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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge)   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, October 22, 2009 Plans for Reiter Foothills upset off-road users A meeting is planned tonight to discuss Reiter Foothills, where the state is planning to rework a network of trails. By Andy Rathbun Herald Writer MONROE — State officials could be in for a bumpy ride as they try to sell the off-road community on a plan to redevelop Reiter Foothills. Officials want to win public support for the plan, but they are braced for some resistance during a public meeting in Monroe tonight. “People will tend to be skeptical of government to begin with,” said Mark Mauren, an assistant division manager with the Department of Natural Resources. “They're fearful of losing opportunities.” Granted, riders can point to some clear losses in the future. As part of the new plan, the state will shut down Reiter Foothills on Nov. 2. Officials will use the full closure to rework the trails on a smaller piece of land. Some in the off-roading community already are crying foul, including Ed Husmann, who was appointed by Sultan to attend meetings on the proposed action. “I think the Legislature truly felt that they wanted to expand the use of DNR lands, and I don't think DNR wants to do that,” he said. “At least that's not what's happening here.” Reiter Foothills covers a large block of often steep land north of Gold Bar and Index. Riders created the loose-knit trail system for their dirt bikes and four-wheelers during the past 35 years or so. Those trails have the state concerned. Some shoot across salmon-bearing streams, officials said. Others wipe out vegetation along 150-foot swaths along creeks instead of shooting across at one point. “You had a thousand people with different colors of paint trying to paint a picture there,” Mauren said. “It's a mess.” The state identified about 2,000 acres that they say are flat enough for use and don't threaten wildlife. Off-road vehicle users will get about half, while the other half will be reserved for hiking and other recreation. Historically unfettered access makes it hard to estimate the amount of acres currently in use, but all agree the plan will reduce access. That has some off-road riders concerned. For instance, members of the Gold Bar Nature Trails Community Club, a nonprofit club, fault the plan, which will close trails that lead from the club's property. “We believe that putting Gold Bar Nature Trails ORV (off-road vehicle) access at risk is not in the best interest of our local communities,” the club wrote in a letter to Peter Goldmark, manager of the Department of Natural Resources. Mauren said the club has unfair access from private property to public land, however. “Their property values go up because they have direct access,” he said. The final layout of the trails is still under design. The state intends on initially using $140,000 for building trails and bridges. More could be done in the future, with anywhere from $8 million to $12 million needed to fully develop the land. “That's both the motorized and nonmotorized side,” Mauren said. “It could be less, it could be more.” Assuming work can be completed this winter, the land could reopen to the public this spring or summer. Until then, locals such as K.C. Letterman are preparing for a change. Letterman rides her horses at the site a couple times a week. She suspects the temporary closure won't be popular, even though it falls during the wettest, darkest months of the year. “That's going to make an impact on a lot of people around here, even for that short time,” she said. Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com. Hear it firsthand The Department of Natural Resources will discuss the plan for Reiter Foothills from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Park Place Middle School Commons, 1408 W. Main St., Monroe. READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out reiter pit plans as i understand the trespassing laws; if someone uses your land for access for 7 years without you stopping that access, then you cannot thereafter block access. that means those orv riders that have beenh riding at reiter are not criminals and can't be blocked out. snohomish county agreed to make reiter a designated orv park in a meeting at everett a couple years ago. if you had issues with that, then you should have attended the meeting. everyone knows that the state budget is such that thousands of state workers have been laidoff, not rehired when the position opened, etc. and the dnr has millions of dollars to pursue this project? they are either lying or using the money that we orv riders have put into license fees for that purpose. research it yourself to see if they have the money. want to bet that the consultant they hire for the job hasn't a clue what orv riders want? checkout the "green dot" area south of cle elum and you will see that atvs can ride on the gravel roads, but zero trails. the forest service is even worse. look how many designated orv areas they have for nw wash. multiple usuage my *ss. just south of the cle elum dnr area is the forest services version of an orv area - 4 trails of which 2 are one way only and no looping trails at all. intentionally designed so that no one would want to ride there. we riders ought to be coming up with our own consultant to show them what is needed, wanted, and what is best for the area. yes, we can all volunteer to work on this project, but we really need to give our input instead of relying on these idiots that haven't a clue to come up with a good riding area. Local businesses are going to be affected by reiter pit closure. i used to ride there every other weekend. that means buying gas, food, drinks, lunches, water, tires, etc. business owners, contact your gov. reps. to complain about this. the economy is bad enough right now and you have lost our business. Richard servatius | Nov 11, 2009 9:10 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) No shouting intended. The reason ORV people sound like they are yelling ME ME ME is the fact that they are being displaced while at the same time providing a great deal of the funding for trail based recreeation in this state. Motorized trail recreation is increasing in populatity but is currently prohibited on about 85 percent of the trail mileage in Washington. ORV's don't below everywhere, but further reductions are not reasonable. While it is true that we all pay taxes, most of the funding the DNR recieves for recreation comes directly from ORV gas tax and ORV license tab revenue. Concerning environment issues, the vast majority of the ORV communtity care deeply about land stewardship and support protection of the environment. We strongly support protecting fish bearing streams and other legitimate environmental issues. Tod Petersen | Oct 28, 2009 9:15 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) No need to shout. It's actually not complicated, and it's NOT your land. Follow me. The neighbor in this analogy is all of us. YOU don't own the land. Try to remember that. WE own the land, as in ALL of us, TOGETHER. We ALL pay taxes REGARDLESS of how they are spent. If YOU trespassed and destroyed land that belonged to an entire community, and those people agreed to collectively reward you by spending money that WE all pay into the tax system, so that YOU could legally continue to destroy that land, then wouldn't YOU as a good citizen be grateful to WE the community? All WE the community are asking is that you at least use some common sense (assuming you have any) and have some manners. I don't think that's a lot to ask from WE the community. The point I was trying to make is that ORV community should stop saying ME ME ME, and stop acting like a selfish child. Try to understand that WE is the correct way to look at things, then perhaps you wouldn't look so rediculous. All I hear from these posts is "it's OUR right" and it's "OUR land" and all I'm trying to point out is that it's NOT. H White | Oct 27, 2009 7:39 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) I think if had trespassed and destroyed a neighbors land, and they were actually offering to let me keep using it, not press charges and even fix the place up a bit, I'd just say "thank you!". It gets a little more complicate if that neighbor is actually managing land that belongs to you and you have been paying him alot of your money for the last 35 years. The DNR annually recieves millions of dollars to facilited recreation on the public land the manage from ORV owners license tab fees and gas tax revenue. Tod Petersen | Oct 25, 2009 8:52 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Thank you? I think if had trespassed and destroyed a neighbors land, and they were actually offering to let me keep using it, not press charges and even fix the place up a bit, I'd just say "thank you!". H White | Oct 24, 2009 12:41 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Trespassing is criminal behavior "i hope you were outraged at Mark calling me,my family,and fellow orv users "criminal "for are previuos use of "our"DNR land." If you trespass on land, that doesn't belong to you, that's criminal behavior. Doing this knowingly and repeatedly makes you and your family repeat criminals. Since you said you've been doing it for 20 years, I'd say that makes you all hardened criminals. Remember, just because you think you're special, doesn't make you special, or above the law. H White | Oct 24, 2009 12:13 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) "i hope you were outraged at Mark calling me,my family,and fellow orv users "criminal "for are previuos use of "our"DNR land." Please keep in mind that ORV use was technically illegal at Reiter (ref: Pre 2008 Washington Administrative Code WAC 332). That is what Mark was hinting at. There is more suitable land for trails than what the DNR has proposed. Many suitable trails outside of the proposed area already exist. Unfortunately the DNR planning committee contained many anti-ORV people. If you want to make Reiter a good ORV area, help out the Washington Off Highway Vehicle Alliance, Reiter Trail Watch and the Northwest Motorcycle Association. Tod Petersen | Oct 24, 2009 8:19 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Temporary Closure?? Mark says this is a temporary closure,but I dont understand the math, close reiter then, this winter hire a cunsultant and rebuild the trails. The budget seems to be 140000 minus cunsultant fees.The project seems to require 8-12 million. Its know wonder Mark cant nail down a reopen date with those kind of numbers. This news pains me deeply Ive been enjoying reiter for over twenty years my two boys have also been enjoying this area with me I had planned to spend more time riding with them this winter out of gold bar nature trails. If you attended the public forum as i did i hope you were outraged at Mark calling me,my family,and fellow orv users "criminal "for are previuos use of "our"DNR land. roxanne debardi | Oct 23, 2009 4:43 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal meeting tonight in Monroe FYI http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Events/Pages/amp_rec_reiter_oct22_2009mtg.aspx Learn about restoration and trail work at Reiter Foothills 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, October 22 Park Place Middle School Commons 1408 West Main Monroe Mark Neumann | Oct 22, 2009 4:14 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Greenies are winning! P5000 - CLOSED Sauk River ORV campground (Darrington) -CLOSED Reiter - Soon to be closed I think I'm going to stop paying my yearly tab fee to the state of Washington and buy Oregon state tabs. $15.00 for two years!!!!!!, and Oregon has some of the best and well maintained trails I have ever ridden. Not to mention the dunes! Rodney Hovde | Oct 22, 2009 3:00 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) Motorized recreation is already prohibited on over 80 percent of the trail mileage in Washington State. Why further restrict this growing family orientated form of outdoor recreation? To add salt to the wound, it is likely that hiker only trails will be constructed using funding provided by offroad vehicle owners via their gas tax and license tab fees. Tod Petersen | Oct 22, 2009 9:28 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reiter trails The hikers are fortunate to have a nice area to hike already established in Gold Bar (Wallace Falls). Since the plan is to STEAL some of the Reiter Foothills off-road area and give it to the hikers, perhaps some of the Wallace Falls area should be opened up to the off-road users??? The reality is that the second any of that ground is designated as "Hikers only" the clock will start ticking for the life of any off-road usage. Scott Spiwak | Oct 22, 2009 8:30 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reiter Pit I have been a resident of Snohomish County my entire life and an ORV enthusiast. I have seen many of our ORV sanctioned parks taken away from the citizens of this great county (Lowell made into a yuppy walking park, 116th street in Marysville closed down, thousand trails closed, ect...), now they want to close down part of one of the last remaining ORV parks in the county due to some of the trails impeding on wild life? Snohomish county has one of the largest populations of registered ORVs, yet the least amount of acreage to ride our ORVs. Legislation and government officials are making me sick; they tax the hell out of us and the one outlet (riding my ATV) that I have, they want to minimize/abolish? WE NEED TO FIGHT BACK!!!!! Jacob Smith | Oct 22, 2009 1:19 am | 1 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal make no mistake, this IS a calculated development plan... . first you close it down to the locals, then... you open surrounding areas up to developers. How do you do this? You scream environment, & saving the land. Works every time. I do wish the people of EAST sno-co would grow some frikin brains, lay off the easy life for just a day or two, & organize themselves to pick their future. Growth, is inevitable, you can't fight it. BUT... you can "manage" it. #1- you need a FREEWAY, an undevided freeway from Everett to Stevens Pass, bypassing the cities, non-stop. #2- You need to start picking apart your land, BEFORE the county does, in what areas can be developed & what areas can not. Then you need to protect your rights on those areas you choose for yourself. ---it's all quite simple. You can either choose your future or whine about those who choose your future for you. So far, i see a lot of bickering & no real organization to stop it. cme everett | Oct 22, 2009 2:34 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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