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
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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
