Norther Idaho Trails To Be Closed!!!!

Sorry about the late notice but several trails in the Panhandle area of Idaho are in serious danger of being closed to motorized use, rerouted across ROADS and some even opened to QUADS!!!!!

Our club met with the Couer D' Alene Office of the Forest Service to voice our concerns since we somehow got left off the mailing list for the information.

The closure information is not on-line but it is available from the Forest Service - contact info is here:

CLICK HERE

The changes seem rather inocuous at first but they are all working towards decreasing the amount of singletrack motorized trails available in this area.

Unfortunately, the deadline for comments is approaching very quickly - April 12th is the new extended date.

If you or anyone you know wants to enjoy the absolute beauty of this area now or in the future GET YOUR COMMENTS IN.

These trails were built by and maintained by the bike clubs of this community. The Forest Service is claiming that the inventory and backlog of work needed is too great and the anti-motorized community is voicing a concern over the trail degradation.

I know our club and one other local club have both stepped up and asked that we be allowed to correct any deficiencies in the areas in order to protect what we now have. We already have 4 major work projects in these areas scheduled and the other club was working on scheduling at least a couple more.

Anyone can request a copy of the Coeur d'Alene River Ranger District Travel Plan - Proposed Modifications from Joe Stringer, District Ranger by calling (208) 664-2318.

Even if you don't know these trails you can still get the point across that our sport is an ACCEPTABLE recreation in our National Forests and that any decisions to alter or close any of the established trails should take that into consideration.

Update, I am awaiting word from the District Office on wether or not they can email the docs to me. If they can, I will get them posted somehow, somewhere and get a link posted so everyone that is interested can see what the proposal is about.

XRP, that is EXACTLY the sentiment from our club. Several of our members were on the list to receive quarterly reports and any information such as this but apparently this information never made it onto the reports (clerical error is the claim). Our club officers had even been meeting with the people in charge of recreation to plan what trail work we would be doing this year and apparently THEY were unaware of he Proposal.

I can't recall exactly how our officers found out but they immediately demanded a meeting with the FS and we rounded up as many as we could.

The Forest Service up here is willing to work with us but at times they don't seem to understand what our sport is about and much of their thinking is misguided by trying to please the more organized and vocal Anti-motorized crowd.

Bottom line is we gotta get ourselves organized and let our opinions be KNOWN.

Call or write for your copy of the Proposal ASAP and I'll see if I can get it on line.

One other thing - BE CONSIDERATE!!!!

These guys are NOT against bikes but they have to be able to justify their actions to a very bike hostile group. We need to be professional AND willing to work with them.

Thanks for the help guys!

Clutchcover, we have a pretty good inventory of trails but our clubs work hard at keeping up to date and involved in the maintenance of the trails. Most of these are pretty rugged. The Forest Service seems to be willing to work with whoever bends their ear the hardest and puts in the most effort but they are not hardcore trailriders by any means so sometimes their efforts are misguided.

I've been trying to get the word out to everyone I know around our neck of the woods - this weekends harescramble should provide some opportunity for me to spread the word on this too.

An update on the Proposed Plan, the Forest Service is trying to get the entire plan with maps on their server so we can obtain on-line access. I should know tomorrow if they will be able to do it.

If anyone wants specific information on any trails they may have an interest in, I urge you to get the full Proposal from the District Office so you can comment on them more specifically. I have not been on hardly any of the trails in question but from looking at the maps I would sure like to try them out.