Montana Forest Hopes to Crack Down on Illegal Off-Roading

By Dana Green, 5-22-06

On the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, officials are hoping a new grant will help them keep off-road vehicle users on the straight and narrow, according to a story in today’s Montana Standard.

The numbers speak for themselves – in the last five years, forest officers handed out only 21 tickets for violating off road rules across the forest – while over the same period, 291 incident reports were filed.

Funding is through the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Off-Highway Vehicle and Recreation Trails program, funded through a gas tax and a mandatory ORV sticker.

The Forest Service issued a new rulebook for managing ORV use last November, but many conservation groups didn’t think it went far enough to control what outgoing Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth, three years ago, called “one of the greatest threats to America’s national forests” – unmanaged recreation.

A number of groups have spawned a new organization – the Natural Trails and Water Coalition – to battle illegal ORV use. [End of article]