Deep ruts and erosion on some trails and roads on Santa Fe National Forest lands in the Jemez Mountains have led to a debate between the Santa Fe National Forest and the state Environment Department.

The Santa Fe National Forest supervisor told the state Environment Department secretary to have patience regarding the closure of national forest areas to off-highway vehicle use.

Secretary Ron Curry in April asked forest supervisor Dan Jiron to consider closing some already damaged trails and roads in the Jemez to off-road vehicles based on a citizens' petition and his own tours of the area.

Jiron denied the petition and sent a written reply to Curry last week, noting the agency is midway through completing a long, official and public travel-management process for deciding what roads and trails vehicles can use. "A hastily prepared analysis or one-sided decision would likely result in the decision being invalidated, and the process would need to start over," wrote Jiron to Curry and Jemez-area resident Kevin Stillman, who filed the petition. "This would only delay our progress toward more active management of motorized use."

Plus, Jiron wrote, off-highway vehicles are not the only cause of damaged trails in the Jemez Mountains.

Curry isn't swayed.

"We appreciate Forest Supervisor Jiron's quick response to our concerns, but we saw first hand the impacts of the use of off-highway vehicles on water quality and are concerned about damage to smaller headwaters," Curry said Monday. "What's happening now is clearly not enough (to protect them). I just want to make sure the Forest Service is aware that our concerns are erosion and water quality."

Stillman said 65 individuals and several environmental groups signed the petition. "The whole reason for the petition is to get some action out there, address the problem and get it fixed," Stillman said. "We've talked to the Forest Service for years about it and see the inaction."

Most of the Santa Fe National Forest, except wilderness and a few other roads and trails, are open to cross-country travel by dirt bikes, trucks, four-wheelers and any other mechanized modes of transportation. User-created trails in the wrong areas, whether by OHVs, mountain bikers or hikers, can lead to erosion and soil washing into headwater streams. Sediment degrades water quality and can harm fish.

Some areas of the Santa Fe National Forest, like other public lands, are suffering erosion problems from off-highway vehicle use. In 2005, the U.S. Forest Service listed off-highway vehicles as one of four unregulated activities that were damaging public lands. All national forests were ordered to develop plans to control motorized vehicles and establish official roads and trails where they would be allowed.

Stillman lives near Jemez trails and lands he says are being damaged by off-road vehicles. He has been vocal in previous travel management meetings about the need for more closures to motorized vehicles and more enforcement. In March, Stillman filed a "citizen's petition" asking Jiron to bar vehicles from about 70 miles of routes in the Jemez Ranger District. Stillman also asked Jiron to repair and restore "all areas in the Santa Fe National Forest that have been damaged or degraded by motorized vehicles."

Curry has toured the Jemez area that Stillman is concerned about and wrote Jiron in April, saying the area needed to be better protected from off-road vehicle use. Curry said Stillman's petition had identified damaged areas that have "the greatest impact on air quality, wildlife, water quality and soils compared with other trails and roads."

Jiron disagreed. "The petition focuses on trails and roads around the Cochiti Mesa area, which are not necessarily the routes with the greatest undesirable impacts. The Cochiti Mesa area has few perennial waterways on Forest Service lands," Jiron noted in his June 3 reply to Curry. While the Cochiti Mesa has suffered damage from OHVs, the Forest Service is focusing on projects to protect key perennial streams in the Jemez Mountains, including the Rio Cebolla, the Rio de las Vacas and the Rio Guadalupe, from OHV and other uses.

In his June 3 reply to both men denying the petition, Jiron noted he had considered Stillman's evidence about OHV damage to trails and "do not conclude that motorized use is directly causing considerable adverse effects to natural and cultural resources sufficient to warrant an immediate closure."

Jiron further noted that the public uses the same trails as OHV riders for horseback riding, mountain biking and hiking. He said it is not fair to blame only off-roaders for damaged trails. "The damage is a result of inadequate maintenance to control water flow and is associated with use by all user classes," Jiron wrote.

Stillman also wanted Jiron to ensure there was adequate staff to enforce road and trail closures, an issue that has been raised frequently by people opposed to off-road vehicle use in national forests.

Jiron said limited closures have been ordered in some areas of the Jemez with varying success. In some places, like Medio Dia Canyon Trail and Cochiti Canyon Road, Jiron admitted off-roaders regularly violate the closure.

Stillman said he went out recently to see a gate closing off Forest Road 288 that was supposed to be fixed. "The gate was wide open and it was still damaged," Stillman said. "Jiron obviously doesn't have a clue what is going on out there."

Jiron said his staff have spent two years seeking public input into the Santa Fe National Forest travel management plan, analyzing existing trails and roads, and creating maps for further public review. Eventually, the Santa Fe National Forest, like all other national forests, will have maps showing which roads and trails can be used by motorized vehicles and which ones are closed. "Currently we are in the middle of this process," Jiron wrote to Stillman and Curry.

"I'm looking forward to them making some changes because what they are doing now is not satisfactory," Curry said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.