Damage prompts trail closure in Bitterroot Forest
By BUDDY SMITH Staff Reporter
Increasing damage along a trail in the Bitterroot National Forest near Hamilton has prompted officials to close it to all motorized use, the agency said.
Sleeping Child Trail No. 105 is in an area about four miles east of Little Sleeping Child Road. Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull signed an emergency closure order because of "rapidly expanding resource damage."
Increased motorized use the past two years has widened and eroded the trail, and damaged streamside areas, officials said. "The trail had been open to motorcycles only, but the damage is being caused by ATVs and motorcycles," a news release said.
"I don't take closing a trail lightly," Bull said. "But the damage being done to this area is significant enough to warrant an emergency closure. We will begin an environmental review to determine if the trail closure will be permanent (or) if steps can be taken to minimize impacts from motorized use."
The Forest Service cited a combination of increased and illegal use. Officials who noticed ATV use on the "single-track" trail last fall placed signs there to explain the kind of use allowed. That didn't work, Mary Laws, a recreation specialist for the Forest Service at Darby, said Friday.
The upper section off Rye Creek No. 75 Road is too steep to sustain motorized use, officials said, and the lower portion of the nearly 11-mile trail passes through numerous wet areas that are becoming boggy and rutted.
Laws said officials also found that, at the top of the trail, someone had been moving a smaller rock between two boulders meant to restrict large vehicles, and evidence that someone raked over ATV tracks for some distance, presumably to prevent them from being found, she said.
Laws said officials have closed trails in the past, including one up Tin Cup drainage recently. But she couldn't recall a recent time when the agency had had to close a "system trail" because of resource damage.
"Because of the damage, we are looking at opportunities to go in and make a decision about what kind of use we want on that trail," Laws said.
Reporter Buddy Smith can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected]
By BUDDY SMITH Staff Reporter
Increasing damage along a trail in the Bitterroot National Forest near Hamilton has prompted officials to close it to all motorized use, the agency said.
Sleeping Child Trail No. 105 is in an area about four miles east of Little Sleeping Child Road. Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull signed an emergency closure order because of "rapidly expanding resource damage."
Increased motorized use the past two years has widened and eroded the trail, and damaged streamside areas, officials said. "The trail had been open to motorcycles only, but the damage is being caused by ATVs and motorcycles," a news release said.
"I don't take closing a trail lightly," Bull said. "But the damage being done to this area is significant enough to warrant an emergency closure. We will begin an environmental review to determine if the trail closure will be permanent (or) if steps can be taken to minimize impacts from motorized use."
The Forest Service cited a combination of increased and illegal use. Officials who noticed ATV use on the "single-track" trail last fall placed signs there to explain the kind of use allowed. That didn't work, Mary Laws, a recreation specialist for the Forest Service at Darby, said Friday.
The upper section off Rye Creek No. 75 Road is too steep to sustain motorized use, officials said, and the lower portion of the nearly 11-mile trail passes through numerous wet areas that are becoming boggy and rutted.
Laws said officials also found that, at the top of the trail, someone had been moving a smaller rock between two boulders meant to restrict large vehicles, and evidence that someone raked over ATV tracks for some distance, presumably to prevent them from being found, she said.
Laws said officials have closed trails in the past, including one up Tin Cup drainage recently. But she couldn't recall a recent time when the agency had had to close a "system trail" because of resource damage.
"Because of the damage, we are looking at opportunities to go in and make a decision about what kind of use we want on that trail," Laws said.
Reporter Buddy Smith can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected]
