Legislation for ALL Oregon Dunes

[Robkd]

Bump to the top! This is something that needs to stay fresh on everyone's minds....

[Mrs. Senator]

Thanks for the bump Rob, I couldn't agree more

[Mrs. Senator]

New website, see below


Linky: http://www.savetheridersdunes.com/

[Autophysn]

All I can say is WOW!!! I feel so fortunate to have someone like Senator who is willing to fight for the rest of us. The Oregon Dunes are a place that was on my bucket list. Now it seems as if that may not happen. I sent my letter. I truly hope all who can attend, will! Like he said, be on your best behavior! All we need is for them to say "See! No respect for humans or nature." ugh! Mucho Props senator!!!

[Senator]

Thanks brother but I'm just spreadin the word. Other folks are doing the real work.

[Senator]

Mid-April Meeting & Field Trip

•Friday, April 16, 9:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. - Field tour of the South Riding Area (area between Horsefall Beach Road and Tenmile Creek). Field tour will start and end at the Old Bark Road Staging Area, located off of Horsefall Beach Road, north of North Bend

•Saturday, April 17, 8:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. - Meeting at the North Bend Public Library, located at 1800 Sherman Avenue in North Bend

[Senator]

© The Umpqua Post.By Alex Powers, Staff Writer


Dunes routes won't be established until 2011
U.S. Forest Service district ranger Pam Gardner announced at a city council meeting last week that off-highway maps for the Siuslaw National Forest will arrive at the beginning of April. The maps were delayed from a January release date, she said, after her office ran into printing problems.

Not much will change for ATV riders on nearby sand dunes when the map is unveiled. It details off-road use in the Siuslaw National Forest, according to forest service staff members.

Officials identified off-highway routes throughout much of the national forest after 2005, when the Forest Service required federal land managers to create travel management plans.

But forest managers will wait until at least 2011 to identify routes in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area as stakeholders continue to discuss the impact of proposed trails.

Sharon Stewart, a dispersed recreation supervisor for the Siuslaw National Forest, said staff for now will try to educate dunes users about the maps and stakeholder process.

“We’re trying to educate people where we’re designating trails,” Stewart said. “We’re not going to fence it closed, but we are going to let people know about the process and what it means.”

The 15-stakeholder group met late last year at the Dunes NRA’s middle riding area near Winches-ter Bay. At that meeting, the group established 16 criteria that will be used to evaluate proposed routes through vegetated areas.

In a 1994 off-highway vehicle management plan, the Siuslaw National Forest staff identified 4,455 acres — about 15 percent of the Dunes NRA — of vegetated areas that contain ATV routes. That land, designated 10C in the forest’s 1994 off-highway vehicle management plan, has long been a focus of contentious debate between stakeholders.

One sticking point in stakeholder discussions is whether non-native plants should be protected from ATV use, said Ross Holloway.

The forest service contracted with Holloway to facilitate public stakeholder meetings for the national forest. He said ATV proponents are concerned vegetation is consuming available riding area.

“A lot of the area that’s open sand has been revegetating,” Holloway said. “That seems to be a real key point of interest.”

Stakeholders at a meeting in Florence earlier this year discussed the effects of European beach grass, regarded as an invasive species by federal agencies.

“You’ve got a lot of forested area that had been European beach grass, then trees grew in,” Holloway said. “They’re plantations, not natural stands.”

Holloway said aerial photos in the forest’s 1994 off-road plan are starkly different from more recent aerial photos.

“It’s pretty dramatic how much more of that has been covered by vegetation,” Holloway said.

Conservationists, however, have long said the forest supports wildlife, Holloway said. At the stakeholder work group’s last meeting, in Florence, John Getz, who represents commercial mushroom pickers, said many of the forest plantations have become economic anchors for people who harvest matsutake mushrooms and other fungi growing in the woods.

Once the group weighs the impact from ATV use in vegetated areas, it should propose by fall how 10C lands will be utilized. Proposals could include anything from completely opening 10C areas to closing them outright.

That proposal will go to forest staff. They will form an internal group to hear public comment and finalize routes in the Oregon Dunes 10C areas.

The identified routes will be recorded in the forest’s federally prescribed travel, which will be updated each year, Stewart said. After that, ATV rider education will become the forest’s largest concern.

Holloway said some riders may be confused by the requirements of the federal travel management plan. Currently, 12,440 acres of the 24,940-acre Dunes NRA is open to unrestricted ATV access, except in areas marked with trails to reduce ATV noise or protect vegetation. Under the new policy, all land is assumed closed unless otherwise specified.

“It reversed everything,” Holloway said.

Stewart said lands other than 10C are unaffected. She also said she believes the stakeholder work group could recommend severe changes, but she doubts it will.

“Are we going to attempt to close the routes that are pre-existing? I would guess not,” she said.

Source: The Umpqua Post :: Off-highway forest maps arrive soon

[Senator]

Got this email today...



Hi All,

Saw Jody and Sharon on the news tonight. The report seemed pretty fair and Jody did a great job.

We've handed out flyers at the staging areas a couple of times. Last weekend we hit Windy Bay, Spin Reel, Hauser, Box Car, Bark Road and Bull Run. Between putting them on windshields and handing them to people we distributed 180. Out of 50 people we talked to about 5 had heard. We also took information to the Coos Bay City Council. Some of those members are on the Chamber of Commerce too.


We also attended the Coos Regional Trail Meeting. Mike Smith put on a good presentation and has some good plans and ideas. Think Hatfield McCoy trail system right here in our area connecting points of interests and towns etc.

We looked online and it looks like the seating room at the North Bend Library, depending on how they set it up, will hold betweem 100 and 200. If we get the turn out we're all hoping for there may not be room for us all. My thoughts are we need to keep it organized so the people will stay for media purposes if nothing else. If no news is there we need to get pictures of the crowd outside. Also we need to request that everyone be allowed to sign in even if they can't fit or make a seperate list. I know this is wishfull thinking but you never know!

See you Friday @ the Dune Tour!

Craig & Tami

[Senator]

Guys this is very important. What you will find below is an excerpt from an email thread about this topic. Jody is one of the leading advocates for us in this fight. His commentary is well informed, insightful and an excellent overview of the process, where we are within it and what potential outcomes are on the horizon as a function of what is (or is not) done about this. I'll update this thread again after this weekend's extravaganza but in the mean time you won't find a more thorough explanation than what I have pasted below.

*Note* Feel free to disseminate this information at will via Facebook, Twitter, email or whatever.




Wow! Thanks guys, I can not thank you enough. The statistics below are very scary when you really think about it. Now that we have the web page up and running at least folks can go on line and get educated and hopefully involved.

Some of my own thoughts as I look at some of the comments and voting on the different proposals is there is a disproportionate amount of time being spent on mushrooms. I read the final FS report called the Record of Decision and one thing that really stood out is that forest production and mushroom production is secondary to recreation. They seemed to have forgotten that with this process. No matter what, the plantations will be closed due not to mushrooms but to noise buffers and sand control which I do understand but I want to push the issue that mushroom is secondary. With this much 10C closed I feel we must ask for areas that can be opened to compensate. The deflation lands are worthless for us and even animals because of so much standing water so for me that is not compensation unless you destroy the foredunes and that is probably too late even for that to make much of a difference unless there is true salt water let in and out.

Tomorrow and Saturday will be, what I feel, a turning point for us. We either get some traction with the vegetation or they have simply made their decision and we are just part of the process. I can tell you one thing; the Northern Dunes are in big trouble. If you look at the maps and even best case, about half are going to be closed if we do not come up with something. Mark Tilton has his teeth in them. Incinerator Road is on his radar for closure as well as all the plantations down there. It seems they are trying to minimize the area as small and inconsequential. I can tell you why most OHV feel the same is that all the camping is north. So the answer is to close any good camping south? Sounds to me like the easy thing to do right? I can tell you, if you do not want that area close we are going to have to fight. I have not voted on the Northern Dunes because there are too many proposals and the maps we can see are too small but Saturday we will get access to bigger maps. It is just too confusing to really draw any good conclusions.

See you tomorrow and again, thanks, it is your efforts with boots on the ground that will truly get the grass roots momentum going.

Jody

Jody Phillips
Senior Account Executive MBT04

[Senator]

Hello All,

For those of you that don't get "The World Newspaper" or may not have seen it, there's a story on the front page about the dune issue. It's linked and pasted below.

Siuslaw Forest may close some dune trails
By Rachel Finney, Staff Writer


The Siuslaw National Forest is looking at new rules governing trails and some current riding areas. A citizens committee is working on designating off-highway vehicle routes through the Siuslaw National Forest’s dunes, a project that could mean fewer trails.

That prospect alarms some people who rely on dune access for recreation or even their livelihoods.

“The ATV industry here, you’re talking multimillion dollars for Coos Bay alone,” said Rich Burkholder of Spinreel Dune Buggy and ATV Rental. “I don’t think the citizens understand. If everything keeps getting shut down, you’re not going to have a town.”

Burkholder said many people enjoy riding trails through the forest, as opposed to open dunes. As a business owner, he’s concerned that use of the dunes may decrease if there are fewer options.

According to the 1994 Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area Management Plan, upland portions of the dunes are required to have designated riding routes. A series of meetings by a volunteer group is the first step toward implementing those routes.

Mike Harvey, a recreation staff officer for Siuslaw National Forest, worked on the 1994 plan. He said officials created it while “meeting our own regulations and direction from the president’s office.”

The reason for designating routes is to minimize harm to vegetation and wildlife, Harvey said.

The Designated Route Working Group, made up of volunteers with interest in the dunes, is compiling ideas on which routes to designate and what kind of impact those changes will have on wildlife and recreation.

“It’s a balancing act,” said Sharon Stewart, dispersed recreation supervisor for the dunes recreation area.

Turns out, that’s not simple.

At a recent public meeting at the North Bend Public Library, the working group focused on major topics that have become apparent while designating off-highway vehicle routes.

Ross Holloway, the working group facilitator, said vegetation was the main issue tackled by group members. Non-native plants, native trees and mushroom habitat have flourished on the dunes, he said.

“Dunes are slowly but surely being grown over,” he said.

Harvey said the Forest Service has not deeply analyzed the vegetation. Officials don’t think they’ll need to close routes in areas with invasive species, such as European beach grass, because those species are not desirable.

Wetlands protection also comes into consideration.

“There’s a lot of wetlands out there, and they seem to be increasing,” Holloway said.

The working group wants to find a balance between protecting the dunes environment and preserving recreation areas, he said. Safety becomes a concern if riding trails are lost. With more all-terrain vehicles and dune buggies concentrated into a smaller area, crashes or injuries could increase.

Safety is a worry for Burkholder, at Spinreel Dune Buggy.

“If you narrow it down too much, you’re going to have a dangerous area where people are going to be gathering,” he said.

Private landowners near the dunes have problems with trespassers, so how the Forest Service will patrol and enforce rules on the dunes is another subject for the group to handle.

The Forest Service is far from making any decisions yet, Stewart said. At the start of the fiscal year in October, officials will look at the working group’s report and analyze the area environmentally.

“It depends on the complexity of the issues surrounding the subject,” Stewart said. “It could take six months, or up to one year.”

Source: The World Link : Siuslaw Forest may close some dune trails