Road Closure SURPRISE !!!!

[m gardner]

I had put my camp on the end of a little used Forest Service Road. I left for a day and came back to find they had closed the road (during hunting season!!!!) and had never checked to see if anyone had camped at the end (probably thought it was way too rough to drive). I'm glad to see that our tax dollars go to support these highly educated and intelligent beings from the Planet Obama.

Mark

[whitetailtrax]

All Forests have road management plans that designate when roads are open and when they are closed - what does that particular forest say about the road you set your camp up on? If it is designated open during that time and they closed it, then they are absolutely in the wrong unless they issued an emergency closure or something. If is designated to be closed then you have no complaint. In Montana, numerous people set up camps at the end of roads just before they are scheduled to close - that way they don't have to pack their camp in....just out. At one time many moons ago I was responsible for closing FS gates and the direction I was given was to not lock a vehicle/person behind the gate. Perfectly fine to lock a gate (on the scheduled closure date) with a camp behind it.

[m gardner]

There was no gate on the road at all the day before. They dug the holes and put it in after I'd been there a week. It's a place we have always camped and the Utah season had been open for a week. I wouldn't mind them closing the entire road to keep ATVs out. Just do it in a timely manner. The DNR Officer was amazed that they did it that way too. I think it's part of an embarrassing project being done with Stimulus money that hasn't been going well. The feds are "improving" a local reservoir and making it into a campground. Now you'll have to pay to camp there. Part of it must be to close any old existing areas that were camped in so you'll be forced to go to the campground. The biggest problem is that even though the government owns most of the land around this reservoir it was purchased over 100 years ago by the ranchers in the area and is their irrigation water source. They own much of the land and the water rights. From what I learned from the locals things couldn't be going much slower right now on the "improvement" project. I think we are to the point in the project where "we're gonna teach then ignorant cow kickers a lesson!!" stage and some lower level govt. employees are closing roads during hunting season.