Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

Forest Service seeks input on district roads

Kaibab National Forest officials met with the public last week to present motorized use alternatives for the Tusayan Ranger District and to discuss their impact on dispersed camping, firewood cutting and game retrieval.

The meeting, the second for the Tusayan Travel Management Project, was held Monday, Sept. 18, and drew about 10 people.

According to Chip Ernst, forest officials are asking the public to comment specifically on dispersed camping and motorized game retrieval ­ both issues that managers expected would be addressed in the national travel management rule. These have since been exempted.

"We're here to clarify those issues," he said.

In the first meeting held in May of 2005, officials discussed the results of a road inventory and presented a plan for discussion that would close or decommission more than 300 of the more than 1,000 miles of road on the district.

Based on comments from that meeting and from scoping held last May, they came back this time with four alternatives ranging from leaving all of the district's roads open to closing all but a backbone of about 150 miles of the well-maintained roadway that makes up the wet weather system.

Ernst said that in all plans some roads are slated for decommission, meaning they will be erased from the landscape. Others will be closed to public use but will remain functional for emergency uses such as firefighting.

The alternatives also showed locations of user-established dispersed campsites accessible from forest roads. Tusayan District Ranger Rick Stahn defined dispersed sites as those where users drove off the road and into the forest as far as 30 or 40 feet.

Ernst said it wasn't an exhaustive inventory.

"Not every area used as a campsite is on here," he said. "We are trying to gather up and outline all of them."

Sites on roads that are closed or decommissioned will be removed from the inventory, he said. Resource concerns, particularly archaeological, would close some sites as well.

Calling larger RVs "a fact of life," Ernst said the final ruling on dispersed camping would address demands for space to accommodate them as well as smaller RVs.

The alternatives also included a range of options for motorized game retrieval, from the current policy of permitting any vehicle that can gain access and navigate the terrain to prohibiting all off-road vehicles.

Stahn said that the final policy on motorized game retrieval would be subject to wet weather road closures.

"If we had to close roads in October, it would interfere with the hunt," he said. "Hunters would have to keep on the main surface roads."

"If it's wet enough to do resource damage on roads, we can't afford to have traffic cross-country," said Ernst.

ATV users also weighed in, and based on their comments, one alternative included an extra 18 miles of rough road for their use.

Resident Kim Crumbo asked if the Forest Service had previous studies or implementations they could use for guidance.

"It would be very useful to have some kind of prior evaluation before implementing anything here," he said. "It would provide examples of where this system works."

Stahn said that Tusayan Ranger District is "the first one out of the chute in the region" to develop a local transportation management plan.

"Your decision on this sets the precedent," said Crumbo. "There are a lot of implications in the decision that you make."

Ernst said that management of firewood cutting would likely be done by permit in designated areas.

Stahn said that as long as sites had archaeological clearance, forest users could still go into areas treated through thinning to collect slash.

Officials expect a decision in time to affect the 2007 hunt.

Ernst said that he is comfortable with the process as it is exploring the widest possible range of options.

"We couldn't have spread the alternatives any further," he said. "We've stretched it out as far as we can stretch it."

Existing documents are available at the Tusayan Ranger District Office, on the east side of Highway 64, just south of the entrance station.

Information can also be found at www.fs.fed.us/r3/kai/plan-revision.


Donate Report a Typo Contact