Cle Elum: Public meeting @ Ranger Station

[4WheelingPlus]

FYI for those of you that play in the Cle Elum, Easton, Liberty areas.

A public meeting will be held at 7:00PM in the Tom L. Craven Conferernce Room of the Cle Elum Ranger Station on January 15th, 2004 to discuss the new Managed Travelways program impacting trail access.

Contact info:
Kim Larned
Cle Elum Ranger Station
803 W 2nd Street
Cle Elum, WA 98922
509-674-4411
klarned AT fs.fed.us (replace spaces and AT with @)

I plan to be there and I will take notes. If you can't make it and would like to hear how the meeting went, email me and I will get back to you ASAP. rondunnjr AT 4wheelingplus.com (replace spaces and AT with @)

[pokey]

If you like wheeling in the cle-elum area you need to be involved in this meeting and the ones following. more inf at http://www.pnw4wda.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=973&highlight=

You can make a differance or you can sit at home and web-wheel

[4WheelingPlus]

TTT

Reminder: This meeting is tonight.

[4WheelingPlus]

There is a 2nd meeting planned for March 4th.

I think the Forest Service was caught off guard with the 100+/- people that showed up at the first meeting.

This 2nd meeting is to discuss such trails as:
- Manastash Ridge
- Sassy Mountain/Corral Creek
- North Fork Taneum
- Domerie Peak Trail

I'm only familiar with the Manastash Ridge. If you play on the other trails I highly recommend showing up!

Same place as the first meeting.

Take the 1st Cle Elum exit and then the 1st real gravel road to the left that runs up next to the new Windermere Real Estate Office. You can't miss it.

Ron Dunn Jr
4WheelingPlus.com

[pokey]

Thanks Ron I will try and make that one. Had some vehicle problems the day of the last one :( Jim

[4WheelingPlus]

No problem Jim. :D

I plan to try and post all Kittitas County Off Road related meetings here and on my site.

I read about them in the local paper. Sometimes they are a little tough to notice so I have a few friends watching for me as well. ;)

NOTE to others: If you want to come but transportation is an issue... post your location here and maybe someone near you is going and you could car pool???

Thanks,
Ron Dunn Jr
http://www.4WheelingPlus.com

[4WheelingPlus]

I set-up a quick web page displaying the latest letters & maps that the Forest Service sent in regards to the March 4th meeting in Cle Elum.

I am sorry about the quality but the originals were bad photo copies plus I had to compress the scanned in images in an attempt to keep the file size down so those of us still using dial-up can see the files. :banghead:

The page is titled: "Kittitas County Off-Road Coalition" - There isn't a true coalition yet but I am willing to put in the work to get one going if there is an interest. We all know there is more strength in numbers... so let me know if you want to help me start a coalition in regards to Off-Roading in Kittitas County.

Here is the web page:
http://kcorc.4wheelingplus.com

Feedback is always welcome!

Thanks,
Ron Dunn Jr
http://www.4wheelingplus.com

[Ben W]

Hey thanks for taking the time to put up that information. After looking over them quickly it sounds like they have decided not to implement the "managed travelways" program, which means cross-country travel, and user-created trails are still allowed. Does anyone have a definition of exactly what "resource damage" is?

[4WheelingPlus]

I too am confused by the terms & definitions that the Forest Service uses.

As near as I can tell...

Today: we can go off road anywhere it doesn't specifically say NOT to... with a few obvious exceptions.

This causes "resource damage" in certain areas. Mudding causes ruts and water run-off deviations, stream crossings cause ruts and bank erosion, etc.

My personal definition of "resource damage" is: excessive use or abuse of any area with the potential to cause "irreversible" harm to wild life and or their habitats.

Future: I think (don't quote me) that the Managed Travelways plan was going to restrict/close/re-route certain trails/paths that were getting damaged or abused.

If I am correct then I think there was some confusion in the last Forest Service meeting.

I try to follow the newspapers & letters & meetings... but it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense what the "official" plan is.

The local Forest Service tells us that they are not going to do anything at a local level... but there are plans at a National level to do something. - That scares me. Anytime you have a "blanket" National policy go into effect we loose.

At this point we need more people to show up at the meetings and we need to unite regardless of how many wheels our Off-Road rig of choice has.

That's my 2 cents.

- Ron