Over 20 Challenges To Offroad Plan

More than 20 appeals were filed by the midnight deadline Tuesday, challenging the Forest Service’s new travel management plan which prescribes where visitors can and cannot go on motorized vehicles when visiting the Santa Fe National Forest. Various groups, along with the village of Jemez Springs, have taken umbrage with the plan, released June 28, that would reduce access to nearly 70 percent of roads and trails currently open to vehicles, while prohibiting all off-road travel. “The forest service never showed that current motorized use was causing unacceptable impacts, yet they’re still closing over 70 percent of the existing roads and trails,” said Mark Werkmeister, recreation resources director for the New Mexico Off-Highway Vehicle Alliance. And once in place, Jemez Springs Mayor Edmund Temple – who co-signed the NMOHVA appeal – said that the new travel plan would have a severe impact on his community of 254 residents, which relies heavily on visitors to the forest for its funding. “I’m reflecting the view of a number of residents of the village, and the feeling is that they chose the most conservative plan. A number of people own property up in those areas and they’re restricted out,” Temple said. “There are issues out there, but this is essentially a forest closure. “When the forest has closed in the past, the village has suffered. The feeling is that if this goes through as is, there would be a severe economic impact on the village.” The new travel plan reduced motorized access to a designated system of approximately 2,463 miles of motorized travel roads and trails. Visitors will be limited in how far they can travel off-road for camping and game retrieval. The plan does allow corridors of 100 feet on either side of approved road segments. Gilbert Sandoval, chairman of the Jemez River Basin Coalition of Acequias, also co-signed the NMOHVA appeal, agreeing that the new plan is too restrictive – and in the case of Sandoval and his constituents, the plan inhibits area residents from accessing lumber and areas for grazing...more