Forest Service travel management plan comments due

SUMMIT COUNTY — When local mountain bikers are looking for a real High Country ride around Hoosier Pass, they often use an existing road that links Crystal Lake with another road to form what riders call a “super loop, with incredible vistas.”

But Forest Service planners didn’t include the four-wheel drive route in a recent inventory. As a result, the loop could be closed because it’s not listed as a mountain bike trail under a draft Forest Service plan that’s reaching the end of a formal public comment period.

On the other side of the county, runners, like Summit Cove resident Nicki Perisho, also learned that the new plan could affect how they use convenient access trails to the national forest. Earlier this summer, Perisho saw a hand-made sign at the trailhead in the Keystone Ranch area, alerting users about a potential closure.

That was enough to get her interested in an open house to learn how the plan lays out trail-by-trail use and also designates winter travel zones for motorized and non-motorized use across the White River National Forest, sprawling across about 80 percent of Summit County and 2.5 million acres in nine Colorado counties in all.

The White River National Forest sees about 9.6 million visitors annually (about 3.8 million from ski area visits).

<b>User conflicts</b>

The new Forest Service travel management plan could result in significant changes to Summit County’s existing trail system. The agency’s preferred alternative aims to reduce conflicts among various user groups with sometimes-competing interests.

Crosscountry skiers want quiet and solitude, while snowmobilers want to test their machines at full throttle. The intense demand for all sorts of recreation will likely mean that not everyone will see their wish list come true.

White River forest travel planner Wendy Haskins said the number of conflicts among user groups has jumped.

“We’re trying to accommodate all these users and reduce some of the conflicts that are occurring,” Haskins said.

As of a week ago, the Forest Service had received about 130 comments, Haskins said. More are expected to roll in right at the Thursday deadline, she added.

The White River National Forest has identified about 1,000 miles of unauthorized trails, either old logging roads never designated for recreation or other user-blazed trails. Motorized users would like to see some of them stay open, advocating for what they call an “equitable distribution” of recreational opportunities on national forest lands. The Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition claims motorized use has been displaced from the forest in recent years. At the same time, snowshoe enthusiasts and backcountry skiers also claim that non-motorized use areas are increasingly rare and precious.

According to comments submitted by Summit County, the Forest Service designated about 35 “snowmobile-only” routes in the draft plan.

“The only area where this route designation appears appropriate and warranted is the Vail Pass area,” the commissioners wrote.

<b>Timeline</b>

The travel management process has been under way since Sept. 2002, and forest planners hope to release their decision in late spring, with implementation to begin sometime in 2007, pending any potential appeals.

Given the complex nature of the project, the agency doubled the normal comment period to 90 days, but that still wasn’t enough for some groups. The Forest Service received a handful of requests for more time in the form of an extension, Summit County among them.

But White River Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson denied those requests, citing a desire to stick with the schedule.

Adding time for input is not unprecedented. Previously, comment periods for the underlying White River forest plan revision, critical to zoning the national forest for various uses, was extended after requests from members of Congress.

The Forest Service also previously delayed the travel management plan pending completion of a separate national policy on motorized use.

But Gustafson said even those comments received after Thursday will be included in the final stages of the planning process.

“We won’t be working in a vacuum,” said Ken Waugh, recreation staff officer with the Forest Service’s Dillon District. Local users with concerns about specific trails can still contact the agency after the deadline, he said, explaining that the agency will continue to work with all the user groups on fine-tuning the final plan.

<b>Comment period deadline</b>

The public input period on the WRNF travel management plan ends Thursday. To read the plan and comment, and to see other detailed comments, as well as other Summit Daily stories, commentaries and other information related to travel management, please go to www.summitdaily.com and use the links at the end of the story.

<i>Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.</i>

<b>Other Summit Daily travel management stories are here:</b>
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20051011/NEWS/110110044&;SearchID=73260851857978

<b>Local trail users, tune in!</b>
Forest Service holds open house on travel management plan
http://www.summitdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?Category=ARCHIVES07

<b>Travel Management Plan is out, and it needs our help</b>
This has been a long time coming. The Travel Management Plan came out two days ago, and although I've only had time to give it an initial overview, I'm sure we'll be hearing about it in more detail over the next few weeks. All of us trail users now...
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20060731/SPORTS/107310048&;SearchID=73260852801509

<b>Forest Service travel plan due this month</b>
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20060717/NEWS/107170050&;SearchID=73260852887619

<b>What would life be like if we couldn't get on the trails?</b>
Word on the street has it that the draft Travel Management Plan (TMP) for the White River National Forest will be released any time now.
Yawn.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050817/COLUMNS/108170058&;SearchID=73260852993251

<b>Rhetoric about forest travel heating up</b>
GLENWOOD SPRINGS - The heated disagreement between motorized and nonmotorized users is expected to return to center stage this summer on the White River National Forest.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20030605/NEWS/306050101&;SearchID=73260852993251