A group of landowners, outdoor enthusiasts and conservation groups is petitioning the U.S. Forest Service to close 27 motorized routes in the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.

The group says almost 67 miles require immediate closure because of damage that off-road vehicles are causing in sensitive areas that include habitat of the Jemez Mountain salamander and the spotted owl.

The damage includes severe erosion, leaving one trail with a path that's five feet across and 30 inches deep, according to area landowner Kevin Stillman, one of 70 people who signed the petition. Six groups, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Santa Fe Sierra Club, also signed the petition.

Stillman and others provided photos of the damage at a Roundhouse news conference on the petition Monday.

Stillman said off-road vehicles including motorbikes and ATVs use the area "almost every day.

"If you don't see them or hear them," he said, "you see the trail they are leaving."

The petition asks the Forest Service to "close motorized routes to off-road vehicles that are causing considerable adverse effects on soil, vegetation, wildlife, wildlife habitat, and cultural or historic resources until such time as the responsible official determines that such adverse effects have been eliminated and that measures have been implemented to prevent future recurrence."

A Santa Fe National Forest spokeswoman, Dolores Maese, said the office hadn't received the petition Monday afternoon and couldn't comment.

Stillman said area landowners for years have asked the Forest Service to help control the off-roaders, some of whom drive around closure barriers on trails. The petitioners ask the Forest Service to act by May 1.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.