The Sequoia Forest Service is designating our trail system. Stewards of the Sequoia & others have been working for three years to ensure all existing trails are included in the inventory.  Now the Forest Service is working with the public to determine which ones will remain open to multiple use including motorized use

This is the most important Forest trail planning process that will take place in your lifetime. The outcome will determine where you will be able to ride for decades. The trails that we preserve will be a legacy to our children & their children. Many of these trails are kept open solely by motorized volunteer efforts. If they are prohibited the trails will quickly become brushed over & impassable even to hikers.

Stewards of the Sequoia have been providing thousands of ours of volunteer labor to maintain the trails over the past four years. Our efforts have not only kept the trails in good condition, but staff are most impressed with our work. Because we do far more than just talk they working with us to keep as many trails open as possible.

We have crafted an alternative based on the following:

• There is ECONOMIC benefit to keeping trails open to motorized use to secure OHV funding & reduce costs by using OHV volunteers as well as continued OHV tourism dollars. In 2005 the California OHV Division provided $7,908,000 to the Forest Service which was 33% more than the combined Contributions by other all other non-motorized groups.

• There is ENVIRONMENTAL benefit to giving motorized trail users larger loop trail systems to keep them interested enough to stay on the trails & to reduce impact over a larger trail system.

• The GREATEST GOOD Forest Mandate can best be achieved by keeping more trails open to all users (multiple use) & taking the most advantage of Motorized funding & volunteers. More multiple use trails are also in keeping with the greatest Net Public Benefit per the 1988 Sequoia LRMP

• Multiple Use trails provide the most “Net Public Benefit” per the 1988 LRMP

• Based on documented & obvious trends in recent OHV growth, combined with recent closures of hundreds of miles of the Best single track trails to Motorized use in Sequoia through Monument & Wilderness designation, it is clear the remaining multiple use motorized single track trail system will not meet the 2010 demand, and that increased motorized single track mileage must be planned for as part of the designation process. This is supported by the 1988 LRMP & numerous other Forest Service documents & plans.

• When the Sequoia National Monument was created in nearby Hot Springs Ranger District, hundreds of miles of trails were closed, permanently. These trails had been built with “green sticker” money and the hard work of volunteers. There was no offsetting amount of new trails opened to replace them. Consequently, more users are now on fewer trails. More trails are necessary, not fewer. More users on fewer trails equal a greater impact. In Kern County, 16,000 OHV’s were registered in 1991. In 2005, that number leapt to 34,000 not including unregistered or street licensed off road vehicles! If a trail is closed because of improper design or planning, it must be mitigated with the opening a new trail. By implementing more aggressive volunteer programs Forest Service could improve trail conditions & prevent trail closures.

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