Forest Service examining roads on Rampart Range

The U.S. Forest Service has launched a study of off-highway vehicle use in the Rampart Range northwest of Colorado Springs, which could lead to road closures or new regulations in the heavily used area.

The agency will hold public meetings in June regarding motorized recreation on 115,120 acres of Pike National Forest, an area officials say is a honeycombed with countless miles of illegal roads and trails that have damaged the landscape.

Officials last month published a new map, delineating which routes are open to vehicles, and have been installing signs and information kiosks in the area, but that is not enough, said Frank Landis, recreation planner.

"People are just all over the place, and they have been for many, many years," Landis said.

The map codifies what has been the rule in the national forest since 1990, that routes are closed to vehicle travel unless specifically marked as such. The maps are available online or at the Pikes Peak Ranger District office, 601 S. Weber St., in Colorado Springs.
Said Landis, "The word ‘off-road' no longer exists on a national forest. You cannot go off-road anymore."

But he said people misunderstand or disregard the rules and continue to use makeshift trails and roads. Dirt bikes, ATVs and 4-wheel-drive vehicles cause erosion and damage plants, he said.

The area being studied runs from U.S. Highway 24 north through the southern portion of Douglas County, west of Colorado Highway 67. On summer weekends, hundreds of people use the area, racing down trails, testing the limits of their high-clearance vehicles and camping in the many free campsites along the roads.

Landis expects the plan that emerges to be similar to changes being implemented at the popular motorized recreation area near Devil's Head in Douglas County, just to the north of the area now under study. Some roads and trails are being closed and others have been set aside for single-track vehicles, ATVS, and 4-wheel-drive vehicles, with varying degrees of difficulty.

That two areas could be connected with designated trails under the travel management plan that emerges. Currently Rampart Range Road is closed five months out of the year between the two areas.

Landis said the study could also recommend that some of the "system roads," legal routes for vehicles, many of which are historic mining or logging roads, be closed.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

The U.S. Forest Service will hold two public open houses on OHV use in the Rampart Range, June 24 in Colorado Springs and June 25 in Woodland Park. Both run 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The locations have not been set. Click the following link in June to find out where the meetings will be or to download a copy of the new motor-vehicle-use map.

 www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/pp/