Snowmobilers damaging snowless terrain
Rutted soil and vegetation damage from a snowmobile near the Mt. Rose Highway. Photo/U.S. Forest Service
Snowmobilers riding on dirt are causing problems on U.S. Forest Service land.
The feds are telling snowmobilers to avoid bare dirt and patchy snow, and to not ride across streams or over small trees or brush. Doing so creates ruts in the soil and crushes vegetation.
“We are asking snowmobilers for voluntary cooperation in moving their activities to suitable locations,” LTBMU acting Forest Supervisor Jeff Marsolais said in a statement. “Riding snowmobiles on too little snow not only causes resource damage, but can damage the machine as well.”
Causing resource damage can result in a citation punishable by a fine of $5,000 or more and/or six months in jail.
Tahoe Sierra Snowmobiling Club is supporting the USFS in its efforts.
Information on areas where snowmobiles are allowed is available in the online.
THE HORROR!
How about the forest service stop digging up streams and moving dirt all over meadows then maybe I’ll stop riding my snowmobile on dirt. You sure as heck don’t send a good example, more are hypocrites. How about covering up your dirt piles like the one by the airport. I would be fined and In jail if I did what the USFS does.
Thi is the attitude of many snowmobilers and it should be remembered at the next round of meetings where snowmobilers sit at the table telling officials and environmental groups what great stewards of the outdoors they are.
Dont worry really?. Im sure the forest circus will just come out with a new map banning riders from even more terrain with out any public input. give it enough time and people wont even be able to walk off a designated path. What ride it said is spot on..once again, not about the environment…its about jobs and money.
Who drove through the meadow at the corner of View Circle and Angora Creek?
@ blue jeans. the usfs did searching for evil doers.
Ban snowmobiles from the Tahoe Basin. Must be Ride it’s tracks I see all the time by the airport, just another one of those who thinks rules weren’t made for them with the “I’ll do whatever I want ” attitude.
Oh you mean that new section that was just made out of bounds on the new maps without any public input. Funny how people like you steve only like to enforce imaginary lines when it fits your agenda.
Something about BO makes me think they are the type of person that rules must be made for. The minority of off roaders cause problems that everyone else has to pay for. Your freedom has limits.
I’m not a snowmobiler but I’ve been a runner and walker on Tahoe trails for over 50 years. It’s always disturbed me that, on some of the old Tahoe basin trails, many of the trails run through low level areas where the thaw creates minor flooding, and two legged creatures create new trails around the flooded area. Or worse, go straight through the flood and mud and deepen the depression that caused the problem in the first place. And walkers and runners are at least as much to blame for those situations as the carbon burners.
I understand that the Forest Service had re-routed and, occasionally, eliminated some of the trails in the Fallen Leaf Lake area for, among other reasons, to try to eliminate this problem. I hope to test walk some of those trails come summer.
I have nothing inherently against snowmobilers but in the seventies I switched from dirt riding motorcycles to street riding (which I loved for a lot of years) when I accompanied a group of off-roaders to High Meadows and watched my companions spin donuts and throw mud in wet meadows, leaving tracks that are likely still there, almost 40 years later.
I fully understand the fun of riding a snowmobile, but I also understand that the ethos of anyone using public woodland trails has to center on leaving no tracks.
Wild lands notwithstanding, we can hate government control all we like, but we first have to hate the crazies who believe it their right to leave a mark in our forests for generations to come. And then assume
that someone, as long as it’s not the dreaded government, will protect our heritage.
Keep picking and choosing the rules you want to follow duke…your messiah would be proud.
Check your bias. If the tracks in the picture were made by hikers, nobody would be crying foul. We’ve all seen worse damage from sledders (the plastic saucer type) and the USFS hasn’t issued a special statement threatening $5000 fines to them.
Once the snow melts those horrible 2″ deep scars will be gone. Then it will be the season to build illegal campfires in Desolation, and leave poop and toilet paper in the open, while pointing fingers at those who drove a dirt road to their destination instead of a paved one.
Next time a person accidentally crosses an imaginary line on a map they should just claim they are DREAMERS looking for a better life.
Business, does every issue under the sun correlate to undocumented immigrants? Sure seems so from the posts you and those of your ilk submit.
Thumbs up on Butters’ statement.
Power to the ‘correct’ people.
‘Keep picking and choosing the rules you want to follow duke’
Which rules did I follow/not follow that are an example that supports your statement.
I think bo is cj.
Bo is incorrect when he says there was no public input on snowmobilers and boundaries in the basin. I know because I made comments and I have the documents asking for public input. Maybe bo is too busy being an a$$ to bother. Sure seems that way from my perspective…
Is everyone reading the same article here. “The feds are telling snowmobilers to avoid bare dirt and patchy snow… We are asking snowmobilers for voluntary cooperation in moving their activities to suitable locations.” To me this seems more like “Duh” rather then a debate.
Nature- many closures were never open to the NEPA public comment process. Check your documentation since you saved it. Meiss, High Meadows, etc…