Coos Regional Trails Partnership Meeting Minutes: October 21, 2008
In Attendance: Don Luce, Mike Smith, Dave Gray, Bob Golden, John Bragg, and Hans Klausner
Approval of previous meetings minutes: Don Luce presented minutes for the July meeting. They were approved.
Committee Reports:
South Coast Striders – Don Luce reported that Striders had delivered 10 hikes since our last meeting in July. (South Slough, Blacklock Point, Dellenback Dunes, Kentucky Falls/N Fork Smith and Tahkenitch Dunes / Threemile Lake trail). The average attendance continued to be about 25 people for each hike. The hike to Blacklock had coincided with a hike from our corresponding hiking group in Curry County and the meeting out on the point was enjoyable. Things are going well. We recently completed a Hiker Preference survey and will talk about results at our annual get together at Dave’s Pizza on October 25th.
Old Business:
Revisions of bylaws: Don Luce reminded everyone that he had planned to submit a revision of the bylaws to reflect the changes we had talked about at earlier meetings. He and Mike Smith were going to work on it. He told the group that he had begun to feel that revising the bylaws at this time was probably an unnecessary distraction and he was inclined to just leave things as they were.
We agreed to discontinue the bylaw revision process.
New Business:
Survey Monkey: John Bragg made the group aware of the tools available at surveymonkey.com. He suggested to the group that if we needed to conduct a survey we could probably use the account that already existed for South Slough.
Presentation from Hans Klausner, Stewardship Program Coordinator for South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve: Hans talked to the group about measures they were taking on some of their trails. The gist of it was that some trails and old roads on the east side of the reserve property which have had long term historical use by various users were going to be signed informing people of the existing restrictions on ATVs, commercial harvesting, overnight camping and open fires.
There was some general discussion about the difficulties of enforcing restrictions on remote trails especially following a long period of historical use without enforcement. Bob Golden of the BLM shared his experience with signing and offered some suggestions regarding wording and durable sign materials.
Mike Smith – the OHV representative on our board suggested that many people go to these areas as a result of being closed out of other areas. He also suggested that the reserve should consider allowing some use and make appropriate improvements to help insure safe and responsible use. He said that when the reserve was ready to consider allowing some use and make improvements to existing roads and trails he would be happy to sit down with them and possibly provide a source of funding as well.
Hans Klausner said that under the current regulations for the reserve the activities (ATV use, Commercial Harvesting, Overnight Camping and Open fires) were already restricted. He said that if any group wanted to come to the reserve and make a proposal to change existing restrictions they could. Until that process was completed the reserve was bound by their current restrictions.
Don Luce asked Hans to provide a written statement so that we could be sure to inform our members clearly about their policies. This statement follows:
Contact:
December 2, 2008
All-Terrain Vehicle Use Raises Concern at South Slough
During recent forest surveys of the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, employees noted signs of significant all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use in remote parts of the reserve. Signs included recently-cleared trails, motorized-vehicle tire tracks, and litter. More critically, staff observed significant soil erosion occurring in sensitive areas, which they attribute to the impacts of motorized vehicles combined with precipitation runoff.
When the reserve was designated in 1974, the South Slough Management Commission specifically prohibited all use of “motorized off-road vehicles” within the reserve’s boundaries. Oregon Administrative Rules state that “Motorized off-road vehicles are prohibited except on designated county-maintained roads or driveways approved by the Commission.” (O.A. R.
Currently, unauthorized ATV use is occurring along a network of former logging roads that were built before the reserve was established. These roads extend from surrounding industrial timber lands and can be easily identified from maps and aerial photos. It should be noted that most of the surrounding landowners also prohibit ATV use on their property.
In the past the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve boundary has been poorly marked in remote areas. No signage has been provided of permitted or restricted activities where logging roads cross the reserve boundary. Beginning in Fall 2008,
For more information please contact the South Slough Stewardship Program staff at
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Our next meeting will be our Annual Business Meeting on Jan 20th, 2009 at the North Bend Library.
Meeting was adjourned.