5 snowmobilers accused of riding in closed area
Five men were cited by the U.S. Forest Service for riding snowmobiles in the Mokelumne Wilderness on the Eldorado National Forest.
The five riders, residents of South Lake Tahoe and the Carson Valley, received mandatory notices to appear before the federal magistrate in Sacramento.
Per Forest Service policy the names of violators are not released when a citation has been issued. If they are arrested, the names become public information. The South Lake Tahoe man is 46-years-old, the Douglas County residents are ages 30, 41 and two 42-year-olds.
The wilderness area is accessed from the Blue Lake trailhead and the Forestdale area on Highway 88. The area is posted as closed to motorized use and maps are readily available.
“While on patrol, officers observed fresh snowmobile tracks passing directly underneath closure signs,” a USFS press release said of last weekend’s incident.
If convicted, the offenders would face a fine up to $5,000 and jail time of six months. They were cited for wilderness trespass, not damaging the terrain.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Typical motor heads, think that rules don’t apply to them. Throw the book at them and make sure it hits all the head line front pages.
Typical? No. Not any more than cross country skiers are idiot tree huggers (they aren’t). If the signs were pearly visible yes they took a risk and list.
It should. E said however that Red Lake / Forestdale Rd was open years ago to snowmobiles and our access is diminishing not expanding. Multi use trails and respect for others goes along way compared to closures and hostile physical or verbal attacks on the other group.
Back when we had a sled I was given a lot of extremely dirty looks for riding up a snow covered PAVED forest service road. By Bay area XC skiers. I knew they were from the Bay because 1)their license plates all had Bay dealer frames, and 2) They had parked in front of the forest service gate, which is NEVER supposed to be blocked, regardless of the season.
But oh, the rules don’t apply to environmentalist tree huggers, do they?
How many hikers enter Desolation without a permit? And how many campers have illegal camp fires, or trash campsites by cutting trees, carving initials, etc? Ever see a bag of dog poo left alongside an urban trail? Campsites with human poo left on the surface, and dirty toilet paper blowing in the wind? Are there some mountain bikers out there on illegal trails?
Why have I never read about the USFS citing these violators with the potential for jail time? The thousands of violations that go unpunished add up to much more environmental damage than the few sledders who poach wilderness.
As motorized users get pushed to the fringe by anti-access groups, they will turn to more and more fringe-like behaviors, including poaching. Not to justify the actions of these sledders – but it might explain a bit.
They need to double check the boundry signs. Every season they creep farther away from the actual boundry to choke off more riding. Carry a gps and down to a topo map and compare.
Motorized users are not being pushed to the fringe. Quite simply, if you want to access a wilderness area, use your legs. Wilderness areas make up a small percentage of the public lands. An area off of Sonora Pass, that was under consideration as a wilderness area and off limits to motorized travel while it was being studied, was poached so repeatedly that the FS dropped the restrictions because they couldn’t enforce it. Now their tracks can be found in northern Yosemite, Carson-Iceberg and Hoover wildernesses. If anyone is feeling pushed to the fringe, could it be the people who are looking for some peace and solitude? Just because the FS doesn’t have the funding allocated to consistently go after rule breaking campers, hikers, mountain bikers, vehicle drivers, dog owners, and more than a few sledders, is it ok to disregard restrictions, rules and laws? I hope not.
Off road vehicles pay a FEE in their registrations for access to PUBLIC land. What fee do hikers and mountain bikers and skiers pay? Most of them won’t even pay for parking in fee lots, they park free on the side of the highway.
And yeah, they are being restricted from more and more areas all the time. Chip you are mistaken on that point. “Wilderness” areas are being expanded, and anti-motor vehicle people are on the Green Sticker Board. What’s up with THAT?
Chip – just a quick click over to Snowlands Network’s list of current projects (http://www.snowlands.org/projects/projects_current.htm) and you will get a good idea of why motorized users are feeling pushed to the fringe.
There is already so much wilderness in the Sierra (where motorized use is illegal, enforceable or not) – why push for even more closures? The resultant de facto wilderness conflicts with the concept of multiple use and diminishes public access to public lands.
Wilderness areas may be a small percentage of public lands nationally, but it’s a different story regionally. Include the de facto wilderness areas and they dominate.
No, there is no excuse for disregarding restrictions, rules and laws. But there is an explanation; those who feel marginalized are less likely to respect the authority that plays along with the marginalizing.
Chip, you are going to have to help me with your reasoning there. So you state that snowmobilers are not being marginalized and then go on to talk about more areas that are going to be removed from riding. How does that make sense?
I did not talk about more areas that are going to be removed from riding. Looking at the snowlands website, thanks Romie, seems to me that they are trying to bring about awareness on areas that are overused causing serious degragation, being eyes and ears for abuses and helping out with enforcement. My only example was what happened and is going on in the Sonora Pass area. There, a section had it’s restrictions lifted to snowmobiling after blatant abuses. You can access pretty much everywhere. It is just that some places you can’t take a motor with you. I drive a snowmobile at work, man they are fun. I can’t imagine what it would be like sledding in the backcountry. I only ask that that fun be realized in designated areas that it is allowed. Which is a lot more area than is off limits.
Why do some of you think that people who choose to enjoy wild places without the aid of motor vehicles of any type do not deserve a place free of motorized vehicles?
There is a lot of access for motorized vehicles. In some cases, motorized vehicles and other people do not mix. To say that motorized vehicles should be allowed to go anywhere in all places, would be to deny the rights of the people who do not care for motor vehicles.
Hiking on a high traffic OHV area is undesirable to those who choose to hike. So they avoid those places. Why can’t they have places where they don’t have to avoid motorized vehicles?
Motorized vehicles intrude more on the people who want to experience nature without gasoline, than the contrary.
You want to have the right to ruin other peoples enjoyment of nature?
You don’t need to drive everywhere. That is why wilderness is special.
Why do you feel that you have the right to deprive people of solitude? Do you know how rare it is to attain solitude in this world? Motorized vehicles destroy solitude everywhere within a 1 mile radius, or more, depending on who you talk to. And those people have the same rights as the motorized vehicle users to enjoy public lands to the fullest.
Not all OHV users would be so selfish. But the ones who are cause all of the problems.
Some people just spent a lot of time and effort to walk 20 miles to get away from noisy humans. They earned it. Let them have it. The wilderness is a ‘religious’ experience for many people. And no church wants a free abortion and contraception give-away death metal concert next door at 10am on Sunday.
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!
paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Stop being so self centered. Go on a very very long walk to a special and quiet place. And just sit there in silence for hours. Wait until the sun sets, and look up at the stars which you can actually see because of the lack of light pollution. Watch the planets move and the constellations revolve around Polaris.
And realize how insignificant your life is while observing the infinite. Now ask yourself: What makes you so special that you have an innate right to deprive others of that experience?
I really enjoy off roading, I want a sand rail, and a quad and a sled of my own. I like shooting guns on BLM land.
I also really enjoy the wilderness and have spent many days on trail in search of solitude.
Have some respect and think about other people for once in your life. You don’t have the right to ruin another persons life experience on ‘gods’ land.
J: “Chip, you are going to have to help me with your reasoning there. So you state that snowmobilers are not being marginalized and then go on to talk about more areas that are going to be removed from riding. How does that make sense?”
C: “I only ask that that fun be realized in designated areas that it is allowed. ****Which is a lot more area than is off limits.****”
J does not realize that by demanding that their activities be allowed everywhere, they are depriving C of their rights to practice their own activities. C’s protected area is much smaller than the area in which J can do whatever he wants. But J wants all of C’s area.
J does not respect C even though C respects J.
WHO demanded that their activities be allowed EVERYWHERE?
Nobody expects that. Robot’s putting words in others’ mouths again, as he so often accuses the rest of us.
But in the past ten years there has been a lot more ground given to non-motorized activists causing traditionally used sledding areas to be taken away from people who have used them, and paid for that right, to be denied access. For all the “taking” there should be a little “giving”.
Can’t we all just get along? (sarc)
Snowmobiles do very little damage to the environment other than noise and some smell. When ridden properly they cause no scars on the land because the land is under feet of snow. Can’t say the same about hikers, bikers or horses.
This is just an idea, but maybe when OHV’ers get their permits the DMV supplies a test that they must pass in order to get the permit. It can be an “Open-Book” test, but something that explains the regulations regarding OHV use any season, and safety. At least that would force some users to acknowledge restrictions in Wilderness Areas.
Also, there should be a “Report a OHV Abuser” hotline like what the CHP has for drunk drivers. Dis-incentives like this could help with those individuals who think there is no punishment associated with “riding” in posted non-motorized areas.
OHV activities have been reduced for years. There is a constant bias against motorized recreation. At some point these people will turn into a voting block.