In September and October, the Forest Service hosted two meetings to discuss the Stanislaus Forest Over-Snow Vehicle plan. Forest staff encouraged snowmobilers to share with them all of the places they liked to ride or where they hoped to ride snowmobiles in the future. There was never any discussion by the Forest Service of where it is actually legal for snowmobilers to ride, or why roadless areas are prohibited from such use by the current Forest Plan.
The Pacific Valley roadless area south of Highway 4 and the Eagle roadless area along the north edge of the Emigrant Wilderness area are two large roadless areas threatened by the Forest Service’s preferred alternative plan. A slice of the Night roadless area high in the Sonora Pass is another location where the OSV plan promotes snowmobile use.
CSERC and quiet winter recreation organizations support Alternative 3. It would keep motorized use out of the roadless areas, and it would also provide non-motorized recreation areas along the main highways. Trying to find a workable compromise, CSERC drafted a proposal to give snowmobilers one highly-sought extreme-riding site, while keeping motorized use out of the vast majority of the roadless areas. As this newsletter goes to press, the Stanislaus Forest has not made public a decision on the OSV plan.
