For the week of March 26 - April 1, 2003

ATV road show
comes to Hailey

Public opinion predominately
against 460-mile loop

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Following a long and heated public hearing on a proposal to organize and promote 460 miles of all-terrain-vehicle trails connecting Challis to Arco, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation officials said the Hailey meeting went as they expected it would.

Of those who commented during the Thursday night meeting, roughly 80 percent said they do not want the department to organize and advertise the loop of trails, which would basically circle the Lost River Mountain Range on existing roads managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Custer and Butte counties.

More specifically, many of those who commented asked for a compromise plan that included a smaller scale project and asked the department to slow down. Those speaking on behalf of the trail concept cited the success of the 275-mile Paiute ATV Trail in southern Utah, and said there is a need for economic development in Challis, Mackay, Arco and areas in between.

Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, who organized the meeting and owns a ranch south of Mackay, said he would draft a letter to the department summarizing what he believes were the main points brought out in the meeting.

"I’m going to ask them to go more slowly, take more official public comment, look at a range of alternatives that include making it smaller in size and scope, and to consider the negative impact on wildlife values," he said.

According to Parks and Recreation Outdoor Recreation Program Supervisor Chuck Wells, public hearings in Arco, Mackay, Challis, Pocatello and Idaho Falls attracted trail proponents in similar ratios to Hailey’s percentage of opponents.

The Hailey public hearing attracted between 50 and 60 residents from all over southern Idaho. The crowd included Custer County Commissioners, Challis residents, Mackay ranchers, ATV riders from Blaine and Camas counties, and Wood River Valley residents.

For much of the meeting, emotions ran hot.

"Your proposal creates a new destination so you can learn to manage the off-highway vehicles that you can’t manage everywhere else," said Ketchum attorney Debra Kronenberg. "There’s no logic in that."

But Custer County Commissioner Wayne Butts said the trail is an opportunity for economic development in a depressed region of Idaho.

"We are listening to all the concerns, but we see the need for economic development in our community," he said. "We’re starving to death, and that’s why we’re trying to take a good, hard look at this."

Parks and Recreation Director Rick Collignon said concerns have been raised from all sides of the debate at all the meetings the department has hosted.

"But we have to start our discussion in this state on OHV use," he said. "The issue in the state is, Where’s the balance?"

Since the mid-1980s, Idaho ATV and motorbike registrations have risen dramatically in Idaho. In 1985, 3,099 off highway vehicles were registered, down from 2,781 in 1973.

Last year, 67,266 motorbikes and ATVs were registered in the state of Idaho. Since 1995, the number of registered off highway vehicles has risen nearly 300 percent.

Nonetheless, Collignon said his department is still "very much at the beginning" of the process. He said the department has not yet developed a proposal to submit to the BLM and Forest Service, which both would have to conduct environmental impact statements or environmental assessments.

Collignon said he hopes his department can submit a proposal to the federal agencies by the end of this summer.

"This state has had an abundance of land and a limited amount of people for a long time," he said. "We have skipped along in this state without having to deal with these issues."

 

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