The Santa Fe National Forest's five alternatives for managing off-roaders aren't getting high marks from people involved with the years-long planning process.

Participants compliment the U.S. Forest Service staff's efforts, but not the final draft of their "travel management" plan.

Environmentalists lean toward the option that most restricts motorized travel, while off-road vehicle enthusiasts lean toward the one that restricts it the least.

A rare few, like Peter Prince — a mechanical engineer who hikes, mountain and dirt bikes in the Santa Fe National Forest near Los Alamos — are somewhere in the middle. But Prince thinks the travel management process drove a deeper wedge between the motorized and nonmotorized groups.

"This process pits one interest group against another," said Prince, a Sierra Club member. "My preference would be to say, 'Hey, if there's damage on the trail, then let's shut it down to everyone.' Then everyone loses. It would bring us all together and we could figure out how to fix it."

Conservationists favor an alternative that slashes the roads, trails and areas now open to motorized vehicles by 65 percent. Under this alternative, 1,829 miles of roads, 53 miles of trails and no acres for cross-country travel would be open to motorized vehicles.

Off-roaders favor the alternative that allows motorized vehicles on 2,549 miles of roads and 462 miles of trails and leaves open 49 acres to cross-country travel.

Motorized vehicles now are allowed on more than 5,000 miles of road, 339 miles of trail and on 443,000 acres of Santa Fe National Forest land.

The public has until Sept. 30 to comment on the plan.

Environmentalists say the final plan must ensure headwaters, stream banks and endangered species habitats are protected from damage by motorized vehicles.

"If we are picking among the five alternatives, clearly number three is the best for the health of the forest," said hiker Norma McCallan of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande chapter, referring to the option that cuts down areas open to motorized vehicles by 65 percent. "It is the least intrusive of the options, particularly in regard to designating the fewest roads and motorized trails, and not allowing motorized access for big game retrieval. It is the least destructive of habitat, and the least polluting of air and water."

McCallan said she and others absolutely want the trails south of the Valles Caldera National Preserve closed to motorized vehicles.

"I have visited this spot," she said, "and was appalled by the wanton disregard for the integrity of the forest — multiple trails going up and down very steep hills and crossing streams multiple times — a recipe for serious erosion and degradation of our precious waterways."

Some of those trails are ones off-roaders believe need to be left open.

Tom Seamster of Eldorado-based Wildlife Habitat of New Mexico said the alternatives lack impartial scientific data to back up what is left open and what closed.

"The Forest Service didn't go outside the agency to look at other scientific studies and reports that would broaden the picture," he said. "They need to get outside their own limited view."

Retired LANL scientist and Sierra Club member Gordon Spingler said alternative four is the only viable one for off-roaders.

"Three would be the end of legal OHV riding in the Jemez Mountains, but the opposition would love it," said Spingler, a dirt biker around Los Alamos for more than 30 years.

Spingler said if the final decision is perceived by the off-roading community as a "reasonable system, we will be the greatest supporters of implementing the travel management plan. We will help on mitigation, enforcement, putting up signs."

But, he said, "If it is viewed as a disaster, then Katie-bar-the-door. People will ride wherever."

Rick Alcon, owner of four motorcycle shops in Albuquerque, said some trails need to be closed to motorized vehicles. But he thinks the Forest Service eliminated other trails popular with dirt bikers and ATVers without really considering them.

"That was inappropriate. They arbitrarily decided some of the trails didn't exist when they did," said Alcon, who is submitting 50 pages of comments about the draft plan.

Spingler and Alcon said off-roaders, especially dirt bikers, need loops because riders need one-way traffic on the trails. None of the alternatives provide many loops, they said.

Alcon and Spingler said if four or five relatively short trails with loops on existing trails were added back to one of the alternatives, it would be perceived as "pretty fair." Those trails, created legally by users years ago, are North Pass, the west end of MoTown, the west end of Crosstown and Popovers.

Alcon, Spingler and other motorized vehicle enthusiasts readily say there has been damage and some trails are in inappropriate places. But they say if off-road trails and roads are drastically limited to small areas, those areas will suffer greater impact and damage from off-road vehicle use. They believe the lack of a well-thought-out system will increase illegal off-roading.

When Theodore Roosevelt established the national forest system in 1905, it was to protect natural resources and promote recreation.

But whose type of recreation? And how do you decide what is the right balance?

Nicolas Martinez, a member of the Backcountry Horsemen of New Mexico, who has ridden in the Santa Fe National Forest for two decades, said it's a tall order for the Forest Service.

"Balancing recreation while protecting the resources is tough," he said.

Mail written comments to SFNF Travel Comments, 11 Forest Lane, Santa Fe, NM 85708. Fax comments to 505-438-5391 or e-mail to sftravelmgt@fs.fed.us.


IF YOU GO

What: Public meetings to comment on the draft plan for motorized vehicle travel in the Santa Fe National Forest.

When: 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Santa Fe National Forest office, 11 Forest Lane, Santa Fe

Other upcoming meetings:

Monday: Jemez Springs, 6-8:30 p.m., Valles Caldera Conference Room, State Road 4

Tuesday: Las Vegas, 6-8:30 p.m., NMHU's Sala de Madrid, University Ave., Las Vegas

To see the draft plan online and extensive background information, search "Santa Fe National Forest" and click on "Travel Management Plan."