Back then, there was always a chance for a scrap whenever an environmentalist met face to face with an avowed all-terrain-vehicle enthusiast.
But on this morning, just across from the Painted Rocks State Campground, the two are contently listening to the Bitterroot National Forest West Fork Ranger Dave Campbell talk about the compromise that will both create a new loop trail for off-road-vehicle riders and protect an area important to many.
“That's going to be closed,” he said. “We'll re-contour the trail and build a fence.”
In exchange, ATV enthusiasts will get a new, family-friendly loop trail with stunning vistas and a nice destination.
The Forest Service began working this week on its upgrade of the Jew Mountain Trail east of the Painted Rocks state campground just off the West fork highway. The project will likely take several years to complete.
“Funding is going to be an issue,” Campbell said. “We are happy to be at this point. It's easier to get started when you reach an agreement than when you don't.”
The popular ATV trail has long been contentious among those tracking resource damage on public lands. The first section of the trail is steep and prone to erosion. Worse is the illegal riding that's occurred around a clay pit located on state lands. The area is supposed to be off-limits to ATVs.
“They've ridden over there a lot and pigged it out horribly,” Nicholls said. “It's created a bunch of problems and we wanted to get it stopped.”
Nicholls, a local member of the Sierra Club, and John Groves of the Friends of the Bitterroot are listening as Campbell explains plans for the trail. Standing alongside them is Thompson, a board member with the Ravalli County Off Road User Association.
ATV access on public lands is the driving force for many who belong to the Ravalli County organization. The group formed last year with about 100 members. Since then it's nearly tripled to 280.
“We all came together in response to the Forest Service forest plan, which called for a lot of restrictions,” Thompson said. “It's really taken off. We advocate access for everybody.”
The Jew Mountain Trail and one other are the only trails officially designated for off-road-vehicles in the Bitterroot National Forest, he said.
“It's important to us,” Thompson said.
Before finalizing the plan, Campbell met with different folks to hear about their concerns.
He discovered the environmental groups were most concerned about the lower portion of the trail and the damage occurring at the clay pit. ATV riders wanted a new loop trail. The state and Forest Service were worried about mixing ATVs with high-speed traffic on the West Fork Highway.
Campbell's solution was unique.
The bottom portion of the trail would be closed and re-contoured.
Licensed drivers on street legal ATVs will be able to access the trail by traveling on Overwhich Creek Road.
Those wanting to avoid speeding traffic can hook onto their trailers and haul their ATVs to a trailhead - which should be built in the next year or so - about two miles up Overwhich Creek Road.
From there, they'll start out on a road that's designated dual travel, which allows for both full-sized vehicles and non-street-legal ATVs to bump along on the same route.
“As far as I can tell, this is the first time this dual designation has been attempted in the state,” Campbell said.
The road will be clearly signed so folks traveling along in their four-wheel-drive pickups will be forewarned they might meet ATV riders along the way.
“We're going to do a number of different things to slow people's speed on the 10 miles of road that will have both types of traffic,” Campbell said. “We'll reduce the maintenance on the road. We'll also use ditching to slow traffic. It will be more like a backcountry road.”
Thompson said the new trailhead should attract families looking for a place to ride.
“This option allows young people to access the road legally,” Thompson said. “Most ATVs are street legal, but young people can't ride legally on most roads. There are just very few places where kids can get out and enjoy the sport.”
For the most part, the people who recreate on national forest lands all want the same thing, Campbell said.
It doesn't matter if they are a hiker, an ATV rider or travel the backcountry on a horse - people want a decent trail that will take them to a destination that's pretty.
“The challenge comes in meeting people's expectations,” Campbell said. “That's what makes this job interesting.”
Once the work starts to take shape, Forest Service OHV rangers will be on hand to explain the changes and hand out violations if necessary.
“We want to give people a lot of opportunity to do things right,” Campbell said. “This should provide a lot of opportunity and a good alternative for people who might consider going off trail.”
Hooking these trails together should encourage responsible use of ATVs,” he said.
Grove worries the agency isn't going to have the funds needed to maintain the trail system.
“The supervisor's office only gets about 10 percent of what it takes to properly maintain the existing road system,” Grove said. “Where's the money going to come from to maintain this?”
Thompson said the local ATV organization is working to obtain grants to help the Forest Service in its trail maintenance efforts.
“There are bucks there. We just have to go after them,” he said.
The ATV group wants to work with the agency as much as possible, he said.
“We really support their efforts in employing OHV rangers,” Thompson said. “Those kinds of efforts are important in getting us to where we want to go. Š We need to find ways to prevent people from doing something illegal.”
Funding sources for projects like these are becoming more competitive all the time, Campbell said. Broad-based support can only help in securing some of that money, he said.
“I may be overly optimistic, but it seems to me like there's a lot of give-and-take going on,” said Campbell. “In this case we were able to get the off-road folks talking to the Friends of the Bitterroot and came up with something I think they can live with.”
“When people spend time together, they have a chance to start seeing the other viewpoint a little more clearly,” he said. “In this case we were looking for a reasonable approach that works.”
Travel management will be the next issue the Bitterroot National Forest analyzes once it completes the current revision of its forest land-use plan, Campbell said.
“I think it's going to come up pretty quick once that's completed,” he said. “Days like today will help lay the groundwork for that effort. We're going to be talking about finding solutions just like what we're doing today.”
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