Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate
Press Releases
Forest Service Fails to Protect Tonto National Forest From Excessive Off-road Vehicle Use
Forest Service Fails to Protect Tonto National Forest From Excessive Off-road Vehicle Use
Agency Documents Show Plan Likely to Result in Death of Endangered Species, Damage to Habitat, Rivers, Streams
Contact: Greg Dyson (503) 730-9242 gdyson@wildearthguardians.org
Additional Contacts:
KatieDavis, Center for Biological Diversity, (801) 560-2414, kdavis@biologicaldiversity.org
Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club –Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter, (602) 999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Andy Laurenzi, ArchaeologySouthwest, (520) 882-6946, andy@archaeologysouthwest.org
PHOENIX— The Tonto NationalForest released a final draft of its long-awaited Travel Management Plan onFriday that ignored members of the public and conservation groups who highlightedthe need to minimize and repair damage caused by excessive motorized use on theforest. The Forest Service made few changes to the original proposed action, whichhad generated outcry among concerned users of the forest, which is one of themost heavily visited national forests in the country. The final draft of theplan authorizes public motorized use on more than 3,600 miles of roads andtrails and includes more than 100,000 acres of off-road vehicle recreationareas.
According to the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, the plan is very likely to result in annual deaths ofendangered narrow-headed and northern Mexican garter snakes, and the allowedmotorized use will damage critical habitat for many imperiled species,including the southwestern willow flycatcher and yellow-billed cuckoo. Whilesome routes within critical habitat will be slated for closure anddecommissioning, no timeline or funding source has been identified by theForest Service to complete those actions.
“With this decision theForest Service is not only abdicating its responsibility to assist in therecovery of listed species on the Tonto National Forest, it’s causing thecontinued loss of native wildlife and habitat,” said Katie Davis, public landscampaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Preservation of the statusquo at the expense of endangered species is an unacceptable approach to publicland management.”
One of the primary reasonsthe Tonto National Forest was created in 1905 was to protect the watersheds ofthe Salt and Verde rivers. Off-road vehicles and user-created roads havedevastating long-term impacts on streams and rivers—even a single vehicledriving through these areas can destroy river banks and result in the death oftortoises, snakes and other animals. However, under the new plan, the ForestService has granted big-game hunters special privileges, allowing them to driveoff-road on more than 1.9 million acres.
“Motorized cross-country travelcauses severe damage to watersheds and wildlife habitat,” said Greg Dyson ofWildEarth Guardians. “The Tonto was required to close motorized cross-countrytravel, which they did, but they then used the big game retrieval exception—an exception that must be used sparingly—to allow OHVs to maraud across halfthe forest. It’s a loophole that places the forest at risk to serious damageand abuse.”
Many of the roads in theplan would also provide motorized access to fragile ancient and historicalsites. While the proposal would restrict most motorized use away fromdesignated roads and trails, greatly reducing inadvertent vehicle damage toarchaeological sites, it would leave 3,600 miles of roads open, even though theForest Service estimates the cost to maintain this system will be 2.5 times itscurrent allocated budget. A study by Archaeology Southwest showed a greaterrisk of vandalism for rock art and habitation sites in close proximity to roadsopen to motorized travel. Without proper oversight, highly visiblearchaeological sites will likely continue to be the targets of acts ofvandalism.
“The Tonto’s decisionappears to indicate that natural and cultural resource management on the Forestis secondary to motorized recreation,” said Andy Laurenzi, Southwest fieldrepresentative for Archaeology Southwest.
“The Tonto National Forestprovides many important benefits to our communities—clean air, clean water,opportunity for quiet recreation—and significant habitat to a diversity ofplants and animals,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s GrandCanyon (Arizona) Chapter. “Irresponsible off-road vehicle activity and theexcess of user-created roads associated with it have devastating long-termimpacts on streams and rivers. The Forest Service has failed miserably indeveloping a plan to limit damage to the land, its waters and its wildlife.”