Shortcuts don’t have any redeeming value whether you are at
work or on the trail. While on a recent
tour of various travel management prescriptions on the Mendocino National
Forest, I had the opportunity to gauge the effectiveness and success of the St.
John Mountain Restoration Project.
In 2007, the Forest applied for a restoration grant to the
California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division’s grant program to
address trail shortcuts created when the unit had an “Open” to cross country
travel designation.
The agency was awarded the grant that helped support the
effort to use natural woody debris and trail barriers to rehabilitate
steep routes that could have impacted water quality or affected other
environmental concerns. Signs were also part of that equation.
As you can see in the photographs, the project has been very
successful in meeting its goal to protect natural resources. This project also had a positive benefit in that
it enhances the long-term future of managed OHV recreation in the area.
QWR believes that OHV-related restoration projects have
become an important tenet of managed OHV recreation in the 21st
Century. “Restoration” (R) can now be
added as another foundation block to the three “E”s - Education, Enforcement,
and Engineering as core elements of any successful motorized program.
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