*IMPORTANT* Eldorado route designation meetings.

[Gary E]

Hey Sean consider asking Jason about why they are not considering timber sales since that his the biggest resource the NF has that they are not using, and causing more fire damage. I really think without timber sales they have no money and its easy to succomb to the enviro whackos.

While Jason was answering one of the questions he used words that implied that the "prefered allternative" was allready decided upon. He got called on that pretty quick, and of course denied it but who really knows. He seemed the most unsympathetic to our concerns compared to the other FS people there.

Also it was made clear that all trails with temporary closures or pending discussion were pretty much disregarded even in alternative A. So even alternative A loses a lot.

 

[Onkover]

Managing the trails... what a crock this is. Current regulations puts most all the forest trails under the Fedral Parks and Rec laws. In basic terms if the trail is not passable by motor home then it needs repaired in under 3 months or closed for good. A 6 " rut can shut a trail down under these regulations.
The Forestry is expected to be able to keep up a 4WD trail in this manner. Funding manpower and keeping up equipment eats up what small budget they got. Fact is that the laws governing the OHV parks needs to be segregated from the federal parks commissions regulations and new statutes need to be formed for governing OHV trails.

Not that it will ever happen.

 

[Greg H]

Will be at the Concord/PH meeting.
I had plans to go Mtn biking with a friend that day.
When I told her why I needed to re-sched the biking trip, she decided
she needs to be at this meeting too.
She's not so much into the 4WD thing, more into horse riding, mtn bike, kayak, camping and the like, but this issue effects more than just us 4WD types.
We need everyone interested in keeping these areas open to show up,
regardless of what their recreational interests are. Gotta out-number the greenies!

 

[JeepFreak21]

I went to Placerville meeting last week and will attend folsom this week. The purpose of the meeting is to explain the process of the Comment Period and how we have all gotten to this point in the process. The Forest Supervisor did not attend Placerville as it was reported that his father was terminally ill. Jason (forget his last name) ran the meeting and he has only been in his position for two or three months. He sure inherited a tough job. Essentially 1800 miles are on the chopping block because the Forest Service cannot "manage" (whatever that means) all the current routes. By reducing the number of miles of trails they hope to be able to manage them better. However, by constricting the reported 15X increase in OHV use in the Forest to fewer trails, the remaining trails will just be more impacted by traffic, erosion, crowding...

A point of note is that over 200 people attended Placerville. Of those 200, I would guess somewhere between 5-10 were anti-access greenies that want the entire forest closed to vehicular activity. This is really a bad process and the forest service is trying to balance the interests of the OHV users versus the greenies (non-access) versus their budget to manage. The forest service finds it much easier to close down the forest than to leave it open and manage it.

I hope to see some familiar faces in Folsom. Anybody want to buy a jeep? I have a feeling the resale value on Jeeps in norcal is going to plummet.

See you there Sean!
Billy

 

[Jes]

The Pleasant Hill meeting is tomorrow!
Show up, show your support.

 

[Shomsky462]

The Pleasant Hill meeting is tomorrow!
Show up, show your support.

pologuy1441 and i will be there.
maybe we'll see you there. were takin a blue xj

 

[Capt. Nemo]

Unfortunately, I had some things come up and couldn't make the meeting. I WILL be writing some letters...

Look forward to hearing about the turnout.

 

[spudly]

I was expecting more Sierra Club types due to the location, but they were outnumbered somewhere around 250 to 4. The two back by me left right as the Q&A started.

Basically your typical government dog and pony show. You need to give them specifics and they give you generalities in return.

It was nice to see that there was a lot of support from all sectors of OHV's (Wheelers, Bikers, ATVr's).

Time to get some letters fired off while I have things fresh in my feeble mind.

 

[Shomsky462]

well. it was a learning eperience for me.
it kinda seems like they already know what there gonna do because they didnt reall answered any questions, they said: yes, and that would be a great question to submit.

they asked for specific questions, but gave answers like, yes or no.

one persons question was: in construction of the plan have you taken into consideration that if you close down all these trails that the few that will be open will become overcrowded, destroyed, etc..

their answer: yes we have...

anyways, it seemed like they went around all the questions and avoided things. to me it was more of a learning experience about what is going on but writing letters and emailiing etc, might be a more effective way to get your questions/comments heard.

they encourage you to write a letter but be very specific by talking about a favorite trail of yours. they want details like that.

 

[ccflexj]

i did not like how that meeting went at all. The only person who was going to choose what happened to El Darado trails wasn't even there ( even though his dad was sick the meeting should have been postponed till he was ready). To me that meeting was a bunch of BS. What a bunch of politics bs

 

[Jes]

I hope everyone floods them with letters that have merit. They do have to respond to each letter.
The meeting was exactly what I expected, it put me to sleep. I was a little dissapointed that more people didn't show up though.