Editorial
The off-road rut

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Designating trails and routes where dirt bikes and three- and four-wheelers can play is welcome public policy. Success depends on a commitment to draft the rules in a timely fashion and spend money to put them in place and enforce them. None of those imperatives was evident in the Forest Service's announcement last week.

No money has been budgeted, and there is a loosey-goosey quality to a two-year time frame to get the work done.

America's 155 national forests have enough space to accommodate this motorized and hugely popular form of outdoor fun. Here in Washington and elsewhere, off-road groups have been valuable allies to the Forest Service in finding and maintaining suitable recreation areas.

The trouble has come from riders blazing cross-country, grinding ruts in trails and generally chewing up sensitive habitat.

Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth used an Earth Day speech last year to describe the four issues assailing his agency: fire and fuels; invasive species; habitat fragmentation, and unmanaged recreation.

Those last words have the ring of the government worrying that someone, somewhere is having an unregulated good time. Bosworth, however, was talking about wanton destruction by off-road vehicles in places they shouldn't be.

Repairs are expensive and the damage can compound itself — such as erosion that fills streams with silt.

This issue should not stir confrontations between hikers, anglers and off-roaders. They ought to join ranks to ensure the Forest Service follows through on a good, overdue idea.