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Post subject: LVN - Trail markers meeting resistance at Sand Mt.
 Posted: Feb 06, 2004 - 08:44 PM
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Joined: Jul 25, 2001
Posts: 2745
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February 4, 2004
Trail markers meeting resistance at Sand Mt.
By CORY MCCONNELL
Staff Writer, Lahontan Valley News
Off-roaders and land managers are trying to gauge the effect of hundreds
of red and green markers now dotting the trails around the massive dune 30
miles east of Fallon known as Sand Mountain.
The markers, meant to encourage the use of some trails and discourage the
use of others, embody a Bureau of Land Management plan to convince
off-roaders to stay off sensitive land without building physical barriers.
The bureau views voluntary trail closures as a fairly unintrusive way to
protect the area's rare species, but its plan has met with opposition from
both sides of the issue.
While environmentalists view the voluntary restrictions as a meaningless
gesture with no chance of preserving habitat, off-roaders say the trail
closures are overboard, confusing and possibly dangerous.
"It's just not the same place anymore," said off-roading enthusiast Jon
Crowley.
"It's getting to the point where people are gonna say 'I don't need this,'
and go some place else."
Land managers have pinpointed areas beside the dune's north and northwest
edges where vegetation still grows, and closed off most of the trails that
run through those areas.
While several rare species live in and around the recreation area, the
biggest concern for the BLM and off-roaders is the plight of the Sand
Mountain Blue Butterfly and the Kearney Buckwheat it depends upon.
So far, the butterfly has only been found at Sand Mountain Recreation
Area. A further decline in the insect's habitat could result in an
endangered or threatened listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
which would likely be followed by stringent Off-Highway Vehicle bans.
While off-roaders and BLM officials are both pushing to head off such a
listing, recreators say the trail-closures focus solely on OHVs and do so
in bad fashion.
The markers along trails are often confusing, Crowley said. Red means
"discouraged" and green means "encouraged," but open trails are often
lined with red markers along either side while green markers are posted in
the middle of the trail.
The red markers along trails' sides are meant to tell riders not to
venture off the trail, but Crowley said it often gives riders pause. The
green markers in the center of trails, Crowley said, are simply nuisances
and can be dangerous. The markers sprout in the center of some trails,
becoming obstacles in what used to be a clear path.
The space between the center markers and the edges of the path are
sometimes too narrow for sand rails, leaving rail drivers with a choice:
"run over the marker or run over the vegetation," Crowley said.
BLM spokesperson Mark Struble acknowledged some kinks still need to be
ironed out, saying the trail-marking plan is in its infancy.
"We understand their frustrations, and our rangers are working on it on a
daily basis," Struble said.
Confusing sets of signs are generally due to a confusing array of trails,
Struble said, that come together and split apart randomly.
"There's always going to be some problems where you get a spider web of
trails. It gets confusing trying to sort it out," Struble added.
Off-roaders are also upset the BLMs habitat-conservation plan seems only
to take into account OHVs, ignoring various other possible contributors to
a massive die-off of Sand Mountain's vegetation over the last couple of
decades.
On Saturday, a couple dozen head of cattle were lumbering around near the
600-foot-tall dune, grazing on sagebrush and tumbleweeds.
"If they'll eat the sagebrush, I would think they would eat the
buckwheat," Crowley said.
The Sand Mountain Recreation Area is part of a 67,000 square-acre parcel
of public range land on which about 400 head of cattle graze from late
November to March 1.
Struble said the grazing allotment will be reviewed when the Sand Mountain
management plan is officially amended to include long-term conservation
measures. The current trail markers, Struble said, is a short-term attempt
at stopping habitat degradation. |
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