The Dirt Biker Chronicles

A lot has changed in Idaho over the last thirty years. The state’s population has more than doubled and, along with that,  there are ten times as many registered dirt bikes.

Unfortunately things have drastically changed in the Payette National Forest as well. In 1978 there were 1,773 miles of trail open to motorcycles. By 1991 that had been whittled down to 970 miles. In 2005 it was down to 642 miles. Now the Payette National Forest is proposing to reduce single-track motorcycle trail to 434 miles.

Trail motorcyclists are being systematically eliminated from the Payette National Forest. There is no other conclusion to be drawn from those numbers. Over 75% of the trails we could ride thirty years ago are now closed.

The Forest Service will state all sorts of reasons for the reduction: environmental concerns, wildlife habitat, elk breeding areas, budget cuts, erosion, and trails being underused to name a few.

I understand that we need to be environmentally conscious and respect the land. I love our forests and wildlife. I want them to survive for future generations to enjoy as I have.

However, the accumulated land mass of all single-track trails is a miniscule percent of total forest land. We’re not irreversibly damaging the forests with our trail riding. If you’ve ever seen a forest trail that has not been maintained or ridden for a few years, you know how fast they disappear into the landscape.

In fact I believe that non-maintenance is a tactic the Forest Service is using to eliminate motorcycle trails. The Payette Forest Service is good at this. Several of the trails they have slated for closure are not cleared and maintained. Then they turn around and say, “Nobody is using these trails, so we might as well close them.”

Last year I attempted to ride Vance Creek Trail #160 in the Payette Forest as part of a loop starting from Grassy Mountain Trail #163 and ending at Buck Lake Trail #162. We lost the Vance Creek Trail about 100 yards from the trail sign. It was overgrown and hadn’t been cleared of fallen trees for years. We searched but could not find any sign of the trail’s existence. So instead we took a forest road to the Warm Springs Saddle Trail #347 in hopes of taking it to Hard Butte Trail #344, which would tie us into Buck Lake Trail #162 and take us home. No such luck! We could not find Trail #344 either; another overgrown trail that had been devoured by the forest.

If that isn’t enough, if you still would think motorcycles are detrimental to the forest, then compare motorcycle impact to that of a forest fire. After a forest fire goes through an area you can’t tell a motorcycle has been there. Just drive around the Warm Lake area and try to find the motorcycle trails that were inside the burn area of this summer’s fires. A forest fire decimates the landscape. Fortunately an amazing thing with nature is that the forest recovers from a fire in time. The forest burned in Yellowstone’s 1988 fire have regenerated remarkably over the last twenty years.

None of that matters to the environmentalists and many of the Forest Service Supervisors, though. Their hidden agenda is to push motorized recreation out of the forests. They want to pin problems caused by climate change and population growth on motorized vehicles, like our elimination from the forest will solve all problems.

Sadly this agenda of eliminating motorcycles through a variety of excuses is not limited to just the Payette Forest. The Payette is just one forest trying to eliminate motorized access. Every Forest and every BLM district in the country is working on a Travel Management Plan. In most cases that means further reducing motorized access.

The time has long since come for the dirt motorcycle communities to stand up and fight for our rights to use public lands. This land is our land too, and we have as much right to influence policy as any other American. The fight is happening right now in the Payette National Forest, but it is coming to every forest and BLM district as well. If we do not fight for our interests now, we’ll be riding in fenced in parks in another thirty years.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on November 21st, 2007