This came out of the Spokane newspaper.

Off-roaders tear through the Colville; Spokane Spokesman 6/10
>Subject: Off-roaders tear through the Colville; Spokane Spokesman 6/10

> >Off-roaders tear through the Colville
> >Heavy use in sensitive areas damages national forest
> >Rich Landers - Outdoors editor
> >
> >
> >Off-road vehicle enthusiasts made a big impression on
> >Colville National Forest over the Memorial Day
> >weekend.
> >
> >Not the flattering kind, but rather the impression of
> >tires in the mud of wet meadows during a motorized
> >free-for-all that has staggered some Forest Service
> >officials.
> >
> >While the Colville National Forest has been addressing
> >potential impacts of the Rainbow Family gathering that
> >might be headed their way this summer, off-road
> >vehicle riders are trashing some portions of the
> >1.1-million acre forest with four-wheel-drive pickups,
> >fat-tired four-wheelers and motorcycles as well as
> >with the garbage they leave in their wake.
> >
> >One of the hot-spots for abuse is the Delaney Meadows
> >area along the Middle Fork of Calispell Creek
> >drainage.
> >
> >"Last year, there were about 245 vehicles and their
> >associated ORVs in the three-mile stretch we call the
> >meadows, and this year there were that many or more,"
> >said Nan Berger, Newport District recreation
> >specialist. "That's a lot of rigs packed into a small
> >area.
> >
> >Similar damage was reported in Woodward Meadows in the
> >Cottonwood Creek area south of Chewelah.
> >
> >"The type of damage that's occurred in the past month
> >is unusual for Woodward Meadows," said George
> >Buckingham, the forest's ecosystem planner.
> >
> >"It appears that off-road vehicle use is increasing at
> >a fairly dramatic rate on the forest."
> >
> >Off-roaders drove through the meadows as well as
> >through seasonal streams, he said. "They did
> >considerable damage to the vegetation and soil. They
> >left a lot of trash in the meadows and near the Middle
> >Fork of the Calispell," he said, adding: "It's just a
> >mess."
> >
> >ORV use is not new on the Colville.
> >
> >Karen Soenke, former resource assistant for the
> >Newport District, said she gave considerable effort to
> >educating the public about ORV use starting 10 years
> >ago.
> >
> >"We set aside a trail system for them in the Middle
> >Fork of Calispell Creek and worked two years trying to
> >inform them about the impacts of off-road use," she
> >said.
> >
> >A brochure on ORV use was published in 1996.
> >
> >"Most of the damage occurs in the spring, when it's
> >the muddiest and funnest. We spent two Memorial Day
> >weekends talking to people who came into the popular
> >areas. People sort of policed themselves. But now it's
> >fizzled out."
> >
> >With the Colville's recreation and enforcement budgets
> >getting smaller and smaller, there's little chance to
> >step up enforcement, Berger said.
> >
> >"We have to learn to work with these people to respect
> >their national forests," Buckingham said. "ORV use is
> >legitimate, but we have to work with them to use the
> >national forest in a respectful way.
> >
> >"We'll be working on a short-term restoration plan as
> >well a longer term strategy on how to address this
> >increasing ORV use on the forest."
> >
> >Wet meadows serve a valuable function to filter out
> >natural sediment and provide biological diversity to
> >the overall aquatic system that supports fish, he
> >said.
> >
> >"Damage to the point of a great deal of exposed
> >mineral soil provides a seed bed for noxious weeds,"
> >he pointed out. "Once introduced, they're costly to
> >control. They spread quickly and replace native plants
> >used by fish and wildlife species."
> >
> >The meadow areas are home to plants that are rare in
> >the rest of the forest, said Colville botanist Kathy
> >Ahlenslager.
> >
> >Moonworts and blue-eyed grass are adapted to growing
> >in grazed areas that are disturbed by animal hooves,
> >she said. "But this is a whole different level of
> >disturbance they can't tolerate," she said.
> >
> >"The riders are camping right on the stream banks and
> >driving through the Middle Fork of Calispell Creek and
> >gouging out the meadow because they like the mud
> >holes. It's a water quality issue as much as it's a
> >vegetation issue."
> >
> >So many wheels on a wet meadow compacts the soil and
> >forces water to run off rather than soaking into the
> >ground, she said.
> >
> >Some forest workers are alarmed by the number of
> >unauthorized trails ORVers have cut from the North
> >Fork of Chewelah Creek into the national forest in the
> >past few years to link meadow areas with the
> >Batey-Bould ORV trail system.
> >
> >Illegal trails also are being cut in the Tacoma and
> >Middle Fork of Calispell Creek areas, Berger said.
> >"They're even building illegal fords across the
> >creeks.
> >
> >"These aren't really organized groups, so it's hard to
> >peg them," she said.
> >
> >Berger said the problem is escalating.
> >
> >"We've tried public contacts. The problem is catching
> >the violators. If we're up there, word gets out pretty
> >fast, and we don't see the behaviors you can cite them
> >for."
> >
> >No citations were issued last month, she said. The
> >Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Department said large
> >numbers of ORVs were in the Delaney Meadows area, some
> >driving at high speeds, but no serious accidents were
> >reported.
> >
> >Private timber companies are getting fed up with this
> >sort of land abuse. Last year, Inland Empire Paper Co.
> >closed or restricted access to 3,200 acres of its
> >forest near Newman Lake.
> >
> >Other timber companies are closing areas, too, Berger
> >said.
> >
> >"There's no pack-it-in, pack-it-out ethic among so
> >many of these people and we just don't have the money
> >to clean up after them," she said.
> >
> >Berger said she's appalled at how many people make
> >their own vehicle-access campsites with no idea of how
> >to dig a small latrine or even use the cat-hole method
> >of burying their human waste.
> >
> >"It's disgusting," she said.
> >
> >She said signs were put up in some meadow areas this
> >year to no avail.
> >
> >"We found tracks and a big mud-out right in front of
> >one sign," she said.
> >
> >"We might be looking at area closures. I hate to go
> >there, but we're tired of seeing the tremendous amount
> >of resource damage."
> >
> >"This is one of those things we've tried to deal with
> >and had limited success for a while so we thought we
> >had a handle on it," said Dan Dallas, district ranger
> >at Newport. "But now it's just got away from us again.
> >
> >"The riders really don't see it as causing a problem.
> >They think it will heal, the grass will grow back in,
> >they're just having fun. They don't understand the
> >real resource damage they're doing."
> >
> >Dallas said forest officials would have to come up
> >with some way to address ORVs.
> >
> >"I'm loathe to shut people out of any part of their
> >national forest, but on the other hand, I can't let
> >people destroy the national forest.
> >
> >"We're struggling with that balance."

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]