Umatilla NF-West Side OHV Project EA

[Grumpy]

Heppner Ranger District on the Umatilla N.F. is releasing the West Side OHV Project EA on about the 15th of Dec., 2008. This is the only area on the Umatilla not yet designated. Most of the plan is geared to class I and III. To get a copy of the EA and submit comments, call 541-676-9187 and request a copy, either disc or paper. It can also be found at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/projects/readroom/ when released.

The only way to have an appeal voice is to submit comments at this time. 30 day comment period. This area is on the west and southwest sides of the Morrow County OHV Park, and will have tie trails to acess USFS ground to the OHV Park. We need to put the pressure on to get class II routes other than existing roads.
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Art Waugh
PNW4WDA Oregon Executive Director 2003-05

[Grumpy]

Got the EA last night. They are not considering any trails for class II (4x4) because of the enforcement issues between "class II and small pickups" We need comments on this project sent in either electronically or in writing by the 15th of January. This project will tie into the Morrow/Grant County OHV Park and provide more opportunity for recreation, but we have to put the pressure on now. I asked them in April at the presentation they gave to the RAC to include trails for class II, as gravel roads do not provide our type of recreation. Evidently that fell on deaf ears. Read this EA and SUBMIT COMMENTS, PLEASE
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Art Waugh
PNW4WDA Oregon Executive Director 2003-05

[Roman]

where is the Umatilla N.F.?

[Grumpy]

Most of the Blue Mts. in WA. & OR. Includes areas in Walla Walla county in WA, Umatilla, Union, Morrow, and Gilliam counties in Oregon. The area being discussed here in mostly in SW Morrow county below Heppner.

[Grumpy]

West End OHV Project Appealed
This project includes 91,000 acres of National Forest System lands located on the west side of the Heppner Ranger District west of Forest Road 22 and consists of portions of the Upper Rock Creek, Wall Creek, and Lower John Day River-Kahler Creek watersheds. The agency has proposed designating 233 miles of roads for OHV use, including 207 miles for Class II vehicles. The Sierra Club has jointly appealed this project to the Forest Supervisor, Umatilla National Forest, jointly with the League of Wilderness Defenders - Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project, Grant County Conservationists, and Oregon Wild. The appeal requests withdrawal and/or significant modification of the decision that authorizes the designation of OHV trail systems The full text of this appeal can be read at West End OHV Project EA Appeal. A summary of this project and the appeal can be read on the Umatilla NF page. (10-14-09)

[Grumpy]

Umatilla: Natural Forest or OHV Playground?
by Roberta Vandehey, March 2009
On February 2, 2009 the comment period for the West End Umatilla National Forest’s OHV Travel Plan Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) ended. The "Project" proposes 5 alternative OHV trail systems. Most obviously demonstrated by this approximately 150-page document is the need for it to be replaced by a more thorough analysis in an Environmental Impact Statement. The need for an extensive EIS for this "Project" is indisputably documented in the comments submitted to the Umatilla’s Heppner Ranger District by a coalition of forest users and conservationists, including the American Hiking Society, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, Grant County Conservationists, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club, and Oregon Wild. We need to join them in demanding that Heppner Ranger District of the Umatilla National Forest now prepare an EIS to address the issues that the Draft EA does not address. Additionally, opposition to the use of OHV’s on this West End Forest was mounted through a citizen petition opposing use of OHV’s on Forest Road 2500, which connects with the new Wheeler County Notch Road, on any special trails, and near the Bull Prairie Nature Park. That independent petition garnered upwards of 100 signatures from independent folks from wide areas of Oregon and Washington.

There has been extensive opposition to the use of OHV’s on this and upon other National Forest lands by the general, multi-use public. Experience and the National Dunes areas have sadly demonstrated that OHV use of public lands not only destroys the resources, habitat and wildlife, but also excludes the quiet, peaceful non-intrusive use of those lands by others. The Draft EA fails to include a single trail for the largest unmet demand in non-motorized Trailbased recreation throughout Oregon, including hiking, biking, backpacking, horseback riding and walking/running. OHV playgrounds also do not co-exist with Forest use by photographers, wildlife enthusiasts, or bird watchers. The best way to empty a forest of its creatures is to turn a herd of ATV’s loose in it! West End Umatilla National forest with its variety of recreational experiences should be managed for the benefit of all visitors, instead of current agency plans to open the West End Umatilla to widespread OHV use.

The relationship of the new Wheeler County Notch Road (see Oregon Conifer, Fall 2008) to the Heppner District’s OHV Travel Plan has now become alarmingly clear. After that road’s final approval and construction in December 2007, Wheeler County officials announced that Notch Road was built as an OHV access road into southwest corner of the Forest, then some 20 miles further on Forest Road 2500 to the Morrow County ATV Park on the northeasterly side of the Forest, adjacent to the Bull Prairie Nature Park. This is an alarming situation where a county was allowed to build a road into a formerly small roadless area of a National Forest for the explicit purpose of creating an OHV "Playground". Worse yet is the fact that Heppner District-sponsored Title II funding facilitated the building of this road by a county that otherwise described a fund-deficiency that prevented the maintenance of their already existing county roads. Only after Notch Road was “legalizedâ€