primergray
06-17-2005, 03:28 PM
Misuse leads rangers to close area to vehicles-WA
(No Link Provided with Article)
By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Until a couple of weeks ago, Milk Pond was your basic, reedy, high-elevation pool surrounded by firs, pines and, in hot months, mosquitos.
Now it's just a mudding mess.
"It looked," said Forest Service enforcement officer Blair Bickel, "like somebody took an eggbeater in there and made a big mud pie."
Not the pond itself. But, over Memorial Day Weekend and the following weekend, renegade 4-wheelers ran amok all around the popular recreation area, which is accessed by Forest Service roads 1708 and 1707 about 11/2 miles east of State Route 410, two miles north of Cliffdel and just southeast of the Little Naches.
The picnic area across the road from the pond, the lane to the portable toilets and some of the single-track trails around it were all turned into virtual mud bogs.
And that has resulted in the closure to vehicles on several portions of the Milk Pond complex, including the picnic area.
"Mudding occurs every season. However, the extent of this wasn't that they went to one little mud puddle and drove through that," Bickel said. "They went everywhere they could possibly go. Every wet area was rutted and repeatedly driven through."
Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests Supervisor Jim Boynton approved the vehicle closures Wednesday afternoon, Acting Naches District Ranger Jodi Leingang said.
"Maybe that's what people need to see — that this kind of behavior can force closures," Leingang said. "Maybe that's what it takes to make people decide to get together to take action against this kind of behavior."
Certainly, representatives of reputable off-road user groups are just as angry about it as the forest rangers.
"It was ugly," said Dan Huff, a
Yakima Valley Dust Dodgers Motorcycle Club member who was particularly upset to see what the 4-wheelers had done to a popular single-track trail between Milk Pond and Milk Lake, three miles to the east.
"I can still ride it, but you just hate to see what it's done to the land. It's all chewed up," Huff said of the trail, which is clearly posted as being a single-track. "It had been damaged by the same kind of folks years ago and was healing up nicely, and now it's like 10 years of healing has just been reversed."
"In thise case, they've destroyed the opportunity not only for motorcyclists, but also for the hikers, the single-track enthusiasts, the horse riders," said Paul Zeimantz of Yakima, who is active in the motorcycle, snowmobile and 4-wheel-drive communities. "We all have to figure out a way to protect the trails so all the different user groups can continue to enjoy them.
"I've actually filed complaints with the Forest Service before, because there's just jerks up there that tear it all up."
Steve Sutliff, an off-road vehicle deputy with the Yakima County Sheriff's Department, said that the amount of recreationists in the area was far more than usual.
"There were people in places camped where I've never seen them camped before," said Sutliff, whose department checked 800 cars in an eight-hour period on the Friday before Memorial Day. "And it wasn't like that just up there (in the Little Naches area) — White Pass, the Ahtanum and the Wenas as well, for some reason, certainly had an increase in use."
One possible reason for the increase in off-roaders, Sutliff said, was recent alcohol closures at the Moses Lake and Beverly (near Mattawa) sand dune recreational areas.
"I'm sure a portion of those people came up here," Sutliff said. "I think the other contributing factor is that they're afraid the woods are going to be closed (to off-roading and campfires) because of the dry weather. And if the hot weather continues, it will."
At least some of the mudding around Milk Pond was witnessed by horse users camped nearby, said Mike Rowan, a resources assistant with the Naches Ranger District. But there because cell-phone coverage in that area is extremely sporadic, they didn't report it until much later. And they weren't able to give much more than a cursory description of the vehicles — described as modified Suzuki Samurais and Jeeps with big wheels — and no license-plate numbers.
"Just look at it, though," Rowan said, "I don't know if you could have read a license number with all the mud that was slung around. It's really frustrating. I've just never seen anything quite like it."
Sutliff said it's too bad the witnesses, even without no cell-phone coverage in the area, didn't take the time to drive to Whistlin' Jack Lodge in Cliffdell, where they could have used a pay phone to phone in a report. "Then," Sutliff said, "we could have done something."
As it turned out, Forest Service off-road vehicle ranger came through the area about two hours after the mudders had left. Had he arrived earlier, the drivers could have been cited; the simple damage-to-vegetation tickets would have been $112 each, and the Forest Service might also have been able to take the mudders to court, where they could be forced to pay three times the cost it will take to repair the damage.
"We're thinking it's (in the) thousands," Rowan said. "This was location after location after location, like they were running around like ants on a hillside, going after trees, backing over trees.
"It's a good thing they weren't out there driving bulldozers."
(No Link Provided with Article)
By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Until a couple of weeks ago, Milk Pond was your basic, reedy, high-elevation pool surrounded by firs, pines and, in hot months, mosquitos.
Now it's just a mudding mess.
"It looked," said Forest Service enforcement officer Blair Bickel, "like somebody took an eggbeater in there and made a big mud pie."
Not the pond itself. But, over Memorial Day Weekend and the following weekend, renegade 4-wheelers ran amok all around the popular recreation area, which is accessed by Forest Service roads 1708 and 1707 about 11/2 miles east of State Route 410, two miles north of Cliffdel and just southeast of the Little Naches.
The picnic area across the road from the pond, the lane to the portable toilets and some of the single-track trails around it were all turned into virtual mud bogs.
And that has resulted in the closure to vehicles on several portions of the Milk Pond complex, including the picnic area.
"Mudding occurs every season. However, the extent of this wasn't that they went to one little mud puddle and drove through that," Bickel said. "They went everywhere they could possibly go. Every wet area was rutted and repeatedly driven through."
Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests Supervisor Jim Boynton approved the vehicle closures Wednesday afternoon, Acting Naches District Ranger Jodi Leingang said.
"Maybe that's what people need to see — that this kind of behavior can force closures," Leingang said. "Maybe that's what it takes to make people decide to get together to take action against this kind of behavior."
Certainly, representatives of reputable off-road user groups are just as angry about it as the forest rangers.
"It was ugly," said Dan Huff, a
Yakima Valley Dust Dodgers Motorcycle Club member who was particularly upset to see what the 4-wheelers had done to a popular single-track trail between Milk Pond and Milk Lake, three miles to the east.
"I can still ride it, but you just hate to see what it's done to the land. It's all chewed up," Huff said of the trail, which is clearly posted as being a single-track. "It had been damaged by the same kind of folks years ago and was healing up nicely, and now it's like 10 years of healing has just been reversed."
"In thise case, they've destroyed the opportunity not only for motorcyclists, but also for the hikers, the single-track enthusiasts, the horse riders," said Paul Zeimantz of Yakima, who is active in the motorcycle, snowmobile and 4-wheel-drive communities. "We all have to figure out a way to protect the trails so all the different user groups can continue to enjoy them.
"I've actually filed complaints with the Forest Service before, because there's just jerks up there that tear it all up."
Steve Sutliff, an off-road vehicle deputy with the Yakima County Sheriff's Department, said that the amount of recreationists in the area was far more than usual.
"There were people in places camped where I've never seen them camped before," said Sutliff, whose department checked 800 cars in an eight-hour period on the Friday before Memorial Day. "And it wasn't like that just up there (in the Little Naches area) — White Pass, the Ahtanum and the Wenas as well, for some reason, certainly had an increase in use."
One possible reason for the increase in off-roaders, Sutliff said, was recent alcohol closures at the Moses Lake and Beverly (near Mattawa) sand dune recreational areas.
"I'm sure a portion of those people came up here," Sutliff said. "I think the other contributing factor is that they're afraid the woods are going to be closed (to off-roading and campfires) because of the dry weather. And if the hot weather continues, it will."
At least some of the mudding around Milk Pond was witnessed by horse users camped nearby, said Mike Rowan, a resources assistant with the Naches Ranger District. But there because cell-phone coverage in that area is extremely sporadic, they didn't report it until much later. And they weren't able to give much more than a cursory description of the vehicles — described as modified Suzuki Samurais and Jeeps with big wheels — and no license-plate numbers.
"Just look at it, though," Rowan said, "I don't know if you could have read a license number with all the mud that was slung around. It's really frustrating. I've just never seen anything quite like it."
Sutliff said it's too bad the witnesses, even without no cell-phone coverage in the area, didn't take the time to drive to Whistlin' Jack Lodge in Cliffdell, where they could have used a pay phone to phone in a report. "Then," Sutliff said, "we could have done something."
As it turned out, Forest Service off-road vehicle ranger came through the area about two hours after the mudders had left. Had he arrived earlier, the drivers could have been cited; the simple damage-to-vegetation tickets would have been $112 each, and the Forest Service might also have been able to take the mudders to court, where they could be forced to pay three times the cost it will take to repair the damage.
"We're thinking it's (in the) thousands," Rowan said. "This was location after location after location, like they were running around like ants on a hillside, going after trees, backing over trees.
"It's a good thing they weren't out there driving bulldozers."