Our National Forests need travel plans

We were saddened to hear of the lifelong local elk hunter who recently stopped setting up camp near Pipestone, where a quiet dirt road crossed a ribbon of creek. As the jeep and side-by-side traffic has increased lately, his little hideaway among the aspens has become a destination of rock obstacles and glistening pools, where Search and Rescue teams regularly turn up to save bogged down, inexperienced drivers. 

Jefferson County – where sagebrush flats climb through boulders and forest to the Continental Divide off I-90, and creeks trickle from hidden draws and ridges of lodgepole pine and fir – offers a wealth of natural beauty and recreation options. These great outdoors should be a magnet that attracts visitors, grounds Montana traditions, and drives local livelihoods. 

But that promise is very much at risk. A growing flood of unregulated traffic across and through the forest is undermining safety, damaging the environment, and compromising the long-term viability of our outdoors as an economic engine. Thoughtful and far-sighted regulation of outdoor travel on U.S. Forest Service lands is needed soon to remedy this emerging problem.