Recreational Land Use Planning and Management - Article Example

The act is affected by historical and current events as the USFS developing a system for land managers to balance competing for recreational needs of distressed groups to share limited public lands called the Recreational Opportunity Spectrum (ROS, Clark and Stankey 1979). Central principles to the implementation of the ROS include the use of the human experience of recreation and influences from recreation on people and the environment in rational and spatially- explicit planning of activities. However, historically, understanding and acceptance of the ROS by field staff determine its actual application (Stankey and others 1986). Currently, Tahoe National Forest uses the language of ROS during the planning of the optimization model and framing the citizens’ analyses of recreational experiences and impacts to cover the spectrum of activities in a spatially explicit system.

Other changes that affect land use over time due to events and/or policies include Travel Management Rule regulated environmental effects (TMR) of 2005 (36 CFR 212.55) regulated environmental effects of public land use. In most U.S. National Forests, off-trail or “cross-country” was permitted in anywhere in a forest that did not explicitly prohibit the use of motor vehicles. It required the USFS land managers to designate an official motorized recreation system in every National Forest. Query trail users in the TNF were questioned during a survey about their route system preferences, experiences, and feedback about overall recreational route management.

The questions focused on the six main types of activities they managed in: Four-wheel drive passenger vehicle (henceforth‘‘4WD’’), four-wheel motorcycle (henceforth ‘‘quad’’), two-wheel motorcycle (henceforth ‘‘motorcycle’’), bicycling (primarily mountain biking), hiking, and horseback riding. Almost half of the hikers and almost two-thirds of horseback riders were opposed to multiple uses of the routing system by motorized and non-motorized recreation. In contrast, extremely few motorized recreationists opposed multiple uses of the routing system. Collaborative planning among stakeholders aims to find optimal solutions for recreational system management.

The stress of the trail system adjacent to this planning project concurs with the number of today’s OHV users who depend on these trails. Motorcycle riding and ATV in the Tahoe National Forest are done in a few small riding areas, and particularly (Forest Hill), which receives heavy use. For any future expansion or addition of new staging areas to be decided on, the demands of the public trail users must be met to reduce unnecessary conflicts. Therefore, I urge the OHMVR division to spend the citizens’ OHV tax dollars on trails since what they need is additional trail opportunities. Read More