Off Road Vehicles Cause Closure of North Carolina Trails

Off Road Vehicles Cause Closure of North Carolina Trails



January 2008  - The U.S. Forest 
Service is closing an off road vehicle trail system in the Nantahala 
National Forest to limit damage and muddy runoff into trout streams. 
Intensive use has turned some of the ORV trails into ditches more than 
seven feet deep. 
"It is our goal to maintain a viable Upper Tellico off highway vehicle 
system while reducing sediment, meeting water quality standards and 
improving brook trout fisheries," said Forest Supervisor Marisue Hilliard. 
"The purpose of this January 1 to March 31 closure is to protect water 
quality in the Upper Tellico River and allow the Forest Service to make 
repairs to the trail system." 
The agency will close for a year four trail segments that are especially 
eroded. 
The Tellico area, located in the Nantahala National Forest in the 
headwaters of the upper Tellico River, is one of the largest and most 
heavily used ORV destinations on public lands in the Southeast. The almost 
40 miles of designated trails, not counting unmarked trails, are double 
what the Nantahala forest plan allows for the Tellico. 
Conservation groups, concerned about the ongoing pollution of the Tellico 
watershed, expressed cautious optimism at the closure. 
The conservation groups have had a series of conversations with the agency 
and off-road vehicle users since June when they submitted a notice of 
their intent to sue the Forest Service for violating multiple state and 
federal water quality laws, and its own regulations. 
No lawsuit has been filed, although the groups' notice is still pending.

"This action comes not a moment too soon for the health of these streams 
and the critical habitat they support," said Michael "Squeak" Smith, with 
the North Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited. "The Forest Service is 
finally walking the talk, and we'll fully expect them to follow through 
with their intent to do a more thorough, long-lasting plan." 
Muddy runoff in the Tellico watershed is devastating one of the last, best 
strongholds for brook trout, a native species in decline in North Carolina 
and Tennessee. 
The Forest Service has estimated that over the years, more than 25,000 
tons of sediment have been displaced from the entrenched sections of the 
trail system. 
Recent trail surveys conducted by the agency documented hundreds of sites 
where sediment flowed directly from trails to nearby streams. Some 
sections of trail discharged as much as 59 tons of mud to streams each 
year for each mile of trail. 
Generally, streams within the area receive 500 to 1,000 times more 
sediment than similar streams just outside the trail system. The runoff 
has been detected several miles downstream in the Cherokee National Forest 
in Tennessee. 
"We view this as a good-faith effort by the Forest Service to immediately 
address the worst problems," said D.J. Gerken, staff attorney with the 
Southern Environmental Law Center which represents Trout Unlimited, Public 
Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Wild South. 
"We intend to work with the Forest Service on its pledge of quickly 
formulating and executing long-lasting solutions so we don't wind up in 
court now or in the future," said Gerken. 
"We have been trying to get some action like this since this problem was 
brought to our attention several years ago," said Barry Sulkin with the 
Tennessee chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. 
"It is encouraging to see that the Forest Service has finally decided to 
take these steps, but we need to see if it is enough and if opposing 
parties will try and block it. These trout streams deserve extra 
protection and for too long they have been abused." 
Off road vehicle groups oppose the closure. The Toyota Land Cruiser 
Association, TLCA, has mounted a letter writing campaign to persuade the 
Forest Service to leave the trails open. 
The TLCA sample letter says in part, "With respect to seasonal closures of 
the entire area, your agency did not provide and I have not seen any proof 
that demonstrates the time of year is directly tied to increase potential 
for impacts. There is no data provided by your agency to suggest that 
sedimentation from January 1 to March 31 occurs at a higher rate than 
sedimentation during other months of the year, which makes a winter-time 
closure unfounded." 
Hilliard said the Forest Service will be working this winter with 
stakeholders on long range planning for the Upper Tellico area. She said 
funding for the needed repairs will come from a combination of trail user 
fees, Forest Service appropriations and the volunteer efforts of local ORV 
organizations. 
The Upper Tellico closure is similar to winter closures already in place 
at the Wayehutta, Brown Mountain and Badin Lake off road vehicle areas on 
other national forests in North Carolina. 

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