There are many scars on the land caused by inappropriate use of ATVs and other motor vehicles. These scars can take decades to recover. The 1987 Custer National Forest Travel Plan authorized about 100 miles of motorized routes. Now there over 200 miles of routes used by motor vehicles. Often these routes are created by people driving off and beyond legal routes. Each driver goes a bit farther than the last. This abuse is continuing to cause new scars on the land. Below are five recent examples.
How New Scars Begin
Bear Canyon
Pryor Mountain Road
Lost Water Canyon
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On March 18, 2007, a group of hikers found this recent damage to the Pryors landscape on and near the Inferno Canyon Road on the Southwest slope of the Pryors. Vehicles driving on muddy roads, or much worse, off-road to get around mud holes and snowdrifts, cause soil erosion and severe damage to the vegetation. Such resource damage by vehicle is illegal, but unfortunately rarely enforced. Pictures by Margaret Webster |
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"Aren't the flowers beautiful? Let's go take a look at them!" "Look at those tracks. Someone else drove there so we can too." |
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| Bear Canyon is a popular birding area with unusual birds such as the blue-gray gnatcatcher. It is a very sensitive riparian area surrounded by rugged canyon walls and arid desert landscape. |
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| The mile-long red track--#24921 on the map--is not legal for motorized use according to the existing (1987) Custer National Forest Travel Plan. Unfortunately enforcement has been non-existent and the track has become much more prominent with use. |
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| These ATV riders are making a new illegal scar into Bear Canyon. |
| On March 25, 2007, hikers observed three ATVs about 1-1/2 mile beyond the unauthorized red track. They had driven deep into the canyon bottom along a new, illegal, user-created track--shown in yellow on the map (above right). This illegal scar has apparently been growing in length and prominence as each ATV drives a bit farther than the previous one. |
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The illegal track makes 22 damaging crossings of the intermittent stream in one mile. |  |
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Some places the riders have driven through and over juniper brush breaking and killing it. Soon this new track will become bare dirt. |
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A rider forced his ATV beyond the end of the illegal track to leave parts of his vehicle in an argument with a tree. Green trees have been cut to allow ATV access. |
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| Some trees up to two feet tall which had the audacity to grow where the ATV riders wanted to drive were simply driven over, broken, and skinned. They will soon not interfere with the new "road." |  |
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| New muddy ruts created in April 2007 to circumvent a snowdrift on Pryor Mountain Road west of Tie Flats. How long will it take for this damage to heal? Or will it simply attract more drivers and get worse?
Picture by Clayton McCracken |
Campers on the Lost Water Canyon Research Natural Area 
Two people, apparently from Colorado, camped on the Lost Water Canyon Research Natural Area the nights of September 10 and 11, 2007. Their campsite was located on the headwaters of the west fork of Lost Water Creek. 
The camp was unattended. A small fire had been built upon aluminum foil in spite of increased risk of wildfire. Coolers, one assumes with food, were on the ground by their vehicle. A note was left on their windshield informing them that a bear had been feeding on a horse carcass nearby. They drove in nearly a mile on 2308G, a road that has been closed since the RNA was established. A branch off this road, now impassible because of timber fall, goes out to Tony’s Island. At the west end of 2308G there is no signage, no barrier, and no indication that the road is closed. Someone else had driven out this road earlier the evening of September 10th to look at the horse carcass and take photos. One can imagine that the campers followed the previous vehicle and found this, until now, undisturbed campsite with a beautiful view of Lost Water Canyon. A simple rock or log barrier would have prevented them from unknowingly violating the regulations for a Research Natural Area. These are lands administered by the Beartooth District, Custer National Forest. 
Some may remember those Saturday morning meetings this past spring when those of us who use the Pryors shared our thoughts about the upcoming Beartooth District travel plan. There were bitter opposing arguments whether or not to keep 2308G opened or closed. That road is the northern boundary of the RNA. Research Natural Areas are designated by the USFS to be kept forever in a natural state, that is with no impact by humans and their entourage of plants and animals. RNAs serve as benchmarks for comparison with human managed areas. Each RNA is unique so the Lost Water Canyon RNA is indeed precious. One may argue that this RNA is inadequate in size to preserve a sample of subalpine meadows found in the Pryors. The Lost Water Canyon RNA is already stressed by the illegal trespass of the Pryor Mountain horses. 
Text and pictures by Clayton McCracken, 13 September 2007. |