Dear Guardian,

It’s been more than 10 years since the Forest Service finalized the 2005 Travel Management Rule to protect wildlife and wild places from off-highway vehicles, yet recreational motor vehicles still reign free across the Okanogan-Wenatchee’s 4.3 million acres.

Responding to increasing popularity of off-highway vehicle use and improvements in the power, range and capabilities of the machines, in 2005 the Forest Service issued the Travel Management Rule to reset the balance on our national forests.

By allowing motorized use only on designated trails, the Forest Service sought to protect wildlife and wild places. It also sought to preserve freedom and access for quiet recreation on our national forests.

For some forests, however, real change has been slow. The Okanogan-Wenatchee is one of those forests. It’s time to close this loophole and restore balance to the forest.

Stretching 180 miles from the Canadian border to the Goat Rocks Wilderness, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest is the largest National Forest in the Pacific Northwest. It also offers some of Washington’s most raw public lands opportunities, from glaciated alpine peaks on the Cascade Crest to the dry, grassland country on the eastern edge. The Forest Service’s rationale for its proposal is rife with examples of the damage to natural areas that have been caused by unmanaged motor vehicle use on the forest.

The good news is that the Forest Service is finally proposing to chart a new path on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Protecting this forest from unbridled off-road motorized travel is long overdue and deserves our support.

Join me in demanding the Forest Service to follow through with its proposal to restore the balance on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

For the Wild,

 

 

Greg Dyson
Wild Places Program Director
WildEarth Guardians
gdyson@wildearthguardians.org

 

 

photo credit: Marla Nelson