Guest opinion

By Mike Borduin - 04/26/2008

In the midst of the fantastic and emotionally charged commentary on the Revised Draft Forest Plan for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (where blood pressures are running high, and shots across the bow are routine), I have been approached to write about the formation of a unique collaborative agreement called Montana High Divide Trails. Under this agreement, nine user groups have come together on common ground to promote quiet trails and wildlands and create one of the finest trail systems in the Rockies, literally connecting Butte to the Continental Divide Trail. Groups like Highlands Cycling and Mile-High Backcountry Horsemen are working on the ground making this vision real.

What are the sentiments behind this collaboration? For our local cycling club, increasing the quality of riding was foremost. As a user group, unrecognized and unmanaged under the existing Forest Plan (with no mention of the words “mountain bike”), mountain bikers are caught between motorized and non-motorized user groups. Excluded from wilderness as a “mechanized vehicle” group and finding most motorized trails an anaerobic difficulty, it was difficult to find a foothold in the process.

A foothold was found in combining forces with eight other non-motorized user groups. Together, these groups provide a single, unified voice. Separately, these nine groups have highly varied purposes, including horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, and wilderness advocacy. The uniting thread can be summarized as “quiet trail users,” with a goal of negotiating a vision for quiet trails and wildlands along Montana’s rugged Continental Divide. In putting aside differences, we were able to focus on common interests, and promote them together under Montana High Divide Trails.

A driving element behind the collaboration is the current condition of our public lands. As quiet trail users, the nine groups intuitively recognize the conclusion stated in the 2001 State Trails Plan: “Montana’s backcountry trail mileage has been declining for decades.” While responsible motorized use has its place in the forest, irresponsible motorized use appears to have taken a toll on the health of the backcountry, unbalancing the historic equili-brium between motorized and non-motorized users.

How is this distribution unbalanced? With the previous summer non-motorized/motorized ratio at 29:71 percent, the Revised Draft Forest Plan increased non-motorized to 45 percent and reduced motorized to 55 percent. At face value, motorized users appear to be getting the shaft, but a different conclusion is evident in two published studies.

The first study, “Off-Highway Vehicle Use on National Forests, Volumes, and Characteristics of Visitors” (August 2004), identifies the percentage of primary and secondary motorized users in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest as 10 percent. Similarly, a 1998 Fish, Wildlife, and Parks survey of Montanans using trails found that of all trail use, motorized use represents 6 percent. The remaining 90 to 94 percent of users were hiking, horseback riding, or mountain biking.

These studies demonstrate that a solid majority of Montana trail users use non-motorized methods to access our public lands. This majority also tends to prefer quiet trails, as detailed in the Montana Trail Users Study (Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research, University of Montana, 1994). In this study, 60 percent of day hikers, 77 percent of horseback riders, 85 percent of backpackers, and 55 percent of mountain bikers prefer backcountry trails.

Reviewing these facts, the Revised Draft Forest Plan appears to be reasonable in rebalancing the summer non-motorized/motorized usage. As in any election in this great country, the preference of approximately 90 percent of the trail users resulted in an increase in non-motorized acreage.

This division brings us to one of the more commonly voiced complaints, that users on motorized vehicles have access to 55 percent of the forest, but non-motorized users have access to 100 percent. However, motorized users also have access to 100 percent. A forest plan does not discriminate against people, only their method of transport. Just as a mountain biker can leave his mountain bike at a wilderness boundary and continue ahead on foot, forest users who utilize motorized vehicles could park their vehicles at the non-motorized boundary and continue on in historic Montana style.

As a cyclist, a father of two little girls and now a new little baby boy, I support Montana High Divide Trails and the current recreational allocations under the Revised Draft Forest Plan. Our plan restores the Continental Divide Trail that wraps around Butte, connecting Butte with the longest quiet trail in North America.

— Mike Borduin lives in Butte and is a founding member and past president of the Highlands Cycling Club, P.O. Box 912, Butte.