RC Journal Off-Road Trails Article 02.23.12

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Permalink Reply by Ron on February 23, 2012 at 10:43am

While it may seem irrelevant and premature, I am telling all of you right now .................................Gregg, Jeff and other groups are coming for the license plates. Critically read this article and it is practically screaming they are going to change the trail system we have now and we all can suck it.

Gregg, Jeff, Tom Blair and the other tourism lobbyists will propose interconnected trails with mandatory trail-heads, license plate removal and specialized "trail stickers" in order to promote ATV tourism.

Who will operate these mandatory trail-heads?  Why, the local private businesses in a "partnership" with the USFS of course! This is how they have eliminated fee-free campgrounds, huge tracts of dispersed camping and this will be how they stop us from accessing the trails where-ever we want and when-ever we want 12 months out of the year as we do now. This is what they proposed in 2009 and we stopped them. We may not be able to again if they get well enough organized.

Licensing our motorized vehicles will somehow become the pivotal issue so they can issue tags in lieu of plates and implement those "approved trail heads" I spoke of years ago. Along with this will come a  complete ban on off-loading machines anywhere else but approved trail-heads. Of course, those trail-heads will be closed October through April so this will be a huge win for the environmentalists, the tourism industry and the USFS. The locals will lose as usual.

While this article seems benign on the face of it I assure all of you that this is the first salvo in many to further restrict off-roading through approved trail-heads, extremely restrictive off-road stickers and even more reduction in trail miles. 

The USFS's own statistics indicated approximately 10,000 miles of trails and roads before the Travel Management Plan efforts in 2007 , approximately 3690 miles of trails afterward (including state, county and forest service roads) and approximately 750 miles of actual trails. Now they admit the trails were 467 miles initially and now 547 with improvements? Incremental-ism. This is what will kill access. One day we will look around and wonder where all the trails went!

Jeff, Patty and Ross told me in Pierre in 2009 this is not over. Guess they were right.

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Permalink Reply by roger schieman on February 23, 2012 at 12:04pm

thats why we need to get organized  and let the entire state know that they want to take our plates,I for one just this last snow rode 30 miles doing snow removal in town,without plates this would be impossible to help business and the elderly

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Permalink Reply by Ed Goss on February 23, 2012 at 8:20pm

I guess I'm really curious as to why it always looks like the ORA is kissing up or with the fs when I'd think they would put more effort in to working with national organizations that promote off road riding all across the US and SD that have had similair experiences with other groups and in other states.  Like ARRA or NOVHCC who do this every day to help groups like ORA or ATV clubs in South Dakota.  Just guess I don't understand, dumb me.  I thought I should work with bigger orgnizations with similair interest that work for my wishes lnstead of those who only ONLY work with there wishes!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Dean Bottorff on February 26, 2012 at 10:52am

So, 467 actual miles of trails.  Whoda thunk it?   The new 2012 map, like the 2010 map, only shows open roads and trails not all the closed roads.   I have suggested that the forest service publish a new color map showing all roads and trails in black. Open roads could have a green overlay and closed roads a red overlay.  Seasonal closures might have dotted red and green overlays. 

They won't do it of course becuase it is part of the big fraud.

If you look at the trails they claim (now about 500, not the 750 they previously claimed) plus the county and state roads ... you will see that some 6,000 miles of roads are now "off map" meaning they are either closed or considered off-road and thus travel on them is banned.

And this is only the roads they claim to know about. In fact, you can't legally ride many of the roads that show up on your Garmin GPS maps because the forest service claims they don't exist. Then there are roads shown on USGS maps and even the forest service's pre-1972 Black Hills National Forest maps which the forest service now says are not there. 

Why don't they just admit it: The Black Hills Travel Management Plan should really be named the Black Hills Closure Plan.   You may be right. If they have their way, there will only be a few places you can ride and you'll have to pay to do it.

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Permalink Reply by Ron on February 26, 2012 at 11:39am

Absolutely Dean.................the noble lie is alive and well in the UFSF!!!!!

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