- Don Amador
- Posted On
Bureau of Land Management repairs fire-damaged bridges
NORTH COAST, Calif. — Off-highway vehicle bridges have become a critically important part of today’s sustainable trail systems on public land particularly in mountainous or forested regions.
Often they are used to relocate motorized use out of sensitive riparian areas to protect wildlife and water quality or to provide connectivity throughout a unit’s route network.
When those structures are damaged or destroyed by wildfires or other natural disasters, public access to designated roads and trails can be severely impacted for both casual use and permitted competition events.
One such federal unit is the Bureau of Land Management’s South Cow Mountain Off Highway Vehicle, or OHV, Recreation Area near Ukiah.
It is a congressionally-designated OHV recreation area where managed multiple-use OHV recreation is a prescribed use.
It has an extensive route network that provides various degrees of challenge for dirt-bikes, ATVs, SxSs, buggies and 4WD vehicles.
It also provides motorized access to nonmotorized activities such as mountain biking, wildlife views and hunting.
In 2018, much of South Cow Mountain was devastated in the River fire, part of the Mendocino Complex.
Some of that destruction included a number of key OHV bridges that provided important connectivity within the route network.
Impacts to the bridge system created safety concerns and often resulted in trail closures or restrictions and also made it difficult for the agency to issue permits for historic off-road motorcycle events.
BLM’s Ukiah Field Office leadership and staff are commended for their “git er done” attitude — during difficult times — to repair severely damaged OHV bridges and restore functionality and connectivity within the 94 mile network of designated roads and trails.
Don Amador Don is owner of Quiet Warrior Racing, a recreation, land-use, and political consulting company, and president and CEO of the Post Wildfire OHV Recovery Alliance. He has over 29 years in the field of recreation and land-use advocacy. He served as a commissioner on the California Department of Parks and Recreation Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission from 1994 to 2000 and has also served on many recreation stakeholder groups and advisory committees. Follow him at his website at https://quietwarriorracing.blogspot.com/. This article is reprinted with permission.