http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/courts_...-14176983c.html

Spider Lake area closed to vehicles
Forest Service says a court order is likely to result in more limits.
By Cathy Locke -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, August 1, 2005

Off-road vehicle users blame poor management for a decision banning vehicles from a popular Sierra camping area.
But a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said restrictions on federal land around Spider Lake, off the Rubicon Trail, foreshadow measures that will apply to lands throughout the Eldorado National Forest under an anticipated court order.

The closure order, issued in May by the forest supervisor for the Spider Lake area, modified restrictions imposed last summer, said Frank Mosbacher, a Forest Service spokesman in Placerville. In July 2004, El Dorado County and the Forest Service declared the area off-limits to all use because of health and safety hazards posed by large amounts of human fecal waste deposited around the lake.
Friends of the Rubicon Trail and other user groups participated in several cleanup efforts. "Thousands of pounds of fecal matter were removed," Mosbacher said.

County and Forest Service officials say the health hazard has been eliminated, but vegetation, soil and rocks have not recovered from damage caused by years of vehicle activity around the lake.

The 22-mile trail, considered a crown jewel by four-wheel drive enthusiasts, extends from Georgetown in El Dorado County to Tahoma at Lake Tahoe in Placer County. Designated as a county road, it has remained open, and camping is allowed this year at Spider Lake. Users, however, must park their vehicles along the Rubicon Trail and walk to the area around the lake.

At some points, Mosbacher said, the lake is only about 50 feet from the trail.

The restriction, however, has angered off-road vehicle users, who say they did their part to clean up the Spider Lake area. Rather than close the site to vehicles, they say the Forest Service should designate parking and camping sites, directing activity to the least sensitive sections.

"Shame on the Forest Service. They haven't done enough to manage that," said Del Albright, spokesman for Friends of the Rubicon Trail, an umbrella organization for groups that use the route.

"The volunteers have done all the work," he said. "I'm sick of it. The Friends of the Rubicon Trail are tired of it."

Karen Schambach, president of the Georgetown-based Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation, said the Forest Service is managing the Spider Lake area by closing it to vehicles.

"Management will sometimes include restrictions on you," she said.

If off-road vehicle enthusiasts want their sport to survive and thrive, she said, they should support the closure and the Forest Service's efforts to restore the area.

"They should be going after members of their own community and shame them into better behavior," Schambach said.

Restrictions similar to those at Spider Lake will apply throughout the Eldorado National Forest under a court order anticipated in early August, Mosbacher said.

The Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation and several other environmental groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento in 2002, contending that the Forest Service had not studied the impact of off-road vehicle use in the Eldorado National Forest.

Earlier this year, Judge Lawrence K. Karlton found that the Forest Service failed to follow National Environmental Policy Act procedures in 1990 when it authorized off-road vehicle use of approximately 700 miles of user-created trails and paths.

The court order, Mosbacher said, will limit vehicles to the forest's approximately 2,200-mile road system until the Forest Service conducts the required environmental study. The study has begun, he said, and is to be completed by December 2006.

Mosbacher said the court order will affect not only four-wheel drive enthusiasts, but also people accustomed to driving off designated roads to camp on forest lands.

Schambach said the Forest Service needs to manage all vehicles.

"There are places where they can safely go, and there are places where the environment is too sensitive," she said.

Schambach and Albright also serve on the Rubicon Oversight Committee, which is working with the El Dorado County Parks and Recreation Department to develop the Rubicon Trail Master Plan. The management plan is intended to protect the trail from misuse and overuse.

"It's going to be a wonderful product, but it's taking too long," Albright said.

He complained that, despite last year's health issues at Spider Lake, the county lacks regulations requiring trail users to carry waste out of the area.

"It is taking a long time," said Mike Gray, county parks and recreation manager. "We want to do this thing right. We aren't going to rush the process."

Several public workshops have been held to discuss the draft plan, Gray said, adding that the county wants to be sure all interested parties have had a chance to participate. The final document won't be completed and approved by the Board of Supervisors for at least six months, he said.

Regulations specific to the Rubicon Trail are awaiting adoption of the plan, but Gray said the Sheriff's Department, Forest Service and volunteers patrol the trail.

"This is brand-new ground," Gray said of the master plan, which he hopes will serve as a model for managing four-wheel drive trails nationwide.

"Eventually," he said, "it will provide the users with better access and protect the resource for future generations."