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Travel Planning on the Bridger-Teton in High Gear - Comment Today!

Action needed by 4, 2008

If you enjoy quiet recreation in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), it's time to act. The Forest Service recently released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Off-Highway Vehicle Route Designation in the northern part of the forest. You can help protect public trails where you can hike, hunt, fish, bike, horseback ride, and watch wildlife without the intrusion of motorized vehicles. Comments on the DEIS are due by August 4, 2008 and they need to hear your voice! Read the DEIS here.

The travel plan has not been updated since 1974 and is out of date with current science and advances in technology of off-road vehicles. Currently the Bridger-Teton travel plan allows unrestricted motorized travel in 255,830 acres on the forest. We know that this unregulated motorized traffic has damaged our forest, dirtied our streams, and spread noxious weeds. Unrestricted motorized use has also negatively impacted game and other wildlife species, including elk, moose, deer, and grizzly and black bears.

The forest belongs to all of us. Motorized recreation can and should be allowed in the forest, but it must be limited and regulated. Some places in the forest are simply too special, wild or delicate to allow motorized use.

The Forest Service’s final draft should include the following:

• Protection for the Palisades and Shoal Creek Wilderness Study Areas, which have recently seen an increase in OHV use. Close Cottonwood Creek and Taylor Mountain roads in these WSAs.
• Protect the current roadless areas — Munger Mountain, Raspberry Ridge, and Leidy Highlands.
• Eliminate off-trail travel on routes that enter Grand Teton National Park and allow for illegal trespass.
• Support for Alternative B, which allows for the least amount of motorized routes and provides the most secure habitat for wildlife.

Take Action:

This is your only opportunity to speak up on behalf of the BTNF lands. So please, use your voice to encourage the Forest Service to protect the BTNF for generations to come. Your comments should address the trails that you know and use, use firsthand experiences and comment on how you want the Forest Service to manage for those trails. You can find maps of the alternatives here.

It’s not too late — we can mend the damage done from over 30 years of unrestricted use! Please send a comment today!

More Information:

Email your comments directly to bridger_teton_travel_ohv_comments@fs.fed.us.

Or mail them to the following address:

David Wilkinson, Public Outreach
BTNF, Jackson Ranger District
PO Box 1689
Jackson, WY 83001

Comments are due by August 4, 2008!