Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
As announced at the Department of Natural Resources, northwest region recreational user group meeting in Sedro-Woolley tonight, Walker Valley ORV area will be closed to motorized recreation as of November 1, 2002. This closure may be lifted March 31, 2003 if the DNR feels that it is appropriate.

The DNR claims that this closure is being done to comply with the state Department of Ecology. Only problem is that is not true.

Grab a beverage and sit a spell (I'll try to be brief as possible)

March 2001, DNR invites the DOE to come look at Walker
August 2002, DOE submits a report to DNR
May 2002, DNR tells recreational users about DOE visit/report for the first time, stating that it may lead to closure, but refuses to provide details of the report to us. DNR claims that run-off from trails into streams was a huge issue.
June - August 2002, the Skagit Motorcycle Club organizes work parties and repairs the trails identified by them and the DNR.
September- DNR cancels major work party just days before it's scheduled and denies Skagit club access behind gated logging road to get to project areas.
Still, the DNR refuses to show the Skagit m/c the DOE report.
Skagit club member/lawyer obtains the report utilizing the public records act law a couple of days ago and discovers that the biggest problem the DOE has at Walker is with a bridge over the main road. Contrary to the claims of the DNR, the DOE report recommends against closing Walker Valley.

At tonight's meeting, when pressed for details concerning the closure, the DNR revealed the it only applies to motorized recreational use and that hiking, horse riding, bicycling and logging will still be permited.

It also look like, even though the DNR could not afford any law enforcement staff here for years, that they now are able to transfer an officer in from the Tahuya area.

All this is especially disturbing considering that the vast majority of the trails here were built and maintained by the Skagit club and all the funding for this area comes from ORV funds.

Well folks, that's the short version for now.

Tod :|
 

little jeff

Member
Aug 20, 2002
126
0
Sounds like the politicians got their nose in this one, if you ask me. What's next, Tahuya? Pretty soon we won't have anywhere to ride. Get out and join some offroad organization like the NMA and let your voice be heard. Just my 2 cents worth.
Little Jeff
 

kev_rm

~SPONSOR~
Jun 7, 2002
196
0
F THE BLEEDING HEARTS.

Ok, next order of business... Can someone familiar with WA government identify the most effective politicians (congresspeople, DNR or DOE officials? which ones?) to write/call/complain to? That would be much appreciated and useful.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
I suggest that all affected contact the dnr directly and cry foul. Then contact the politicians etc. The last thing these crats want to get is another headache

If Tahuya is the example for DNR enforcement I'd be worried. The only effective enforcement at Tahuya is the Mason Co. orv sheriff. The dnr guys just sit in their trucks while guys are racing through the parking lot, mudding through the posted closed sections on 4x4's and don't give a rip when you bring it to their attention. I overheard an exchange like this, "Excuse me sir. Did you know that you don't have an approved spark arrestor and you are required to have one to ride on state land? rider replies "gimme a break it's the middle of the winter I'm not going to start a fire." Dnr replies "well sir i'm not telling you you can't ride but if you get caught you could be fined." rider says " so you can't write me a ticket" Dnr says "no sir" rider says" f*** Off " and rides away.

The only effective solution will be to make these b'crats accountable for their actions via public outcry to every available outlet. I agree that joining a club is a good step but we have to speak individually, loud and often to get anywhere. Contact the DNR directly, tie up their phone lines, e-mail etc.

Big thanks to Tod for bringing it to our attention! Seems that dirt rider .net is more on the ball than NMA in this regard.
 
Last edited:

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
join some offroad organization like the NMA
contact them at nmaoffroad.org

which ones to write/call/complain to?
To start with, the State Commisioner of Public Land, Doug Sutherland at doug.sutherland@wadnr.gov

There are no flyers
It's only been known since Tuesday night, folks are still researching and gathering ammo. It'll happen soon.

more on the ball than NMA in this regard.
Not!
The NMA and Skagit Motorcycle club are directly involved and are working the issue as aggresively as is possible. Much of what is taking place is of a statigic nature and not for immediate public comsumption. Don't worry, I'll keep you as up to date as possible.
BTW - I'm the NMA vp and also in direct contact with the DNR on a regular basis (every f-ing day this week so far).
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
Originally posted by Tod

Not!
The NMA and Skagit Motorcycle club are directly involved and are working the issue as aggresively as is possible. Much of what is taking place is of a statigic nature and not for immediate public comsumption. Don't worry, I'll keep you as up to date as possible.
BTW - I'm the NMA vp and also in direct contact with the DNR on a regular basis (every f-ing day this week so far).

Didn't mean to step on anyones toes!

I certainly appreciate the efforts by the NMA to work in the confines of a cooperative nature with the agencies. However it may be worth noting that our opponents do not play by the same rules and much of what has been lost is not the result of scientific studies or sound reasoning but the knee jerk reaction and personal agendas of appointed civil servants who rely on deception and misinformation to accomplish their ends.

Rarely do these snakes enjoy the light of day being shown on their handiwork and all I'm saying is get out the light and get the bigest light you can. I think It has gone beyond a local issue to become a regoinal issue.

I have contacted the DNR via e-mail on the stament on their recreation page that "recent rider fatality involved meth" and have not recieved a response
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
Didn't mean to step on anyones toes!
No worries. :yeehaw:

I certainly appreciate the efforts by the NMA to work in the confines of a cooperative nature with the agencies.
It's a balancing act.

beyond a local issue to become a regoinal issue
Or national, we're working some possibilities.
Wish I could say more, but as they say in the movies,
If told ya, I'd havta kill ya ;)

Thanks for your interest and support, we're going to need all the help we can get. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, If we don't all hang together, we will surely all hang seperately.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
I don't know but this occured last between the end of Nov and end of Dec last winter. I was riding every weekend over there.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
Never have met Rick or Kevin or seen them out there for that matter.

Glad to here some have enforcement power and that some action has been taken. From my observations at Tahuya last winter Deputy Potts the ORV officer was much more diligent than the DNR had been. One day he wrote 7 citations in a group of 8 riders on various things, spark arrestors, silencers missing, tags etc.

Thats a lot of beer money.
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
Here's the article that will start appearing soon.
You can contact Doug Sutherland, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands at:

doug.sutherland@wadnr.gov
360.902.1004 (they will try to divert your call to someone else, but you can insist on talking to Sutherland)

Doug Sutherland
Dept of Natural Resources
PO Box 47001
Olympia, WA 98504-7001

PS - be forthright, but polite
***********************

OUTRAGE OVER THE WALKER VALLEY ORV AREA CLOSURE!

Aaarrgghhh! Motorized ORV enthusiasts have been set up, misled, and
stonewalled, all so as to be easily knocked down and robbed of a precious
recreation resource.

We have officially lost Walker Valley, in a seasonal closure, from November
1 to April 1 (five months). And the conclusion that our Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) land and recreation managers intentionally drove
this closure, indeed, intentionally thwarted all attempts by users to deal
with the problems supposedly driving this action, appears unavoidable and
unassailable. And when you read the story behind this closure that follows
the description of Walker Valley in italics below, you will be mad as hell.
At this point, I am going to leave the names of the DNR staff who did this
to us out of the picture. After you read this, consider that besides the
lost opportunity for your family, that approximately 7000 user visits will
not happen during this closure. Think what that means for regional
associated businesses. Where will the displaced riders go? Have they not
just been forced towards unmanaged, unsanctioned riding areas? Is that what
DNR land management wants? It certainly is not what the Northwest
Motorcycle Association (NMA) and responsible motorized recreation
enthusiasts desire!

{Walker Valley is an off road vehicle trail system located east of Mount
Vernon/Big Lake/Highway 9, accessed via Peter Burns road, on state land
managed by the DNR. There are approximately twenty-eight miles of
sanctioned off-road vehicle/multiple use trails on the 6500 acres
designated for ORV use at this site. The trail system is located in an
area which has upland streams classified as level 4 and 5. That means, by
official definition, that runoff typically does not threaten fish life. The
trail system provides opportunities for various enthusiasts of off road
vehicles including motorcycles, quads, and jeeps, along with mountain
bicycles. It is currently the ONLY SANCTIONED ORV opportunity in the DNR
Northwest Region in Puget Sound (Reiter Trails is not an official ORV area,
the usage is "tolerated" by the DNR, and they have consistently refused to
consider designating and managing it as such themselves, insisting that
Snohomish County must take over and operate it similar to Thurston County
ORV).}

So, to the best of our understanding, here is how this stunning, unfair,
Walker Valley winter closure went down.

THE DNR WORKS ON A TRAIL ASSESSMENT PROJECT
. The DNR invited the Dept. of Ecology (DOE) to visit and inspect the
Walker Valley ORV system in March 2001, as part of an ongoing trail
assessment effort.
. The DOE submitted its findings in a report to the DNR August 2001.
. At some later point in 2001, this DOE report was mentioned at one of
the monthly DNR-User Group meetings, and its results were communicated as
insignificant in terms of issues.
THE DNR APPEARS TO HAVE DECIDED TO A SEASONAL CLOSURE, AND TO USE THE
"SECRETS" OF THE DOE REPORT AS JUSTIFICATION
. At the May 2002 meeting, the notion of a seasonal closure was
brought up by the DNR, the DOE report was communicated to be the basis for
this, because the Walker Valley ORV area was out of compliance. This was
completely the opposite of what had been communicated previously.
. In spite of repeated requests, the DNR refused to provide a copy of
the report or disclose the details. Per the DNR, the DOE had both tested
and observed various streams and determined that there were impacts to water
quality from the ORV use. Per the DNR, this meant that the DOE report had
concluded that these impacts comprised a non-compliance conclusion (which,
under DOE powers, means rectify or suffer closure).
. In June, after many attempts to get DNR to tell the motorized users
exactly what the problem areas were, to no avail, the DNR essentially told
the user groups that they (the users) knew what the problems were, and that
they would have to fix them. Further, they now told us that failure to do
so would result in a seasonal closure, running from Nov. 1 through March or
April 1, clearly implying that the DOE would be the legal force behind this.
SKAGIT M/C CONTINUES TO ATTEMPT TO WORK TO RECTIFY ANY AND ALL DOE ISSUES
AND AVOID THE CLOSURE
. Later in June, given a now apparently intentional lack of guidance
or leadership from DNR, Skagit M/C presented a detailed written proposal to
DNR, outlining specific plans, trail by trail, to address possible issues
they supposed were behind the DOE report. That proposal was not forwarded
to any other management within the local DNR staff for five weeks, and has
to date not been responded to.
. User groups, led by Skagit M/C, organized the needed work parties,
by the DNR. A written report on this task list has also been given to the
DNR by Skagit M/C.
. Then, as Skagit and volunteers prepared to continue their series of
very well advertised and attended work weekends in September, all focused on
suspected DOE issues, DNR informed Skagit that their first weekend was
cancelled, removed Skagit's lock from the gate chain, and told them that
they could perform no more work without direct DNR supervision (after
decades of effective, cooperative trail work by the club!). The stated
problem behind this was that 100 feet of repaired trail obliterated by a
logging sale had not been created exactly where agreed to. (Note that local
DNR staff claims, contrary to ongoing experience in other DNR lands, that
they cannot contracturally require the logging company to repair such
trails, even when they were built by significant expenditure of public money
in the first place). Skagit stated that they would obliterate the misplaced
100 feet and redo it, but this was not accepted by the DNR including massive
area communication, and received strong volunteer support from within and
without the club.
DNR APPEARS TO ACTIVELY THWART SKAGIT M/C'S EFFORTS
. Also note that,the DNR did walk trails with Skagit earlier in the
summer, and provided a list of minor repairs deemed necessary. These
alternative tasks were not DOE report issues. Over three weekends in June,
July and August, Skagit volunteers completed most of these tasks, in
priority order, but were growing concerned and frustrated knowing that their
work was addressing none of the suspected DOE issues. At the same time, the
material for three bridges promised by the DNR, work that did seem like it
might be part of the big picture, were delayed/not provided, who personally
obliterated it and placed a Trail Closed sign up.
. The DNR's pulling of Skagit's approval and ability to open the gate
to perform trail work is nothing short of astounding given their decades of
competent output, involving thousands of man hours.
IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT DNR DECIDED ON THE CLOSURE LONG AGO, AND WILL LET
NOTHING GET IN THE WAY
. Around this point in time, the club was also told that they should
get used to the idea of a winter closure, and that the hundreds of weekly
users should consider taking up basketball in the winter!
WE FIND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DOE REPORT!
. Rider, trail work volunteer, and attorney Ben Wells obtained the DOE
report via a Freedom Of Information request to Olympia, just after those DNR
actions. Although there were some trail issues mentioned in the report, the
major issues appear to be with the bridge on Peter Burns Road just as it
enters the trailhead parking lot.
. The DOE report recommended against closing Walker Valley.
. Ben Wells then submitted a detailed written report on this chain of
events to the DNR staff.
THE CLOSURE BECOMES OFFICIAL
. At the 9/24/02 monthly DNR-User Group meeting, the closure was
officially announced. It was framed as a good thing by the DNR, allowing a
full trail assessment and rework. An IAC grant to pursue a three man trail
maintenance team was to be applied for (working about 9 months per year, for
two years, with truck and tools). Be happy, we want to turn Walker into a
state-of-the art ORV area! Although requested to by the DNR, Skagit M/C
chose not to officially support the closure.

So, the trails in the Walker Valley ORV area are closed to their intended
users for five months, starting November 1!

It sure seems that the DNR at some point decided to use the DOE report to
drive this seasonal closure, and then ensured that nothing, not a willing
volunteer crew, or open communications, or their own trail maintenance
(essentially none), would get in the way!

Oddly, given the DOE report's apparent focus on the bridge on Peter Burns Rd
by the lot, only the ORV trails are closed, and only to motorized vehicles.
Hikers, equestrians and mountain bikes can still use them. Peter Burns Rd
remains open.

Our IAC funds intended to pay for motorized recreation at Walker Valley will
now be used, for almost half of the year, to pay for non-motorized
recreation, as well as pay to enforce the closure, to keep out motorized
users. That adds insult to injury!

But where will the region's riders go all winter? Will this closure be once
only, or every year? How will the regional businesses cope with the lost
income? What will Walker be turned into, really?

Will this notion of closing ORV areas to motorized users on a seasonal basis
spread to other DNR ORV areas? Imagine Tahuya being close for the winter!

The NMA will not let this poor management decision go unchallenged! With
your support, the NMA will review the history of events and the decision
process and take further actions as warranted. While further communications
to higher DNR officials may resolve this problem, the recent history of
decisions by the NW Region and its seemingly adversarial, uncooperative and
often unresponsive communications with the motorized users indicates that
resolving this will require more different actions by NMA. Our motorized
users have done everything possible
to try and work the DNR to resolve real and alleged trail problems. It
seems that the DNR is not interested in maintaining good relations with the
Walker Valley motorized users. Nor does the DNR seem to intend to build
upon the sincere volunteer efforts to date by our users. Instead, DNR seems
to be taking unilateral and biased actions that will serve only to further
antagonize relations with the motorized community and will further decimate
off-road motorized trail riding opportunities. If a decision is reached by
NMA to take more serious steps to challenge this action by DNR, we know that
the you and the other individuals, clubs and businesses that love and
support motorized riding will be ready to support our efforts. Please stay
tuned!

In the meantime, after the last day in October, you must respect the closure
while we work to correct this injustice. Failure to do so will harm our
efforts!

Thank you,
Tory Briggs
NMA President
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
Tod,

It is imperative to name names to accomplish results. The DNR is not the problem, its some people who are the problem. These people have names and faces and families and friends and allowing them to work in obscurity does not addresss the problem. It just plays into their hands.
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
CAUTION :o

Some of the sentences in the article I posted are out of order, hense may make very little sense. The price you pay for preliminary info.
:silly:

"massive are communications" had nothing to do with the incorrectly located trail, but volenteer work parties did.

"material for three bridges" were not "personally obliterated", the incorrectly located trail was.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
Do ! understand correctly that an authorized trail built with public funds and volunteer effort was obliterated because of a problem with 100ft of trail? If so then that is a destruction of public property and criminal charges should be filed against the parties involved.

What was the name of the trail?
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
Hey T-Rat, your PM box is full. I'll mail the DOE report today.
:thumb:

Fishhead, I think I know the trail name, but rather than guess, I'll look it up and let you know.
:silly:

Below is the corrected version of our article. PM me with your email address if you would like a word .doc version.

OUTRAGE OVER THE WALKER VALLEY ORV AREA CLOSURE!

Aaarrgghhh! Motorized ORV enthusiasts have been set up, misled, and
stonewalled, all so as to be easily knocked down and robbed of a precious
recreation resource.

We have officially lost Walker Valley, in a seasonal closure, from November
1 to April 1 (five months). And the conclusion that our Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) land and recreation managers intentionally drove
this closure, indeed, intentionally thwarted all attempts by users to deal
with the problems supposedly driving this action, appears unavoidable and
unassailable. And when you read the story behind this closure that follows
the description of Walker Valley in italics below, you will be mad as hell.
At this point, I am going to leave the names of the DNR staff who did this
to us out of the picture. After you read this, consider that besides the
lost opportunity for your family, that approximately 7000 user visits will
not happen during this closure. Think what that means for regional
associated businesses. Where will the displaced riders go? Have they not
just been forced towards unmanaged, unsanctioned riding areas? Is that what
DNR land management wants? It certainly is not what the Northwest
Motorcycle Association (NMA) and responsible motorized recreation
enthusiasts desire!

{Walker Valley is an off road vehicle trail system located east of Mount
Vernon/Big Lake/Highway 9, accessed via Peter Burns road, on state land
managed by the DNR. There are approximately twenty-eight miles of
sanctioned off-road vehicle/multiple use trails on the 6500 acres
designated for ORV use at this site. The trail system is located in an
area which has upland streams classified as level 4 and 5. That means, by
official definition, that runoff typically does not threaten fish life. The
trail system provides opportunities for various enthusiasts of off road
vehicles including motorcycles, quads, and jeeps, along with mountain
bicycles. It is currently the ONLY SANCTIONED ORV opportunity in the DNR
Northwest Region in Puget Sound (Reiter Trails is not an official ORV area,
the usage is "tolerated" by the DNR, and they have consistently refused to
consider designating and managing it as such themselves, insisting that
Snohomish County must take over and operate it similar to Thurston County
ORV).}

So, to the best of our understanding, here is how this stunning, unfair,
Walker Valley winter closure went down.

THE DNR WORKS ON A TRAIL ASSESSMENT PROJECT
. The DNR invited the Dept. of Ecology (DOE) to visit and inspect the
Walker Valley ORV system in March 2001, as part of an ongoing trail
assessment effort.
. The DOE submitted its findings in a report to the DNR August 2001.
. At some later point in 2001, this DOE report was mentioned at one of
the monthly DNR-User Group meetings, and its results were communicated as
insignificant in terms of issues.
THE DNR APPEARS TO HAVE DECIDED TO A SEASONAL CLOSURE, AND TO USE THE
"SECRETS" OF THE DOE REPORT AS JUSTIFICATION
. At the May 2002 meeting, the notion of a seasonal closure was
brought up by the DNR, the DOE report was communicated to be the basis for
this, because the Walker Valley ORV area was out of compliance. This was
completely the opposite of what had been communicated previously.
. In spite of repeated requests, the DNR refused to provide a copy of
the report or disclose the details. Per the DNR, the DOE had both tested
and observed various streams and determined that there were impacts to water
quality from the ORV use. Per the DNR, this meant that the DOE report had
concluded that these impacts comprised a non-compliance conclusion (which,
under DOE powers, means rectify or suffer closure).
. In June, after many attempts to get DNR to tell the motorized users
exactly what the problem areas were, to no avail, the DNR essentially told
the user groups that they (the users) knew what the problems were, and that
they would have to fix them. Further, they now told us that failure to do
so would result in a seasonal closure, running from Nov. 1 through March or
April 1, clearly implying that the DOE would be the legal force behind this.
SKAGIT M/C CONTINUES TO ATTEMPT TO WORK TO RECTIFY ANY AND ALL DOE ISSUES
AND AVOID THE CLOSURE
. Later in June, given a now apparently intentional lack of guidance
or leadership from DNR, Skagit M/C presented a detailed written proposal to
DNR, outlining specific plans, trail by trail, to address possible issues
they supposed were behind the DOE report. That proposal was not forwarded
to any other management within the local DNR staff for five weeks, and has
to date not been responded to.
. User groups, led by Skagit M/C, organized the needed work parties,
by the DNR. A written report on this task list has also been given to the
DNR by Skagit M/C.
. Then, as Skagit and volunteers prepared to continue their series of
very well advertised and attended work weekends in September, all focused on
suspected DOE issues, DNR informed Skagit that their first weekend was
cancelled, removed Skagit's lock from the gate chain, and told them that
they could perform no more work without direct DNR supervision (after
decades of effective, cooperative trail work by the club!). The stated
problem behind this was that 100 feet of repaired trail obliterated by a
logging sale had not been created exactly where agreed to. (Note that local
DNR staff claims, contrary to ongoing experience in other DNR lands, that
they cannot contracturally require the logging company to repair such
trails, even when they were built by significant expenditure of public money
in the first place). Skagit stated that they would obliterate the misplaced
100 feet and redo it, but this was not accepted by the DNR , who personally
obliterated it and placed a Trail Closed sign up.
DNR APPEARS TO ACTIVELY THWART SKAGIT M/C'S EFFORTS
. Also note that,the DNR did walk trails with Skagit earlier in the
summer, and provided a list of minor repairs deemed necessary. These
alternative tasks were not DOE report issues. Over three weekends in June,
July and August, Skagit volunteers completed most of these tasks, in
priority order, but were growing concerned and frustrated knowing that their
work was addressing none of the suspected DOE issues. At the same time, the
material for three bridges promised by the DNR, work that did seem like it
might be part of the big picture, were delayed/not provided.
. The DNR's pulling of Skagit's approval and ability to open the gate
to perform trail work is nothing short of astounding given their decades of
competent output, involving thousands of man hours.
IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT DNR DECIDED ON THE CLOSURE LONG AGO, AND WILL LET
NOTHING GET IN THE WAY
. Around this point in time, the club was also told that they should
get used to the idea of a winter closure, and that the hundreds of weekly
users should consider taking up basketball in the winter!
WE FIND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DOE REPORT!
. Rider, trail work volunteer, and attorney Ben Wells obtained the DOE
report via a Freedom Of Information request to Olympia, just after those DNR
actions. Although there were some trail issues mentioned in the report, the
major issues appear to be with the bridge on Peter Burns Road just as it
enters the trailhead parking lot.
. The DOE report recommended against closing Walker Valley.
. Ben Wells then submitted a detailed written report on this chain of
events to the DNR staff.
THE CLOSURE BECOMES OFFICIAL
. At the 9/24/02 monthly DNR-User Group meeting, the closure was
officially announced. It was framed as a good thing by the DNR, allowing a
full trail assessment and rework. An IAC grant to pursue a three man trail
maintenance team was to be applied for (working about 9 months per year, for
two years, with truck and tools). Be happy, we want to turn Walker into a
state-of-the art ORV area! Although requested to by the DNR, Skagit M/C
chose not to officially support the closure.

So, the trails in the Walker Valley ORV area are closed to their intended
users for five months, starting November 1!

It sure seems that the DNR at some point decided to use the DOE report to
drive this seasonal closure, and then ensured that nothing, not a willing
volunteer crew, or open communications, or their own trail maintenance
(essentially none), would get in the way!

Oddly, given the DOE report's apparent focus on the bridge on Peter Burns Rd
by the lot, only the ORV trails are closed, and only to motorized vehicles.
Hikers, equestrians and mountain bikes can still use them. Peter Burns Rd
remains open.

Our IAC funds intended to pay for motorized recreation at Walker Valley will
now be used, for almost half of the year, to pay for non-motorized
recreation, as well as pay to enforce the closure, to keep out motorized
users. That adds insult to injury!

But where will the region's riders go all winter? Will this closure be once
only, or every year? How will the regional businesses cope with the lost
income? What will Walker be turned into, really?

Will this notion of closing ORV areas to motorized users on a seasonal basis
spread to other DNR ORV areas? Imagine Tahuya being close for the winter!

The NMA will not let this poor management decision go unchallenged! With
your support, the NMA will review the history of events and the decision
process and take further actions as warranted. While further communications
to higher DNR officials may resolve this problem, the recent history of
decisions by the NW Region and its seemingly adversarial, uncooperative and
often unresponsive communications with the motorized users indicates that
resolving this will require more different actions by NMA. Our motorized
users have done everything possible
to try and work the DNR to resolve real and alleged trail problems. It
seems that the DNR is not interested in maintaining good relations with the
Walker Valley motorized users. Nor does the DNR seem to intend to build
upon the sincere volunteer efforts to date by our users. Instead, DNR seems
to be taking unilateral and biased actions that will serve only to further
antagonize relations with the motorized community and will further decimate
off-road motorized trail riding opportunities. If a decision is reached by
NMA to take more serious steps to challenge this action by DNR, we know that
you and the other individuals, clubs and businesses that love and support
motorized riding will be ready to support our efforts. Please stay tuned!

In the meantime, after the last day in October, you must respect the closure
while we work to correct this injustice. Failure to do so will harm our
efforts!

Thank you,
Tory Briggs
NMA President
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
0
Do ! understand correctly that an authorized trail built with public funds and volunteer effort was obliterated because of a problem with 100ft of trail?
I think only the 100 foot in question was obliterated. A small portion of the Skagit club memo to the DNR below:


After the August 10th weekend, the DNR Public Use Manager expressed a displeasure over the fact that the repairs were not done exactly pursuant to his directions and that they were not done to completion. One such displeasure revolved around the reopening of a trail that had been obliterated by logging. The DNR had failed to insist that the trail be restored by the logging contractor after it had been logged, which resulted in its destruction. The trail was a newer one that was developed as part of a $850,000 trail building and maintenance project. Prior to that weekend, the DNR Public Use Manager was shown the proposed route to complete the reopening of the trail, said route was designed by members of the Skagit Motorcycle Club, including the undersigned, and approved by the DNR Public Use Manager. Unfortunately, other members within the club misunderstood the route and approximately 50 to 100 feet of trail was incorrectly placed. When this issue was raised by the Public Use Manager, a Skagit Motorcycle Club representative stated that the trail would be corrected with the improper trail obliterated and the original trail design followed. However, this did not satisfy the Public Use Manager. The DNR hiked into the area and placed “TRAIL CLOSED” signs in the middle of the trail which unquestionably took quite some time as it is in a remote area. At a later date, the DNR went back and obliterated the 100 feet of trail in question. In total, the manager made three (3) trips to this remote site, but never managed to reopen the subject trail.


What was the name of the trail?

Swamp Grade.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
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Seems an adversarial relationship has developed. Can this be resolved via communication with Olympia?
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
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Traditionally, Olympia has supported the regional management. So far Doug Sutherland has stated that to be his basic approach.
:think:

We are working the Olympia angle anyway as a first step. If that doesn't work, it's on to phase two quickly.
:p

Make sure every rider you know contacts Sutherland ASAP :thumb:

doug.sutherland@wadnr.gov
360.902.1004

Doug Sutherland
Dept of Natural Resources
PO Box 47001
Olympia, WA 98504-7001
 

Tod

~SPONSOR~
Jul 3, 2002
368
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UPDATE:

I attended the DNR recreational user group meeting last night.
They are moving ahead with their unfair and unenforcable closure.
:|

Bill Wallace, regional manager stated that their goal was to facilitate year round use of Walker Valley. Only time will tell if they have the ability or inclination to accomplish this.

The DNR has asked for our help and one of the things people can do to help the situation is to write letters or email of support for their effort to obtain funding for a trail crew maintain the trails.

Important points to mention:
1. The recreational users support the DNR's effort to obtain funding for a trail crew dedicated to building and maintaining of ORV trails.

2. Currently the DNR NW region relies completely completely on volunteers to maintain ORV trails.

3. The total lack of DNR trail maintainence staff has contributed signifigantly to the seasonal closure of Walker Valley, the only santioned ORV area in a five county region.

send your comments to:

Christ Thomsen
Public Use Manager
DNR - Northwest region
919 N Township St
Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284

or

christ.thomsen@wadnr.gov

Also, keep those happygrams going to the State Land Commisioner, he's enjoying hearing how pissed off folks are.
:moon:
 
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