I just received a letter from the USDA Forest Service on the proposed changes to the Ouachita National Forest (both Oklahoma and Arkansas). I received it on 2/21 and forgot about it (need a kick in the butt for that). A list of the proposed closed areas can be found at www.aokforests.com and at the Rangers District Offices in the Ouachita National Forest. Comments can be mailed ellectronically to "comments-southern-ouachita@fs.fed.us. This is a 8 page document with lots of information written by laywers. The document is called 40 CFR 1501.7. I need to quickly scan it in so everyone can see it. There is only a 30 day comment period.
Posted by: gas gas jack---------------------
I searched the link, and missed the 'message'; can you supply more info ?? Thanks, Jack
no no...that link worked fine. I couldn't find the list of closings, the proposed 2008 revisions or this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mudd slinger
The document is called 40 CFR 1501.7
Just curious about it, as I saw the post by bbbom today for Idaho. That comment period is over for Idaho...however.....Curious as to the new guidelines.
Thanks for the updates.
Posted by: Mudd Slinger---------------------
I scanned in the document images and added them page by page to (my) Mudd Slinger's Image Gallery. I will try to find a way to paste them into this forum.
The document called 40 CFR 1501.7 may not be correct. Please see the overwhelming amount of information in the docs.
From reading the document, it looks like they are closing areas but it is hard to tell where the areas are located. After looking at some of the maps, I noticed they closed all the areas around Broken Bow (where I use to go camping in the rough).
From the maps, it looks like they kept most of the areas around the INT and Talimena camping area open. It is still a little confusing when jumping from section to section in their maps. I guess (hope) most of the INT and joining trails are open. I noticed some closed areas (black) on the eastern side (toward Arkie land) of INT.
Is anyone else drawing any conclusions after looking at all the information?
Posted by: 02stampede---------------------
Not trying to ressurect the dead but this is still continuing. My parent have a cabin in broken bow. The national forest is on the other side of the street from us which is where the trails begin. Or so I thought. After a couple rides back getting fuel, lunch, maintenance, etc. we ran into a game warden. I have a copy of the oklahoma atv trail riding magazine stating all the laws, do's and don'ts. They are very vague to say the least. I was ticketed for riding on an 80 foot stretch skirting the road to get to the marked trail. He knew that we meant no harm and wore safety gear and took all precautions etc. . After chatting with him and signing my ticket I learned a few things. This area is becoming more and more popular. Especially by people from Dallas. He also said he rides himself but not as much anymore because of these people that come and break laws making it unsafe which leads to more trails shut down. I now know I cannot use that small trail (which is not marked for no OHV use) and have to trailer my bikes up to go an 1/8th of a mile and offload there. I have no problem with doing that other than the convenience factor. I just think these trails need to be marked just as frequently as they are going to hand out tickets for them . Otherwise, I would have never gotten this ticket to begin with. The highway clearly states when you need to adjust your speed, as does a stop sign when you should stop. End rant.
The way the forest service goes about deciding which trails stay open is this.
They take into account records of tickets issued, accidents, and land destructed not on a designated trail and decide what trail networks stay open each year based on these things. Needless to say, they are dwindling. We need to police the others all the time so incidents don't continue to mount and kill our sport. I am going to write a letter asking for more signs marking trails and ohv rule pamphlets available at all gas stations etc. This everyone could win. Its the idiots that have no respect of authority that will continue our demise.
