Hundreds of miles of trails and roads crisscross the Rico-West Dolores region of the San Juan National Forest.

But who gets to use what?

Balancing multiple uses for recreation while protecting the environment, wildlife habitat, and hunting grounds is the job of forest managers, in cooperation with the public.

Since 2005, the Forest Service has been implementing travel-management plans on every forest in the West.

The Boggy-Glade and Mancos plans are complete.

Now it’s time for Rico-West Dolores, a recreation area stretching from Dolores to Rico, and from the West-Fork to Groundhog Reservoir and Lone Cone.

Open House

On Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Dolores Community Center, the Forest Service hosted an open house on its recreation plan.

Forest planned Deb Kill reminds said the meeting was the beginning of a long process of input and negotiations.

The forest will develop proposals for the public to review, and additional environmental analysis will take place.

“It is important to hear from people about what concerns them, with ‘why’ being the most important part,” Kill said.

‘We can all coexist’

Travel management plans include rules, signs, and enforcement. They inevitably cause some conflict among different users.

Motorized groups are disappointed with the plan, but hunters are happy with it.

Casey McClellan, of Timberline Trailriders, feels motorized users got short shrift, with multiple trails closed off, and a long seasonal closure.

“There are too many closures that don’t make sense,” he said. “Proposing to close the Horse Creek, Ryman, and Burnett trails to motorized is disappointing. They are very popular and are convenient to Rico hotels and restaurants.”

The proposed opening of the Morrison Trail to single track motorcycle use is the one positive aspect of the plan, McClellan said.

“All the user groups have shared the trails since the 1960s,” he added. “Closures are a Forest Service mindset, we can all coexist.”

Hunters on the other hand are impressed by the proposal for a seasonal closure to all motorized trails from Sept. 9 through June 30.

The yearly closure would eliminate the overlap of motorcycle trail use with most of the big-game hunting seasons and big-game calving seasons in the spring.

“To be successful, a hunter drives to the end of a road and then hikes in a ways to find the game,” says Matt Kenna, of Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “If those trails have motorized uses, we have to walk in even further.”

The closure allows for improved habitat conditions for elk and deer to overwinter with less disturbance, he said.

Lawsuit pending

Single-track motorized trails in the Rico-West Dolores area became the basis for a 2010 lawsuit filed by Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. (BHA)

The sportsman group challenged 14 trails designated for single-track motorized use, asserting that their impacts were not analyzed under the National Environmental Policy Act.

But a federal court disagreed, ruling in 2013 that the forest had authority to designate the trails for motorized use.

BHA appealed, and the case was heard last November in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

“The goal of our case is to have these trails closed to motorized uses until the harms are properly analyzed,” said Aaron Brynildson, an attorney who argued the appeals case.

Forest officials report the court’s decision could have an impact on the travel management plan.

“It is a parallel situation,” Kill said. “What comes from the lawsuit we may have to respond to.”

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com