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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend April 6, 2006 Green Top proposal calls for JACTMA expansion Outdoors By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A large swath of low-elevation lands near Eagle Point are so ripe with lush winter vegetation favored by black-tailed deer each winter that the area’s name alone says it all. Green Top, as it’s called, is a black-tailed deer haven because of its high-quality wedge-leaf ceanothus and native grasses not covered with winter snow or invaded by starthistle or medusa- head rye. "It still has a lot of really nice big-game habitat, excellent deer winter-range, and we’d like to keep it that way," says wildlife biologist Vince Oredson of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife." To do that, Oredson is proposing to add more than 10,600 acres of the Green Top area into the roughly 45,400 acres of private and public forest lands in Jackson County already closed to motorized vehicles seven months out of the year to improve habitat, curb erosion and ward off poachers and illegal dumpers. The lands between Obenchain and Worthington roads would join the so-called Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel Management Area in October 2007 under the ODFW proposal for the first significant expansion of JACTMA since its adoption 12 years ago. Advertisement During the proposed closure, people can still hike, mountain bike and ride horses through the area popular among shed-antler hunters, houndsmen and other winter forest visitors. But motorized vehicles would no longer gouge the dirt roads, trigger stream siltation and scare deer away from otherwise good, usable habitat if not for the crisscrossing roads, Oredson says. "We really think that protecting these winter ranges will increase, to some extent, the overall wildlife value there," Oredson says. "I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think there would be an overall benefit to the public." The Green Top addition is part of the ODFW proposal to the state Access and Habitat Board for re-authorizing JACTMA and its enforcement funding through 2010. Once heatedly debated over beliefs that the closure locks the public out of otherwise accessible public and private property, JACTMA appears to be accepted by the general public and even respected by poachers who seem to steer clear of the closed roads. "It was very contentious, but now (complaints) are almost insignificant," says Ken Cummings, regional manager of Forest Capital Partners, the former Boise Cascade Corp. lands that dominate the current JACTMA lands around Shady Cove. "I haven’t heard boo from the public," Cummings says. The public has a chance to boo or cheer the program Monday during a public hearing on the JACTMA proposal before the Southwest Regional Access and Habitat Council. The proposal calls for the mid-October through April road closures as well as a request for $92,626 in Access and Habitat Program funds, largely for Oregon State Police enforcement, over the next four years. The total JACTMA funding package costs $243,028, with the remaining costs covered by private timberland owners — mainly Forest Capital Partners and the Swanson Group — within JACTMA boundaries. The council, which advises the state Access and Habitat Board on project funding, meets from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday at the ODFW conference room at the Denman Wildlife Area, 1495 E. Gregory Road, Central Point. JACTMA is one of 61 travel-management areas in Oregon with seasonal or year-round vehicle restrictions. JACTMA continues to be supported by the Medford-based Oregon Hunters Association, despite some misgivings among members themselves. "Traveling roads by vehicle is not essential to turkey and deer harvest," says OHA Secretary Duane Dungannon, of Talent. "Closed roads make great trails on mountain bike, foot or horseback. Some original JACTMA critics have warmed to the program. Norris Lacy of Trail says he originally considered JACTMA to be "a land grab," but he became involved in it and has since realized its concept has merit. "I’ve got mixed emotions," Lacy says. "I’m not 100 percent convinced it works. We need more law enforcement in those areas." Cummings says the closures have done wonders for curbing road erosion, poaching, illegal dumping and other problems that plague private timberland holders who allow year-round access to their lands. "I’ve seen it work," Cummings says. "The whole thing, I think, has been a huge positive and 80 to 90 percent of the people think so, too. But there are some people that don’t like the solution, no matter what." One of those people is John York, a Prospect hound-hunter and forest road-builder who believes nixing vehicle traffic nixes part of the public as well. "The bottom line is, as a 70-year-old diabetic, I need a little (vehicle) access," York says. "But they’re not interested in my personal problems." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Green Top proposal calls for JACTMA expansion ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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