Plumas County Sheriff refuses to enforce Forest Service Regs

[corax]

http://www.plumasnews.com/home/7904-sheriff-refuses-to-enforce-federal-laws.html

M. Kate West
Chester Editor
2/15/2011

“There was a good reason why the Plumas County Sheriff's Office had a large presence at the Almanor Basin Tea Party Patriots meeting,” Sheriff Greg Hagwood said Feb. 10.

He said he and his administration, along with the area patrol sergeant Dean Canalia and Chester deputies Ian James and Chris Herrbach, were there to “demonstrate first and foremost their awareness of what the United States Forest Service was trying to inflict on residents and tourists alike with restricting access to public lands.”

“Secondly, I want every citizen to know we do not support, endorse nor will we inflict this one-vehicle limit nonsense on them,” Hagwood said.

“Bottom line, we are not going to be agents of the federal government in creating a new class of criminals who are doing nothing more then accessing what are public lands.”
—Greg Hagwood, Plumas County Sheriff

 

[paulj]

From the same source

http://www.plumasnews.com/home/7907-plumas-countys-oldest-family-ranch-protected-for-ranching-and-wildlife.html

A seventh generation of Pearces will be able to work their family ranch thanks to a recent conservation easement the family signed with the Feather River Land Trust

and
http://www.plumasnews.com/home/7884-share-the-dream-trail-project-may-move-forward.html

Regional off-highway-vehicle advocates hope to quickly resolve their differences with the Lassen National Forest and move their vision of a 109-mile OHV loop around Lassen Volcanic National Park a step closer to reality and improve year-round recreational opportunities for OHV users.

and conflict between land owners and public over road use
http://www.plumasnews.com/home/7673-whose-road-is-it-anyway-old-forgay-point-road-is-contested.html

 

[mrlocksmith]

Thanks for the Post... Finally someone standing up for our RS2477 rights of ingress and egress. If you wish to read up on this in another context and the role of agencies imposing highly restrictive rules and road closures follow this link to the report on from the Hon. Jim Gibbons Congressional Record of the year 2000

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...DctMDBmZC00MzYxLTk4ZjctMDFmNTBiNDc3MDYz&hl=en

Mark

 

[goodtimes]

Please do not copy & paste complete articles to message boards. It creates a legal mess for the owners of the site (in most cases, it's a copyright violation, and more and more website owners are being sued because of it). Posting a short synopses and a link back to the original article is a better way to share the article.

thank you.

 

[paulj]

It appears that the rule in dispute is:

Fuel-wood gathering, hunting or big game retrieval: Vehicles will not be allowed to leave the designed transportation system to travel cross country for these purposes.
Parking off road or trail: Vehicles may park one vehicle length off the road or trail. Hardened pullouts and wide areas that are contiguous to the road or trail are considered part of same.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDfxMDT8MwRydLA1cj72BTUwMTAwgAykeaxRtBeY4WBv4eHmF-YT4GMHn8usNB9uHXDzYBB3A00PfzyM9N1S_IjTDIMnFUBABtoHw8/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfMjAwMDAwMDBBODBPSEhWTjJNMDAwMDAwMDA!/?navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&cid=stelprdb5211065&navid=130110000000000&pnavid=130000000000000&ss=110511&position=Not%20Yet%20Determined.Html&ttype=detail&pname=Plumas%20National%20Forest-%20Projects

Sounds as though locals have gotten used to the idea that if they want to gather firewood, or retrieve a dear, that it is ok to drive off the roads through the forest to do so.

Since I am more familiar with wet Cascades forests, such a restriction does not seem very onerous. Here it is virtually impossible to drive off of maintained roads because of the underbrush and trees.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Driving off of the designated road is just going against the concepts of Tread Lightly. I agree with those concepts, and I would rather see people take care of the forest.

Personally I have cut trees down for firewood (legally) that were far from the road. We have driven in more than a vehicle length for that, but not much more, and we had to pack the wood a fairly long distance to get it to our truck (because we did not feel the need to blaze an entirely new trail just for our tree.)

I guess the big thing for me, however, is how people treat the land when they drive off the road. I would hate to see people just taking off anywhere just for the fun of it. If people are going easy on the land, and not skidding or spinning tires etc. then I am more ok with it.

OH and for most of the areas I have visited, it would end fairly badly if you were caught off the road way. (even one vehicle length)

 

[corax]

Please do not copy & paste complete articles to message boards. It creates a legal mess for the owners of the site (in most cases, it's a copyright violation, and more and more website owners are being sued because of it). Posting a short synopses and a link back to the original article is a better way to share the article.

thank you.

Oops, sorry - I'll keep that in mind for the future

 

[craig333]

Unfortunately what this applies to and what it "appears" to apply to are two different things. This isn't about driving off the road. This means areas we've camped in for generations are now walk in only. I could show you thousands of places where you pull off the main road, onto a mini spur to a camping area. These will now be one vehicle length only.

Interestingly its not exactly one vehicle length either. Its your vehicle plus any trailer you may have. So if you have a huge motor home plus trailer you can legally pull in maybe a hundred feet, where as my Jeep, being as short as it is can't even pull in ten feet. I wonder how much damage will occur as people who formerly could turn around now have to back out.

Plumas has a lot of very open country. This past summer I ran across the Mormons doing an event recreating the pulling of the hand held carts. I've seen mountain man events and others of this type held in the Plumas NF. Sounds like the deathknell for these type of events (btw, these always bring in porta potties and leave no trace after they're over).

I'm absolutely opposed to true off road travel (excepting designated areas such as Glamis) and thats not what this about at all.

 

[paulj]

Who is reading the regs this way, the FS or some locals?

Just about those lines about firewood gathering and big game retrieval is a section about dispersed camping

ispersed Recreation Spurs: Ninety nine short unauthorized road segments (1/2 mile or less) were added to provide dispersed recreation opportunities. Sites along roads and trails are considered part of the transportation system and are also available for parking allowing access to these dispersed recreational sites. A designation of a road or trail includes all terminal facilities, trailheads, parking lots, and turnouts associated with the road or trail.

As to Mormons pulling hand carts, I suspect that is covered in this QA from the FS

Q - How will the Forest Service deal with “special events” – planned on specific routes?
A - Special events such as a motor-cross require a special use permit. If a specific non-designated route is desired, it could be permitted as long as the activity is environmentally feasible and any maintenance or decommissioning is completed after use. An environmental analysis would need to be completed.

 

[craig333]

My info came from the Eldorado NF when it was first proposed there a few years ago.

Unfortunately, even if the idea of an environmental analysis is a good idea, few organizations are going to be able to afford the associated costs.

 

[paulj]

This Eldorado dispersed camping handout has that 1 vehicle length rule
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/documents/rogs/rog_pickspot.pdf

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/recreation/travel/index.shtml

. The big change on the Eldorado national Forest, along with other national forests, is that visitors cannot drive off of designated roads and trails, except where specifically allowed. The forest designated a number of routes that lead to areas popular for dispersed camping, and we are asking visitors to tell us of other locations they would like to see designated for motor vehicle use in the future.