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Mud boggers foul up Lake Creek meadows Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Cookie Spalding, of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, walks along deep ruts torn in a meadow by off-road vehicles near Lake Creek. It is one of several sensitive areas where irresponsible and illegal mud bogging has occurred this spring, BLM officials say. By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune LAKE CREEK - A carpet of tender green grass blankets the meadow dotted with oaks budding out in the warm spring air. Yellow buttercups, purple shooting stars and fuzzy gray-white cat's ears wave in the breeze. "It's lovely," said Cookie Spalding, a rangeland management specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. "Until you look at that." "That" is a track of ugly ruts more than a foot deep ripped through the green carpet by mud boggers - off-road-vehicle enthusiasts who enjoy getting down and dirty with their four-wheel-drives. The result is serious damage to the oak woodland meadow, causing erosion problems, destroying vegetation and opening it up to the spread of noxious weeds. The destruction is on a site that the BLM uses to monitor plant growth in the region. The site is also part of the Lake Creek summer grazing allotment in which the agency has been working with the permit holder for 20 years to achieve a healthy habitat on the rangeland, said Spalding, who works on the BLM's Butte Falls Resource Area. The cattle won't be turned out on the land until next month. "We don't permit that until the range is ready," Spalding said. The range wasn't ready for the mud boggers. Officials have obtained a flier from a group that may have held an annual event in the area in March. The agency's law enforcement officials are investigating. "We can't say for sure yet this was the same group," cautioned Karen Gillespie, spokeswoman for the BLM's Medford District. What they do know is that it will cost taxpayers to have the sites rehabilitated, she said. Beer cans and other trash left in the area by the motorists already have been removed by Spalding. "Right now, we just want people to know what is appropriate and what is inappropriate out here," Gillespie said. Unfortunately, the site represents numerous sensitive places within the district's Butte Falls and Ashland resource areas where irresponsible and illegal off-road-vehicle use has occurred this spring, Spalding said. "We want to get the word out that during the moist period in the spring, people should avoid driving off the roads," said Steve Slavik, range management specialist on the BLM's Ashland Resource Area. Even dirt roads can become deeply rutted during the wet season, he said, adding that responsible off-road-vehicle use is permitted within the district during much of the dry season. Off-road-vehicle use is prohibited on big game management areas, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, areas of critical environmental concern, research natural areas, the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and developed recreation sites. "Where there is the potential for damage like this, they need to be talking to us in advance, to try to figure out a way to keep them from getting sideways with the rules and resource damage," Slavik said. The goal, he said, is to allow public access while not trampling on the rights of others or destroying resources. "This is unacceptable," he said of the deep ruts. "No one would disagree with that except someone who wants to go mud bogging." Though the damage appears to have been from four-wheel-drive rigs with knobby tires, a local motorcycle group is speaking out against the activity. Its members include those with ATVs and similar off-road vehicles. "There is a big difference between the wise and responsible OHV (off-highway vehicle) recreation we enthusiasts know and love, and the inappropriate and willful damage that can happen to our less-supervised public lands," said Jacksonville resident Will HisleBeard, president of the Motorcycle Riders Association. "The MRA encourages users of our public heritage to not only be good stewards, but to also help keep our land management agencies aware when problems develop," he added. His group, which organized in the Rogue Valley in 1965, calls for a common-sense approach to trail etiquette, causing as little impact as possible. "We try our best to leave an area as we found it," he said. But HisleBeard, noting that those who caused the problem are among a small minority of off-road users, said that areas for off-road-vehicle use by four-by-four vehicle owners are steadily shrinking. "Very concentrated, high-impact use is not what we need to be doing," he said. "As an organization, we would like to see public access encouraged. We understand to accomplish that, we need to disperse high-impact use." The BLM is working on management plans for several off-road-vehicle areas, including Johns Peak west of Jacksonville. However, the focus in those sites is on trails, not mud bogging. One way to stop the illegal off-road use would be to close more forest roads, Spalding said. "We don't want to do that," she said. "This is public land." Closing access would be unfair to the majority of other users who don't abuse the land, she said. "We don't want to lock it up," she said. "This is a nice spot for hunters, campers, hikers. It's a great place to look at wildflowers. We want everyone to be able to come out and enjoy it. "They can't when someone does this," she added. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.