Land Use and Management Background
Over 50 years ago, a relative flurry of events happened that formed and have guided management of the High Lakes OHV Area. After the Wilderness Act passed Congress in 1964, there were multiple attempts to create wilderness and roadless area on the High Lakes Plateau. Court rulings largely struck down most of these earlier roadless proposals, but during this process our Semi-Primitive Motorized and Semi-Primitive Non-Motorized areas were carved out, (to be finalized in 1992 with the LNF’s Land and Resource Management Plan.)
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High Lakes OHV Area formed
But fortunately, backing up a bit, in 1976, about ten people made up of USFS personnel, fisherman, hunters, campers and off road vehicle enthusiasts, around a conference table at a bank in Paradise, agreed on the LNF’s Offroad Vehicle Management Plan that established an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) area with motorized trails in the Semi-Primitive Motorized area, and hiking trails in the non-motorized area (these are all gone today due to lack of use and fires). You can see the light-brown motorized "cherry stem" carveouts on the era-2000 IRA map. 4WD vehicles, ATVs and trail bikes were permitted in this area, but only on marked, designated trails. Individual four wheelers and 4WD clubs volunteered to perform trail maintenance under supervision of rangers. |
Our trails undergo scrutiny
Eventually the 2001 Roadless Rule stuck (legally), finally officially creating the Chips Creek Roadless Area, but still allowing for construction and maintenance of roads and trails. In those early 2000’s an interagency team developed the GYR (Green, Yellow, Red) trail condition monitoring system and form as a revision of Section G of the 1991 CA Soil Conservation Guidelines/Standards. The revision was adopted by the Forest Service in 2004. Since the national forests have to work within State laws, the High Lakes got a review by the founder of this rating system, and some areas were marked Red. State law says Red sections (water carrying sediment down a trail into a stream is Red) have to be closed until a plan can be made for repair. CLOSED unless OPEN Also right in that time period, ~2005, the National Forests new national “Travel Management Rule” went into effect. This SIGNIFICANTLY changed forest and motorized off-trail usage everywhere, from “Open unless Closed”, to “Closed unless Open”, meaning only roads and trails listed and rated in the Forest’s new Motor Vehicle Use Map, or what we know now as the MVUM, were legal for motorized travel. There are now map layers in most digital mapping programs that you can overlay the “MVUM” on your map so you can see what is Open for travel. |
FOTHL formed - trails reopened!
In July 2007, the LNF issued a Temporary Forest Order that CLOSED four areas (Saddle Lake, Mud Lake, Bear Lake, and the whole south side past Grassy Lake. Because of a low level of communication between the LNF and user groups, High Lakes users were surprised by new red “Trail Closed” carsonite signs. This prompted user meetings, gatherings, and much community consternation. |
One of the people around that original bank conference table was Ken Knull. He also was a past-President of Cal 4Wheel Drive, with many land-use contacts, and time on his hands. Within a couple months, Ken and three others signed Articles of Incorporation to start a 510(c)(3) non-profit, and FOTHL was founded. We formed a Board of Directors, a large Steering Committee, had many public meetings and meetings with LNF personnel, many rock-moving work parties to get tires out of the mud, and … OUR TRAILS WERE REOPENED. And they remain OPEN today!
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Fires
There are regular fires that come through the area. The granite-interspersed terrain doesn't carry fire that great, so we get burned areas amongst the beautiful areas. Most of the lakes retain lots of greenery around them. Where the trails go through burned areas, the trails get wetter for a few years until the vegetation returns and starts to pull water back out of the ground. Tread Lightly, and keep your campfire in established fire rings.
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How National Forest Roads and Trails are Numbered
You may notice we call most of our system “trails”, not “roads”. Roads generally have a Maintenance Level associated with them such as ML3, which indicates the regularity and level of maintenance to be done by the Forest. Our “trails” can be maintained using volunteer labor. The roads are given numbers that are based on the township in which the northern end of the road is located. The trails are given numbers based on the range in which the trailhead is located. Secondary Forest Service roads are given the designations xxNyy. The number xx is assigned based on the township, followed by the N (LNF is N because it is in the northern townships. The number yy is assigned generally from east to west, but not always. Secondary Forest Service trails are given the designations xEyy. The number x is assigned based on the range, followed by the E (LNF is E because it is in the eastern ranges. The number yy is assigned generally from north to south, but not always. The E usually gets dropped. Generally if you see a brown carsonite with a vertical number, that is ML2 and legal for OHV. ML3 will have the number horizontal, and unless special conditions are in place like on the 25N05 for Motorized Mixed-Use, it will be for street legal vehicles only.
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