The "Climate" is Right for Single Track Motorcycle Trail Revival
It’s been 14 years since the Forest Service launched the 2005
Travel Management Rule that directed all National Forests to designate roads,
trails, and areas for motorized vehicle use.
Unfortunately, thousands of miles of historic recreation roads and single-track
motorcycle trails were eliminated from consideration and subsequently closed once
those initial planning processes were completed.
Single Track Trail
Tahoe National Forest
QWR believes a number of relatively new factors are in
play that may help bolster a National Single-Track Revival in both the agency and user
community. Those 4 significant developments
include the Forest Service National Trails Strategy, agency commitment to
collaboration/partnerships, creative trail design/construction concepts, and an
empowered local user community.
ONE - The agency must continue to use its National Trails
Strategy as a motivational tool to encourage a “can-do” culture on units that
are (or should be) in the process of creating and managing a sustainable high-quality
trail network.
NATIONAL TRAILS STRATEGY
In recent years, some units are building new, or reconstructing
old, single-track motorcycle trails as part of their promise to the OHV
community to review those early travel management decisions. Again, support for trails is coming from
Washington D.C. and should be cited by OHV recreation groups as an onus for local
units to enhance trail opportunities.
Single Track Trail
BLM Pocatello Field Office
TWO- The collaborative process can bring land agency
staff, conservation groups, local government, other diverse stakeholders, and
the trail-based recreation community together with a common goal of both
protecting resources and providing a high-quality outdoor experience. This stakeholder process is centered on
attending meetings and field trips where information is shared, values are
appreciated, and relationships are formed.
Single Track Trail
Carnegie SVRA
Federal land agencies have made a long-term commitment to
a substantive stakeholder process on the front-end of the NEPA process. This is a welcome and significant change
from historic NEPA planning efforts where the agency had already made the
decision and was simply going through the required public process as more or
less of a formality.
THREE - Concepts such as the construction of new
“companion-trails” along existing road-based ATV, SxS, and 4WD routes to
separate vehicle types for safety and an enhanced trail experience should be
embraced by the agency and trail groups.
As appropriate, the agency’s vegetation management and
forest-health NEPA planning efforts could or should address important
trail-based recreation needs as part of a holistic and cost-effective approach
to forest planning.
FOUR - The agency’s shift to investing more time up front
in collaborative efforts also requires the recreation community to make a
similar commitment to getting some skin-in-the-game by attending meetings,
hosting a field trip, and substantively engaging with agency recreation staff
and decision-makers.
Club’s should appoint a designated representative(s) to
attend local land use planning meetings and make that long-term commitment to
help ensure that new single-track motorcycle trails will be included in future
planning efforts.
At the end-of-the-day, QWR believes you will find that
the quality of your local FS/BLM trail recreation program is, or will be,
directly proportional to the quality of your engagement with agency staff and
other users.
JOIN the Single-Track Revival today!
