December TMP update
Our club had a meeting last week with 3 representatives from the Dilon Ranger District.
We will talk about it at tonight's regular club meeting in Frisco (6pm at Q4U) but in case you are chained to the keyboard, here's the not so short story.
Ken Waugh the recreation supervisor explained his rational for closing every snowmobile area in his district but 2 as part of the travel management plan. If it's open, he is required to maintain a presence but he has no staff. He gets complaints about snowmobilers in a closed area from the greenies, he doesn't have the manpower to enforce the boundaries, his best choice is close the problem areas. It was the same story for everywhere.
Ken has been told by Scott Fitzwilliams in Glenwood not to implement the travel management plan in our district this winter due to too much conflict in the appeal process. (Thanks to the CSA and the HCSC appealing the plan.)
He was open to the idea of the club signing Pennsylvania Gulch for him and helping with education. I offered to get signs from State Parks and start signing in the next few weeks, he will check with Scott in Glenwood but said he would prefer to wait until next winter.
Ken and his staff agreed that if we helped with signage and education it would go a long way toward keeping that area open and possibly getting other areas re-opened. He told us that the non motorized crowd did not appeal the TMP decision and he knows they will have a hissy fit once he reverses the TMP decision on Pennsylvania.
They have installed new signage on the Elliot Ridge boundary with the Eagles Nest Wilderness. They claim to have signed the actual wilderness boundary by GPS, not the 1/2 mile buffer zone. They have stashed additional no snowmobiling signs up there this summer and we told them we would like to help install and maintain the additional no snowmobiling signs with them. They will contact us with a date.
Regarding the possibility for grooming, they agreed Spring Creek/Elliot Ridge area would benefit from grooming. I tried to explain that if we had a groomed trail system it would help steer people away from the wilderness vs having every snowmobile track lead right to the hillclimb area at edge of the wilderness. Ken and his staff were receptive to having us groom all their major roads in the area, there is a possibility to add additional trails in the future. They will provide me with a map and potential trails/mileage shortly.
They thought there were other areas in the district that could benefit from grooming, the Montezuma area on the east side of the county has a pretty big potential for grooming. They are planning a new trail head for the montezuma area, totally on forest service property. I told them to make sure they include a place for storage of grooming eqiupment just in case. They also thought Pennsylvania and Indiana up to Boreas Pass Road would have a huge positive impact with grooming with a small groomer or just a snowmobile drag.
Overall I think they were impressed with our enthusiasm and our willingness to step up and do what ever it takes to help keep these areas open. No doubt they like someone else doing their job for them.
I told them we'd like to get out there helping with signs and grooming up at Spring Creek to start and we are open to other possibilities in the future.
We will have 1 more season with the old rules. You can ride in a closed area, they probably won't catch you. Keep in mind the more complaints they get, the harder it will be for us to keep areas open in the future.
As snowmobilers I believe the biggest obstacle we have to deal with is the now 20 year old Forest Plan. Way back then, they decided what should be motorized and what shouldn't.
The good areas, that we now like to ride were for the most part closed back in 92 when the plan was adopted. I don't think many people noticed the huge impacts of the plan, after all who had sleds back then that could access half these areas?
The good stuff? Porcupine Gulch, up to the tunnels. Peaks 1-6, Pennsylvania up to Hoeseshow basin, over red up to Hooiser Pass, Mayflower Gulch by Climax, South side of Peak 10 to Quandary.
With the newest version of the TMP, they basically shut off the trails that lead to many of these areas.
We have to do our best to play ball with the Forest service, try to help groom and maintain as many trails as we possible can and encourage snowmobilers to stay in our little areas until we can address the Forest Plan that is the root of the problem.
How to address adjusting the Forest Plan? How about a NEPA analysis paid for by the snowmobile club, (hopefully with some grants) and then if the biologists think it might be ok with the Lynx and the other little critters it gets opened for public comment.
How does this public comment process go? Lets see, the county government hates all motorized users, we are outnumbered by greenies and 90% of the snowmobilers you see around here don't care enough to comment. Hopefully the other 10% can write one hell of a comment.
That shouldn't discourage you, Psychoneurosis and I are up for a fight if you are. We are getting quite good at writing these comments. It would help if we could wake up the other 90%.
HC
