California all-terrain vehicle organizations are concerned that current motorized trails in the Tahoe National Forest will no longer be available to them after the current draft Environmental Impact Statement on motorized travel becomes finalized.

Tom Quinn, supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest Service, will be making the final decision on the impact statement in March 2009 and insists that existing motorized trails will remain open.

“None of the alternatives we are considering exclude the existing 2,800 miles of system motorized trails,” Quinn said in an interview last Thursday at The Ridge Golf Course.

Just more than 100 people turned out for the National Forest Service presentation on the impact study about motorized travel in the forest.

The Tahoe National Forest Service is participating in a nationwide plan that looks to reexamine motorized use on National Forest land in an attempt to prevent further erosion and creation of unauthorized trails where ATVs are driving off of existing trails.

Within the Tahoe forest, there are approximately 1,400 trails that are not authorized for motorized use such as old mining and logging trails that were never intended for recreational use according to David Arrasmith, an environmental planner with the Tahoe National Forest Service. ATVs currently travel on some of these trails that are unauthorized for motorized use. Some of these trails are located south of Donner Lake.

“A lot of them were built by the Forest Service,” Arrasmith said at an open house session at the country club, where visitors could view maps and ask questions. “We would consider adding them as roads. Most of them are in the category of old mining trails that we tried to close.”

For existing motorized trails, such as the motorcycle trails that run through Duncan Canyon, there are no plans to close them.

“In this process we are not proposing to close a single mile of currently authorized National Forest motorized roads or trails,” Quinn said.

Terry Davis, spokesman for the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club and Auburn resident, expressed concern about the Western States Trail that runs through Duncan Canyon.

“We are concerned about that,” Davis said in a telephone interview. “Right now that is designated for motorized use, which in our view is totally inappropriate. For one thing, this is a potential wilderness area and it’s one of the largest roadless areas and secondly it’s part of the Western States Trail system. This is a route for runners and equestrian use. It’s really mystified many of us why motorized use has been allowed on that.”

Part of the reason could be that a very small portion of Tahoe National Forest has been designated as wilderness area, which would prohibit motorized use.

“Less than 3 percent of land in the Tahoe National Forest has been designated as wilderness area by Congress,” Quinn said.

One page of the impact study shows that the annual trail maintenance cost for motorcycles is $1,500 and $1,275 for ATVs. In order to help maintain current ATV trails, Quinn asked for continued volunteer support at Thursday’s meeting.

“One of the things that will allow us to have motorized trails is volunteerism,” Quinn said. “It is key to being able to implement whatever we come up with especially with enforcement.”

Don Klusman, a natural resource consultant for the California Association of Four Wheel Drive, has examined the impact study and advises association members to check Forest Service maps.

“We’re trying to get as many people as possible to look over the maps to see which trails are going to stay open and which will close and are they all there,” Klusman said. “They’re proposing reclassifying roads and trails for specific types of vehicles. We’re concerned about their proposal to close roads and trails for five months in the winter.”

During his talk, Arrasmith said that not all trails would be closed during the winter and already some trails are closed in order to protect deer habitat.

Many citizens and environmental groups are concerned about the damage that motorized use already causes to National Forest land. John Timmer of Grass Valley and member of the South Yuba River Citizens League of Nevada City knows of one spring in Pierce Meadows affected by ATV use. The spring is located 2.5 miles northeast of Yuba Gap, not far from Interstate 80.

“It was a spring but once the off-road vehicles got through with it, it was a big 20-feet wide moshe, five feet deep,” Timmer said. “I saw four to six quarts of oil dropped in the area because they couldn’t get out. So that oil got into Pierce Creek, but I called the Forest Service and they came to clean it up.”