Forrest Service wants input on roads to close

[Alder]

The forest service in Oregon is holding meetings and looking for input in their online mapping tool to help them decide what roads they will stop maintaining in the Willamette National Forest. Here is the press release. If there is a specific area that is particularly important for you - roads that you would love to keep maintained or roads you would be glad were no longer maintained, get your input in.



Press Release:
Contact: Matt Peterson (541)225-6421
Date: September 30, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Forest Service wants your input about long term road management strategies
The Willamette National Forest has scheduled three meetings in October to solicit ideas and
help from the public as it begins to wrestle with long-term road management decisions. The
Forest Service needs your help addressing the twin challenges of an aging road system and a
limited maintenance budget, in a landscape that regularly washes out roads and grows trees
and brush that can limit access.
Wednesday, October 29, 6:00 – 8:00 pm at the Springfield Interagency Office, 3106
Pierce Parkway, Springfield, OR.
The Willamette National Forest wants to hear from you before developing a road investment strategy,
which will guide the efficient use of the limited maintenance funding to protect roads and access to
special places that the public holds dear. Forest Service roads are important for almost every activity on
National Forests:managing fire, hiking and fishing, timber harvest, hunting, ecological restoration,
firewood, and more.
Both meetings will start with a presentation about roads management on the Willamette National
Forest and a chance for questions and answers. After the presentation, there will be maps of the on
tables, and visitors will be encouraged to draw on the maps to show areas or roads that are important
to them.
If you’re not able to attend the meeting, you can still tell us about why roads are important to you and
what areas you value. The Forest Service recently unveiled a new, innovative interactive mapping tool
that lets you draw right on the digital map, commenting about why you value an area. Anyone with an
internet connection can use the mapping tool, available at http://go.usa.gov/KqGH.
The mapping tool is easy to use, giving users options about what kinds of data (or layers) they’d like
displayed on the map, including roads, trails, recreation sites, and wilderness areas. The map also shows
other people’s comments, without names, allowing the chance for dialogue about these areas.

 

[cowboystl1]

well the good thing is some areas will be harder for road hunter to access and the roads will still last for years upon years as hiking trails. bad is less forest maintenance means might have issues of over growth to places they cant get to to maintain  if they do such.

 

[Arrows4Elk]

IMO, close off as many roads as you can. 

I'm probably in the minority, but I prefer as much non-motorized country as we can possibly preserve. Save the wilderness for us, our kids, and generations to come.

 

[Packn]

IMO, close off as many roads as you can. 

I'm probably in the minority, but I prefer as much non-motorized country as we can possibly preserve. Save the wilderness for us, our kids, and generations to come.

Closing the roads is just the beginning. Next step is closing access to wilderness to us our kids and the generations to come. I'm not trying to be a hater but the FS doesn't want us up there. I hunt off horses so I like others can get where others can't. We have to fight to keep roads open for all to use.

 

[Arrows4Elk]

Packn, I dont think you are hating. I think we are on the same page. 

It's so interesting to hear you say the FS doesn't want hunters in your open space. What state are you in?  In Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working hand in hand with the FS trying to encourage as many hunters as possible to buy available tags and hunt (I am a hunters-ed instructor for CPW). 

I'm simply an advocate for closing roads to provide as much non-motorized public land as possible, as I also only hike and occasionally use horses. If closing roads in your area means reducing total available public lands (not just ease of access) for everyones use, I would be against it too.

 

[Packn]

Arrows4Elk I'm in SW CO. I am fortunate enough I can go in as far as I want for as long as I want. I watched the effects it had on people in the Dolores/Mancos area when the FS went in a couple years ago and closed some roads and camping areas that people had been using for decades.  I'm not up for opening up more country in the mountains but want people to retain the access they have.


One more thing; let the loggers go to work.

 

[Alder]

Packn,


makes sense to me - I know there was one road that is 11 miles of gravel then a mile hike to a lake that is heavily used by boy scouts. if they close those 11 miles - might not get any of those boys out in the woods. However, I could see shutting down some of the spur roads to get better hunting. gotta be a balance. One thing I like here in oregon is they do put out the ideas like this out in the public and ask about areas that people really want open and ones they dont care about too much.


Greg

 

[MT_Nate]

I do not mind road closures.  The elk tend to distance themselves from active roads, but a non-active can provide quiet, easy access to honey holes as they develop.

Now the bad side though (for hunters).  In Northwest Montana, closed roads in the more precipitous mountain ranges slowly transform to Alder/Yew brush jungles and tightly spaced pines/firs.  Closing a road typically shuts down maintenance, and over a few years the road becomes an impassable barrier that not even the game can use easily.  This is an eternal bummer to me...even non-motorized non-hunters cannot enjoy the areas they once accessed.

I'm not sure if there's a solution here, as the FS cannot be expected to maintain old roads that no longer provide harvest options, etc.  But man it bums me out when access to a good honey hole you've invested lots of time in becomes impassable.  Granted, you can travel off the roads, but typically the areas adjoining the roads are regenerated clearcuts that are already so thick that they cannot be used for meaningful travel.