Elko wants to block USFS roads plan

ELKO (AP) " The Elko County Commission is trying to find a way to block or at least postpone the U.S. Forest Service's pending plan to formalize regulate use of national forest roads and close some it determines are redundant or damaging the environment.

The commissioners directed the district attorney's office this week to research legal options to prevent the agency from moving forward with its Travel Management Plan for most of the northern and eastern parts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. covering more than 1 million acres of the more than 6 million acres in Nevada.

They also said they intend to request the Forest Service to complete a more thorough environmental impact statement in reviewing the proposed plan than the environmental assessment the agency intends to do. That would extend the review period and give local opponents of the effort more time to offer their views.

The new plan is intended to identify and regulate road and trail usage while protecting natural resources on more than 1 million acres of forest lands in the Mountain City, Jarbidge and Ruby Mountains districts.

Agency officials said the plan will include adjustments and deletions to the current road system that includes nearly 600 routes totaling more than 1,700 miles in those three districts. It also will add some user-created routes to the system and prohibit motor vehicles on non-designated routes. Similar plans are being generated for the other districts in the forest, which totals more than 6 million acres in Nevada.

Public comment on the road system for the districts in general originally was to have closed on March 9 but agency officials extended it to Monday in response to concerns raised by the county.

Another round will occur when the agency develops a specific proposal in April or May. Final action is not expected until the end of the year.

Opponents criticize the quality of the maps the agency has produced identifying legal existing roads as well as renegade routes off-road vehicles have established over the years outside the legal planning and evaluation process.

"We have the end of the comment period Monday, and we still don't have maps hardly anyone can read," Commissioner Demar Dahl said on Wednesday.

County planner Randy Brown said Forest Service officials "have not conducted themselves in a manner in which we can offer any good comments."

"In my opinion the Forest Service needs to stop right now," he said.

State Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Nev., maintains that the county commission is the only entity with authority to close roads within the county, regardless of whether they are on federal land.

"It is no question there has been damage to the terrain by unscrupulous users of the public lands," Carpenter said. "More than anything we need education education to show all users the proper and sensible way to use vehicles when they traverse the landscape."

Tom Montoya, Forest Service district ranger based in Mountain City, said the agency does not have the right to close roads that belong to the county, but does have the authority to close other roadways as a means to manage public land.

He said the Forest Service is working to create new maps that show topographical features better and, at the request of the commission, show roads that will be closed to the public in red and those open to the public in another color.

"We will actively seek public comments to the end of December, which is roughly when the Travel Management Planning process concludes," Montoya said Friday.

"We will also continue to make every effort to keep the public and the Elko County Commission informed on what the Travel Management planning process is about " what specific routes that our visitors use that should be included, and what routes that you believe should not be included," he said.

Information from: Elko Daily Free Press, http://www.elkodaily.com