7/20/09 Bend
 
By Doug Johnson
 
The debate is over public lands, and what should and shouldn't be allowed to travel through them. About ten hikers met with Sierra Club organizers in Bend Monday, to discuss identifying trail damage done by off road vehicles.
 
"We want to be able to empower the community to be able to pro-actively protect their favorite places, be able to protect the last and best habitat for wild life," says Asante Riverwind, an organizer with the Sierra Club in Bend.
 
For those who use the dirt roads, like Mona Drake a member of the Deschutes County four wheelers, changes are already coming. In 2010, the Forest Service will ban cross country travel in the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, meaning all off road vehicles can only travel on designated trails. Drake and other off roaders claim environmentalists like the Sierra Club are trying to influence the number of trials that will remain open.
 
"The Sierra Club is using that as an excuse to close as much as they can, and the hunters and the fishers they don't understand that that road's going to be closed," says Drake.
 
Reporting damage can change policy. In January, public complaints forced the Forest Service to ban off road vehicles from Ann's Butte, near Sunriver. The Deschutes County Four Wheelers says a minority of motorists do cause damage, but most are responsible, their club removing all trash it finds. When the Four Wheelers club goes through, it lets air from it's tires to have as little an impact as possible.
 
"Air down to as low as two pounds, and we go as fast as five miles an hour, we creep over the forest bed," Drake says.
 
The Sierra Club says even noise from motors can ruin the outdoor experience.
 
"We don't want to see a creation of trail systems so extensive that they are completely infusible," Riverwind says.
 
For more information on the 4 Wheelers Club visit:
http://www.deschutescounty4wheelers.com/
 
For more information on the Sierra Club visit:
http://oregon.sierraclub.org/groups/juniper/