by Caroline Pufalt
Forest Service plans for more OHV trails
If eroded forest land, the whine of motors and the smell of exhaust is not your idea of a natural forest, then you need to gear up to speak up about Off Highway Vehicles (OHVs) in the Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF). The Forest Service is planning additional three additional OHV trail systems on two districts in the eastern part of the national forest. The trail system would total about 137 miles and include some county roads and undeveloped forest system roads.
If this concerns you please contact the MTNF and ask to be put on the mailing list for the OHV study. You may write to:
Potosi/Fredericktown Ranger District
OHV study
PO Box 188
Potosi MO 63664
or call (573) 438-5427, or e-mail your request to: comments-eastern-mark-twain-potosi@fs.fed.us
If this all leaves you with a sense of deja vu, your memory is serving you well. Earlier in 2004 the public was asked to respond to a rather confusing public announcement from the MTNF about an OHV study with no clear plan for environmental review. Questions raised by Sierrans and other concerned citizens led the Forest Service to acknowledge that the proposal was significant and required an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Thus the agency now plans to do an EIS. The process now will be the release of a draft EIS for public review and comment and then a final EIS. It is very important to comment on the draft EIS. At the time of this writing it is unknown when the draft EIS will be released but it will probably be September 2004.
Your memory may still be telling you, didn’t we do this all before? Well yes, going far back to the years 1989-1993, Ozark Sierrans and many other Missourians were confronted with another proposal for OHV trail expansion in the MTNF. That effort was defeated in 1993. You may also recall that the common term then was ATV for all terrain vehicles. The term OHV is the more up to date term to take in all sorts of vehicles, 4 wheel drive vehicles, dune buggies, motorcycles, dirt bikes and ATVs.
The agency claims it needs to designate OHV trails because it cannot manage the existing illegal OHV use. Their hope is that by establishing designated routes, traffic in the forest will be more manageable. We question this since there is ample evidence that the Forest Service has not policed existing illegal use even when they clearly know about it. Of course, some OHV users stay on trails and try to drive responsibly but enough do not so that illegal use is a major problem.
General problems with OHV use include, soil erosion, noise, wildlife disruption, pollution, stream and riparian damage, vegetative damage and user conflicts. Several of these issues occur whether travel is on or off trails.