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FOREST OFFICIALS AND LOCAL GROUPS WORK
TOGETHER TO ENSURE OUTDOOR RECREATION IN ARIZONA
Prescott National Forest is a great
example of cooperation and education
Prescott (Arizona) National Forest officials and local
citizens groups, such as the Prescott Open Trails
Association, work in close consort to ensure that outdoor
recreation enthusiasts have safe and easy access to public
lands. The Prescott Open Trails Association, founded by KQNA
radio personality Sanford Cohen in March 1997, has a stated
goal to preserve that access to public lands via existing
roads and trails.
Although Cohen’s outfit isn’t considered an
All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) group per se, it has grown from
five original members to 248 people living around the state
who encourage responsible riding and etiquette on public
lands. At the same time, the association prefers educating
the motoring public about safe road recreation.
"VAST MAJORITY RIDE RESPONSIBLY"
“The Prescott National Forest is one of the
premier places to run an off-highway vehicle,” said Cohen,
the trails association’s president, comparing the forest to
other areas that he’s visited across the Southwest. “The
vast majority of off-highway vehicle users do so
responsibly. Relatively few ride irresponsibly.”
Cohen added that the minority that doesn’t
follow the rules remains a difficult problem to solve. He
believes there’s not a lot of opportunities for novice
riders to acquire information about trail ethics. “For
generations, once you got on public lands, you could do
anything you want,” he said. “That’s now changing.”
Within the past year, the U.S. Forest Service
adopted a policy of limiting off-highway vehicle travel to
existing and designated roads and trails. Too often,
cross-country travel that strays from these selected areas
was destroying resources and harming wildlife protected
under federal law.
Cohen said it will take a while for groups of
longtime off-highway vehicle users to adapt to the rule
changes. “There are generations of ingrained behavior that
can’t be modified overnight,” he said.
LONG HISTORY OF COOPERATION
Ever since the Prescott Open Trails Association
was introduced, the group has cooperated with the U.S.
Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to
get roads and trails inventoried for public use. The
Prescott National Forest has been on the front lines of
trail signage in recent years. On its roads and trails, the
forest has situated signs with designated numbers and
vehicle symbols on them that signal users about the
acceptance or denial of specific activities.
For instance, a No. 10 sticker will be placed at
the top of a thin, horizontal sign to designate the road or
trail. Underneath it will rest pictures of anything from a
mountain bike to an ATV to a hiker. A circle with a single
line through one of these pictures tips off the outdoor
enthusiast about what’s legal or illegal to do on that trail
or road.
“The State Land Department and the BLM have no
such signs on their land,” Cohen said. “This causes
accidental trespassing. Having signs on the ground would
help.”
The Prescott Open Trails Association has taken an
active role in not only the promotion of sign-age on public
lands, but to keep them from being sealed off to the
ordinary citizen. Cohen said that his association has a good
working relationship with the Prescott National Forest and
he hopes it continues — keeping trails open for future
generations.
“Closing a road is not an answer to solving
problems with off-highway vehicle users,” he said. “We need
greater enforcement and education.”
By Doug Cook
The Daily Courier
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