Roads being closed in Forest Service

[Oren]

Are roads being closed in your areas where you hunt! Where we bear and lion hunt every time we go there are more being dug up with an excavator. If they would like to know it looks like a giant mess. Who makes the decision on this? I feel like all of us pay their salaries, just to be harassed and told what we can and can't do.

[huntfish8]

Yep it is horse s#%t!! That's why I just bought a 4 Wheeler gonna build a trailer for it to hall a my mutts around. But if that's not an option theres always around or through!

[mondomuttruner]

It's a sad thing, but we have to take a little of the blame. My neighbor is a logger and a forest service guy told him if the bear hunters aren't ruttin up the roads bear hunting their ruttin up the roads looking for a place to bear hunt. I realize there was probably a few bad apples doing this but it gave all bear hunters a bad name. All I know is it sucks for all of us. I hate to badmouth toyota's (not that I like them) but there were a few guy's with them that thought it would be a good idea to drive to a tree rather than walk. You know the type....my yota can go anywhere....(we don't have rock or sand...it's mud and swamps)

[FullCryHounds]

It has nothing to do with hounds hunters. Its the new Green Forest Service policy to close every road they can. We have the same problem here and until we get a new Administration in place, it will only get worse. A lot of roads that are being closed to vehicles do not include snow mobiles so if there is snow on the road, you can still legally access it. Check with your local office and get thier latest map that shows which roads are open and which are closed.

[mondomuttruner]

I hear what your sayin FullCry....Our roads here have been closed for over 10 yrs now. At that time the excuse was the roads were being rutted up and the tree huggers that took a walk once a year in the woods didn't like it. They wanted a wilderness walk...now they have it, the grass on all our trails is six feet tall with a tree across the trail every 100 yards. Can't hardly crawl through our trails, most of the time it's much easier just walking through the woods next to the trail. Back in the day when 4 wheelers were allowed, the trails were all cleaned up, you could walk and shoot a bird every now and then, nice to get into a big block w/snowmobile or 4wheeler to get to a coyote, cat or bear. Now, the forest might as well be a desert.....

[Nolte]

Mondo,
You hit it square on the head with the last post. If you don't travel those trails pretty soon they are grown up worse than the surrounding areas. Some grean bean walking down it with a butterfly net once a year isn't going to cut it.

I think your first post is a little off base. I think the "forest service" guy is a little bit delusional. Why would a bear hunter want to rut up a road so he can't access it again later. That doesn't make much sense. I know the old hunters around here would give you an ear full if you were ram rodding on them and digging them up. Besides driving down a muddy trail a couple times a year isn't going to tear it up. Constant use will though or someone doing it intentionally like the dickbag type ATV riders. Most are fine but some really ruin the reputation for the others. No bear hunter I know is going to place a bait on a massively bad mud trail that he'll have to travel in/out many times of because eventually he's going to get hung up and have to be pulled out.

I agree with Dean, this administration and many in our state departments are into this "going green" BS. All it is doing is removing access to public lands that no one is going to use because it's too tough to get there. I bet if you tallied up the amount of steps these tree huggers take beyond 100 yards off road in a given year that aren't on a designated trail, you wouldn't come up with much.

[mondomuttruner]

Nolte.
Usually it's a bunch of teens trying to see how much their truck will go through and it gets blamed on the bear hunters but I knew a couple of guys that were to lazy to walk to a tree and did whatever they could to get that truck to a tree..
Nolte..
that forest service guy was up in your neck of the woods..that friend of mine(the logger) works up by Sayner. What did you guy's do to piss the forest service off? lol..... I think that's your neck of the woods, forgive me if I'm wrong...

[Hounder-]

I agree with you Mondo. Usually it is the teens and 4WD clubs that rip it up and the bear hunters get blamed. However, I have seen a bear hunter or two that would drive down a "questionable" road rather than walk the extra 500 yards.

But I do think (and hope) most of it IS mis-placed blame. But I'm speaking mainly from a county forest perspective, haven't done much hunting on national forests.

But as far as that green roadless stuff goes, don't think it matters even if the roads get ripped up they are gonna be shut down until a different regime gets in there.

[STUNTMAN]

I heard they closed a bunch of roads in the South Hills [Idaho} and its put all the lion hunters into one small area. If you cant access it why pay for it....

[Dan R. Deppen]

I am from California, and we are loosing our hunting rights very rapidly. Road closures are a problem here also, and becoming moreso. Seems if you work for the USFS, or one of the Timber companies, you are exempt from the closures and have your OWN Key. Equality does not exist in this situation?
In addition, I was of the understanding that USFS roads were PUBLIC roads built and maintained by we the taxpayers. A road is for Access, ingress, egress, foot travel, for whatever reason that is their purpose. (Not limited to whenever deemed acceptable to the USFS) Not just to harvest timber and allow the government control of our lands behind those Locked gated or dug up roads. If they want to have a logging show in January or February they just do it. Road conditions are ignored and the maintenance is just a part of the operation. Our wildife is also a public natural resource and should be treated and managed as such. Not People politics, and money which is the manner used in good ole California.
Dan

[al baldwin]

Greetings Dan Forest Service been closing roads here since the late seventies. They have more excuses that you can think of. I believe they just don/t want us to hunt. Al

[john porter]

Happening on the east coast too. Got a block of land close to town that is a favorite for locals to run coonhounds on. The day after deer season closes, they shut the gates and you have to walk in to hunt... Its BS but like mentioned--they got all kinds of excuses...