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It's a wheel problem photos by Andy Atkinson David Lexon rides his motorcycle through a runoff creek near the top of Johns Peak Saturday afternoon. The area is the focus of BLM efforts to better manage off-road vehicle use. BLM seeks new land use path JACKSONVILLE -- Bill Yocum grips the steering wheel with both hands as his four-wheel-drive rig crawls along the edge of a knee-deep rut in the steep road heading toward Johns Peak. Yocum's balancing act keeps the right tires from plunging into the tire-grabbing rut cut into the granitic soil by off-road vehicles. Fred Tomlins of the BLM stands near the top of an eroded road on Johns Peak. His precarious position reflects the balance the Bureau of Land Management seeks in trying to come up with a management plan for the huge Johns Peak recreation area west of Jacksonville. "Right now, you have these deep erosion problems and other environmental degradation because it's uncontrolled," said Yocum, environmental coordinator for the BLM's Ashland Resource District. "You have garbage thrown all over. You have people shooting. You have young people partying. You have the rural interface issue of people living out here. "As our population continues to increase, there is going to be more and more pressure on this land," he added. "As the pressure increases, so does the degradation to the environment." What the agency plans to do with its estimated 16,250 acres in the region is create a managed recreational area that would allow it to control use. Moreover, it's asking adjoining property owners, including state, the city of Jacksonville and private owners, to join in a cooperative public-private project. But BLM officials see obstacles in the road ahead, given the diverse and unbridled use of the area northwest of Jacksonville for the past 40 years. Motorcyclists and other off-highway vehicles (OHVs) roar across the terrain; horses clop along the trails and hikers tread into every nook and cranny. "We jumped into this knowing we were going to get a lot of people opposed to it," acknowledged Fred Tomlins, outdoor recreation planner for the BLM's Medford District. "But we're doing this for the benefit of the environment. We've got streams filling up with silt. We've got hillsides eroding away. We've got small trees being taken out by trails." Yet it is the potential for more environmental impact that concerns some like Applegate Valley resident Chris Bratt, a longtime environmental activist. "I can understand that they want to protect some areas by designating trails," Bratt said. "The problem is they can't keep them (OHVs) out of areas that aren't designated for OHVs." The issue is not that off-roaders should not be allowed to use public lands, but the potential for increased abuse by irresponsible users that would come with an official OHV designation in the Johns Peak area, he said. Such a designation would likely draw heavier use with more environmental degradation, he said. Joe McMahn flies through the air on his motorcycle Saturday at Johns Peak, a popular site. "I feel sorry for them (BLM) -- they're in a bad spot," Bratt said. "But if the impacts are greater than can be allowed, then they have to close it off. It's public land. It is their duty to protect it." The agency needs to do an indepth environmental impact statement before making any designation, he said. "The BLM says it doesn't have the money to do that," he said. "Well, then they should close those roads until they get the money. They can lobby Congress. "If a motorcycle group wants to tear up its land, that's one thing. But to go on public land and devastate it, that's another question entirely." He was referring to the local Motorcycle Riders Association which owns some 220 acres nestled within the BLM's checkerboard ownership. The MRA, formed in 1965, takes exception to anyone suggesting it is contributing to the problem. They support only family recreation and closely watch for the "renegade factor," said David Lexow, the MRA's coordinator for the Johns Peak project. "We are constantly getting blamed for the trash and erosion problems," Lexow said. "People see trash and they see motorcycles. They automatically think it's us." The group, which supports the BLM's effort, believes that an official designation would reduce environmental damage, Lexow said. `There is the renegade factor up there," he said. "Five percent of the users don't do things by the rules. But enforcement is really from the 95 percent compliant peer group. We make sure the people there with us aren't wetting our bed." Lexow, who has been riding OHVs in Southern Oregon for some two decades, says the area is the last stand for his group. They used to ride where the Rogue Valley Mall now stands, he said. Avid mountain biker Janna Jensen, owner of the Cycle Analysis bicycle shop in Jacksonville, figures that a management plan would improve opportunities for all users. "They are dumping trash up there -- shooting guns," said Jensen, a member of the Multiple Use Trails Coalition, which includes all users, from hikers to motorcyclists. "We are also worried about washouts," she said. "Mountain bikers don't like eroded trails. We'd also like to have a marked trail system and map up there." The pedal pushers don't have any problems with other users, including motorized vehicles, she said. "Of course, every group has its bad seed," she said. "But I think most people want to co-exist." Residents on both sides of the mountainous region are watching the debate. On the Applegate Valley side, longtime resident Myrtle Krouse, 80, who moved to the area with her parents in 1926, is dubious about the proposal and worries that the off-raod area eventually will extend from Jacksonville to the community of Applegate and beyond. "We don't need them down here," she said. "They should allow nature's creatures some space that isn't disturbed by these four-wheel things. On the ridge below Johns Peak is the home of Bill and Colleen Cox, perched 1,000 feet above the valley floor and along the road leading to the peak. The private Johns Peak Road which winds past their property to the recreation site is the most widely used access road. "Our main concern is how fast they drive and how much garbage they throw out," Colleen Cox said. "We've all been run off the road. There were three accidents last year by kids speeding down the road. We see the garbage along the road. "In the summer they ride up there with no mufflers," she added. "There are parties -- booze and pot parties -- up there all the time. I think somebody ought to be managing that land up there." Meanwhile, the BLM is working with adjacent property owners to get them involved in the project. The cooperative effort currently makes sense to the Boise Cascade Corp., which owns some 4,800 acres in the area, according to Ken Cummings, chief forester for Boise. The firm has traditionally left its land open to recreationalists. "The problem we have is all the weekend warrior traffic and non-club people who have total disregard for the land," Cummings said. "We have concerns about erosion on the granite soils in the area and the loss of small trees." Such an established program could keep the firm from closing off its land in the Johns Peak area to the public, Cummings suggested. The city of Jacksonville, which owns 1,800 acres abutting BLM land and on whose land OHV use is popular, has not yet made a decision on joining the cooperative effort. Although the amount of land that could be included in the plan hasn't been determined, it could easily double when private land is added to 16,250 BLM acres, Yocum said. The BLM has a 19-page list of adjacent neighbors it plans to send a rough draft plan when it is completed. If a recreation area is established, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department could provide matching funds through the committee for law enforcement, said Terry Eccles, the department's state motorized trail coordinator. "The amount is an unknown at this point," he said, although he noted some similar areas have received roughly $200,000. "The committee provides funds for development, for prevention, for education and for law enforcement. Those enforcing the laws could be BLM rangers, deputies or private security." With enforced management, more families would use the area and the renegades would retreat, the BLM managers say. "Once the public knows an area is patrolled, you get a change in use," Tomlins said. "Quite often the partyers leave and the families feel safer to come out. The bad apples leave." "We think it's a win-win situation where we can open certain areas and close others," Yocum interjected. "You minimize the dispersal, like going in close to people's back yards. But the plan's success depends on getting support from the many diverse users in the Johns Peak area, Tomlins said. "If we try to impose something that no one wants, it won't work at all." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA