By Lisa Rosetta The Bulletin Snowmobilers will be banned from about 1,375 acres of land in the Dutchman Flat and Tumalo Mountain winter areas this winter to ease crowding and address safety concerns. The Deschutes National Forest said Friday that it is going to restrict snowmobile access to a portion of the west face of Tumalo Mountain. The southeast and northwest faces of Tumalo Mountain will remain open to snowmobilers. "I would expect some of them (snowmobilers) to be a little upset, but under the circumstances, I think what we've come up with is a reasonable solution for everyone to continue enjoying the area," said Walter Schloer, a Bend-Fort Rock District ranger. "A lot of the prime snowmobile area is still open. The area closed off was heavily covered with ski trails." Peggy Spieger, administrative coordinator for the Oregon State Snowmobile Association, said she did not support the closures. "We are opposed to closures in areas where we could previously go," she said. "Obviously we don't like it. But we do realize it is difficult to make decisions on these kinds of issues." This winter, new maps will be posted at Dutchman Flat to alert skiers, snowmobilers and other outdoor recreationists to the boundary changes. "We tried to put the closures on logical boundaries that could be easily identified," Schloer said. "The primary emphasis to start with will be education, but there will be more enforcement if people don't obey" the new boundaries, he said. A new park, Kapka Butte Sno-Park, may also be on the horizon, Schloer said, pending an environmental analysis to evaluate the proposed development. The park, if constructed, would be at the junction of Forest Road 45 and Century Drive, commonly known as the Sunriver turnoff. The proposal seeks to ease pressures of limited parking capacity at Dutchman Sno-Park, Schloer said. If environmental analysis leads to a development decision, and funding is available, actual construction could begin in the summer of 2005. Schloer could not yet say how much the environmental analysis would cost, but "it should be relatively cheap as environmental analyses go, because I don't know off of the top of my head any extenuating circumstances at that location." And depending on the design, the actual cost of constructing the new park which would include additional parking spaces, rest-rooms and trash cans could be around $200,000. Each winter there are parking issues and conflicts between people on snowmobiles and recreationists not using motorized vehicles. "It just seems like it gets busier every year," Schloer said. "Some folks who used to go there don't go there anymore. Earlier this spring, the Deschutes National Forest officials called on about 70 people to attend a two-day summit at the Bend Community Center and brainstorm solutions for dealing with growing crowds at the winter playground. In an attempt to draw representatives from every user group, officials contacted snowmobilers, guides, concessionaires, Nordic skiers, snowshoers, skijorers, backcountry skiers and others. "What we walked away with is, everybody had given their opinion," Schloer said. "What we did was try to listen to what everyone had to say and understand where everyone was coming from." Lisa Rosetta can be reached at 541-617-7812 or lrosetta@bendbulletin.com. |