Forest Service officials admit that illegal off-road trail use is uncontrollable in the Mark Twain National Forest, yet they are proposing to open more trails without adding significant law enforcement. Expanding off-road trails without an increase in law enforcement is a direct threat to important natural communities and adjoining private property.

The Forest Service wants to open three new trail systems in the Eastern sections of the Mark Twain National Forest to conduct a 3-year study. The study will investigate the social and environmental impacts of off-highway vehicle (OHV) and ATV trails within the National Forest

Five miles of newly built trails combined with 69 miles of illegal trails, given amnesty and branded legal, make up the 74 miles of new trails. Seventy-one miles of county and forest roads help link the new trails together. Unlike the other two trail systems, the Palmer trail would be open to trucks, Jeeps and dune buggies in addition to other off-road vehicles.

The trails were not planned using scientists’ input. Usually wildlife biologists and soil scientists design trails, but 93 percent of the new trail proposal utilizes illegal trails. USFS supplied Off-road groups with GPS units and maps and let the off-roaders map their own illegal trails. USFS is rewarding bad behavior by attempting to legalize a free-for-all.

Sixty-seven miles of illegal trails will be closed, but will most likely continue to be used by off-roaders. USFS has closed down trails that are already severely damaged, conflict with private property, or run through sensitive natural areas like creek beds, fens (rare wetlands) and glades. Many of the closed trails connect with trails and roads used in the study. Forest Service officials admit that there is no way to physically block closed trails from off-roaders.

Though many trails have been closed, other trails still remain part of the proposed study despite the threat to natural areas. Lynda Mills, a wildlife biologist for USFS, wrote in a field report that a proposed trail at Cherokee pass would need to be monitored frequently.

“The opportunities for ATVers to leave the trail and impact the stream are numerous and foreseeable, given the fact that trail 'braiding' is occurring,” she wrote. “Field surveys indicated that ATVers are not hesitating to leave the trail in order to go around trees or other objects that block the trail. Potential impacts to the small pond along a permanent stream are high. This would be a tempting place for ATVs to get muddy and play.”

Mills also wrote that off-roaders are also leaving designated forest service roads (FSR) and causing damage to sensitive areas. “A small wetland also exists adjacent to this road and represents a highly diverse pocket of National Forest,” wrote Mills. “This wetland has been created by beavers and appears several years old. ATV traffic from FSR 2695 is impacting this wetland, despite signs posting the site closed to motor vehicles. ATV impacts are expected to increase until the beaver dam is damaged, which could cause the wetland to be destroyed.” The trail and the FSR described by Mill are both still marked as study areas on proposal maps.

According to Ronnie Raum, forest supervisor of the Mark Twain, no additional law enforcement rangers will be hired if the new trails are opened. A percentage of trail permit money would be used to pay law enforcement overtime.

Raum said “law enforcement saturation” would be used to stop illegal use of closed trails. Raum would not to discuss what law enforcement saturation entailed.


Toby Barton, the only law enforcement ranger patrolling the 300,000-acre Potosi/Fredericktown Ranger District, believes the hiring of additional law enforcement would be the biggest help in controlling illegal off-road activities. Currently, there are only six full-time commissioned law enforcement rangers to saturate and patrol 1.5 million acres in 29 counties.

Permit fees would also be used to sponsor “Tread Lightly” programs to educate trail riders on how to limit environmental impact. The programs will include warnings about trail closure if the environmental damage reaches unmanageable levels.

The Forest Service wants the public to trust its education strategy while off-roaders believe peer pressure and self-policing will keep things under control. Those who live near the 125-mile Chadwick ATV and Motorcycle Area, six miles south of Springfield, Mo., may disagree.

Chadwick has been in use for almost 40 years, yet the Forest Service has no control over illegal off-roading within this trail system. According to correspondence copied from Forest Service files, residents living close to Chadwick witness unchecked trail abuse and trespassing every day. “There is, and always will be inadequate enforcement of closed trails,” wrote Robert Kipfer in a comment letter. “Signs and tree trunks blocking these trails have a 24-hour half-life. The efforts to keep up a plastic ‘trail closed’ sign is futile as I have replaced it up to 4 times in a day. It serves more as a target for the front wheel than a deterrent.”

Kipfer describes attempts to ask illegal off-roaders to stop riding in streams on private property as being potentially dangerous. “We occasionally face a hostile reception when we ask them to leave, including physical threats,” he said. “Getting close enough to get their sticker numbers and return safely is imprudent in this hostile environment without being armed to the teeth.”

The Forest Service has made public a “notice of intent” to do an environmental impact statement (EIS) on this trail proposal. The 30-day public comment period ends June 5. This comment period gives the public a chance to add direction to what the Forest Service needs to include in the studies concerning the EIS. The topic of law enforcement needs to be analyzed thoroughly.

Address comments to:
Potosi/Fredericktown Ranger District, P.O. Box 188, Potosi Missouri, 63664

Comments sent by e-mail should be addressed to
“comments-eastern-mark-twain-potosi@fs.fed.us”