Public Meeting for Dixie National Forest

[Don B]

Dixie National Forest is holding a series of open house meetings around the State on the new motorized travel plan.

The meeting in Salt Lake will be Jan.18th at the Main Library Level 4 Conference Room 210 E. 400 S. Time will be from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m.

Please attend and let them know what your thoughts are on this.

For information on the Dixie and Fishlake N.F. Motorized Travel Plan. Check out the website @ www.fs.fed.us/r4/dixie/projects/MTP/index.shtml

 

[SAMI]

cool, i'll try to be there.... who else is gonna go?

-Jason

 

[e28bimmer]

GRE will be there... at least to give them some grief on some of the existing roads they plan to make "non-motorized". Plus, we love the forest service, I think its great the way they do whatever they want in the name of preserving the land....

 

[scoutabout]

From looking at a few of the maps, it looks like they will be adding motorized routes in several areas. On the maps I looked at, I didn't even see a designation for routes to be closed. Don, you're our man on the ground down there, are we losing routes or does the proposal get a thumbs up?

 

[mbryson]

From looking at a few of the maps, it looks like they will be adding motorized routes in several areas. On the maps I looked at, I didn't even see a designation for routes to be closed. Don, you're our man on the ground down there, are we losing routes or does the proposal get a thumbs up?

Good to know. IF that's the case we should show up EN MASSE to support our FS friends. That's next Thursday night. I should be able to be there.

 

[Don B]

It was really interesting that they have meetings the 9th 10th and 11th, but they do the press release on the 10th. Anyway, we have until Jan.31st to get comments in.

Dixie National Forest covers quite a few areas, and some of them I'm barely familar with, I'm looking at the maps, but anyone who is familar with these areas and sees something that should be open that isn't needs to let it be known.

I'll try to have more information by next week.

 

[mbryson]

It was really interesting that they have meetings the 9th 10th and 11th, but they do the press release on the 10th. Anyway, we have until Jan.31st to get comments in.

Dixie National Forest covers quite a few areas, and some of them I'm barely familar with, I'm looking at the maps, but anyone who is familar with these areas and sees something that should be open that isn't needs to let it be known.

I'll try to have more information by next week.

Keep us updated. You guys do awesome work down there.

 

[scoutabout]

It was really interesting that they have meetings the 9th 10th and 11th, but they do the press release on the 10th. Anyway, we have until Jan.31st to get comments in.

Dixie National Forest covers quite a few areas, and some of them I'm barely familar with, I'm looking at the maps, but anyone who is familar with these areas and sees something that should be open that isn't needs to let it be known.

I'll try to have more information by next week.

I noticed that they mention they have the physical maps available for review at the district offices. It sounds like we need to contact those districts and find out what routes (if any) are proposed for closure.

 

[Don B]

Reminder, this meeting is today.

Two main concerns I have with this plan are;

1. Previous closures, like the massive road closures on Boulder Top are not being addressed in this process. I think these routes they say are closed by previous decision should be considered also.

2. The huge percentage of roads that are not closed, but open to Admin./Permitees only. If these lands belong to the public, why are large sections of our National Forests being shut of from the public?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

The Dixie National Forest District hosted a public hearing on a motorized travel plan that will take effect in 2008. I had the chance to sit down with them at a hearing tonight and actually look at the maps (they had ~20 HUGE maps covering the entire forest )

If any of you know much about the area, please, please take a look at the maps on their website and make sure the "good" routes are still legit. They have 300-1000 miles of trails that could potentially (likely) close in this forest, many are worthless & illegal (their definition ) timber and administrative routes, but some could be very good 4x4 roads. In addition, many "jeep trail" roads are being converted to ATV only.

Please take a minute (or an hour or two) and check out the maps on their website, they have done a phenominal job cataloging their trails for review in contrast to other forests I tried to make note of as many as I could, but not knowing the area in depth makes it hard.

You can view the maps & info here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/dixie/projects/MTP/index.shtml

Please take a minute and send them a comment regardless... they will take input from everyone, wether you have been there or if you plan to go there in your Cruiser on day

 

[e28bimmer]

missed the meeting, but sent a nice long letter detailing the reasons why the roads should remain open to 4 wheel drive access. (also why ATV only is a violation of the RS2477 ruling - if anyone wants a copy of this letter to send to them, please send me an email -cshuman@goldrushexpeditions.com) How was the general feel of the meeting? Supportive of the closings or hopeful of keeping access open?

 

[scoutabout]

There weren't many attendees, and the meeting was more of an open house discussion. We had the project leader from the FS to ourselves while we were there. It kept her away from the SUWA folks that showed up. Like cruiseroutfit mentions, some roads are being closed and others are being changed to ATV only for one reason or another. It'd be great to get a crew together to check out some of the more interesting looking roads that are going to become ATV only. They might be making that designation because they think a 4x4 can't get through there.

 

[Don B]

Tomorrow, Jan.31st is the last day for public comment on the new travel plan.
If you haven't yet sent in your comment, please do so.

Comments can be emailed to: comments_dixie_motorized_travel_plan@fs.fed.us

General comments such as; "I support motorized recreation in the National Forest" are perfectly acceptable. A good general comment to get in is; " I would like to see trails considered as technical 4x4 routes"

 

[Seth]

Do This!!!!!!!!!!