes on the Minidoka would benefit resident fish and wildlife. And that in turn would benefit Idaho's hunters and anglers, he said.
"We could provide more opportunities for sportsmen," he said.
Sensitive fish and wildlife species that exist on the Minidoka include the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, considered imperiled by many regional fisheries managers, as well as bighorn sheep, Parrish said.
A significant component of the Sawtooth motorized travel debate has to do with what forest officials dub "user-created routes," a euphemism for single-track trails and wider pathways created by repeated off-trail travel by motorcycles and four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles. The routes constitute a dense network of criss-crossing paths on portions of the forest, Sawtooth officials say. The routes are especially prevalent on the Minidoka, a favorite playground for motorized recreationists hailing from the nearby communities of Twin Falls and Jerome.
In his Feb. 22 notice of decision announcing the release of a preferred alternative for managing travel on the Minidoka, Nannenga explains that many of the user-created routes do not meet safety or design standards or are located in environmentally-sensitive areas like riparian areas and lands with erosive soils.
"The continuous pioneering of these routes has made maintenance...difficult," he states.
Following Bosworth's directive that cross-country motorized travel be eliminated, Sawtooth officials decided to address the issue for all three districts in a single environmental analysis (EA). However, each district ranger made their own decision to implement one of four management alternatives analyzed during the EA process.
The preferred travel plan chosen by the Minidoka district ranger, alternative 2, eliminates all cross-country travel on the district and closes the majority of motorized travel on user-created routes, Nannenga writes in his February notice.
In all, the Minidoka revisions add 94 miles of non-system user-created routes to the district's list of routes open to motorized use. This would bring the total length of the district's system of motorized travel routes to 236 miles, Nannenga said.
He said it would eliminate cross-country travel by motorized vehicles on 532,818 acres of the Minidoka district. The preferred plan also bars motorized travel on approximately 626 miles of non-system, user-created trails that lace the district. Within 12 inventoried roadless areas located on the Minidoka, the plan adds 16.2 miles of existing user-created routes to the district's system of designated trails.
On the Ketchum district, district ranger Kurt Nelson proposes to add 18 miles of user-created routes to the district's existing 121 miles of roads and trails located in the portion of the district that was previously open to off-trail motorized travel. The plan eliminates motorized use on 64 miles of user-created routes in that portion of the Ketchum district.
According to Brad Brooks with The Wilderness Society in Boise, the Minidoka plan leaves open too many user-created routes at the expense of other forest users.
"It's becoming about who makes the most noise," he said. "It should be about what do all forest users want?"
Brooks said conservationists are not trying to shut down off-road vehicle use on the Sawtooth National Forest—he claims "there's a place for motorized recreation"—but they do want the forest's travel plan for the Minidoka to consider the needs of everyone.
"We shouldn't allow any use to the point where it impacts everybody else's enjoyment of public lands," he said.
Like Fish and Game, conservationists are concerned about enforcement. Simply placing signs at closed trails doesn't cut it, Brooks said.
"It's the crux of the issue," he said.
Among the objections listed in their appeal, conservationists also contend that Sawtooth officials should have conducted an environmental impact statement (EIS) under National Environmental Policy Act rather than the less stringent EA.
Speaking by phone Tuesday afternoon, Brooks said his group had just received a letter from Kollmeyer indicating she is denying the conservationists' appeal. He wouldn't say what their next step will be in response to the denial.
Of course, that could include filing a lawsuit to stop the implementation of the Sawtooth travel plan revisions.
"We need to decide what our next steps are," he said.
Next Wednesday: Learn more about Idaho conservationists' appeal of the Sawtooth National Forest's new travel plan revisions and what that could mean for recreating on the Ketchum Ranger District.
Wide, muddy pathways like these on the Cassia Division of the Sawtooth National Forest’s Minidoka Ranger District were created by unrestricted off-trail travel by motorized recreationists. The routes lace the district with many hundreds of miles of “user-created” trails, many of which pass through environmentally sensitive areas such as meadows and riparian zones. Sawtooth officials are moving to restrict all future off-trail travel by motorized users on the forest. Photo by Jason Kauffman
