Forest Service considers banning snowmobiles in Tahoe Meadows

Saturday, Aug. 5, 2000 | 7:48 a.m.

Gary Schiff, chief ranger for the Carson Ranger District, said the ban is being considered as part of the Northern Sierra Plan Amendment, an update of a 1986 management plan affecting a 500,000-acre swath of the Carson Range stretching from Peavine Peak south to California's Alpine County.

About 400 comments on the plan have been mailed to the Forest Service and "almost all of them have requested we close Tahoe Meadows to snowmobiling," Schiff said.

The number of such requests essentially forces the Forest Service to consider new regulations for snowmobiling at the meadows located just west of Mount Rose Pass. The area, at an elevation of more than 8,500 feet, is also known as Sheeps Flat.

Critics claim snowmobiles damage the meadows and are incompatible with other winter activities such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and sledding.

In written comments to the Forest Service, Dick Benoit of Reno said snowmobiling and non-motorized winter sports mix "like oil and water."

"There is no escape from these monsters," wrote Jan Stevens. "My family uses Tahoe Meadows for cross-country skiing often in the winter. We have been threatened by irresponsible snowmobilers and offended by the noise and odor they create."

Snowmobile users say they will fight to protect access to an area they consider important for their sport.

"It would definitely bother me," said Mike Cassingham of Reno, who has snowmobiled in the Tahoe Meadows area since 1978. "These mountains belong to the public and that public is myself sitting on a snowmobile as well as someone on a pair of cross-country skis."

Said Tim Davis of Reno, "I respect people that want to snowshoe and people who cross-country ski. What I would expect in return is for them to respect the things that I enjoy."

Many of the comments received by the Forest Service stem from an organized effort. Gail Ferrell is organizer of the Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Winter Sports, which has blitzed the government with anti-snowmobile comments in effort to sway decisions associated with the Northern Sierra Plan Amendment.

Ferrell insists non-motorized winter sports enthusiasts account for more than 90 percent of the winter use of the meadows and that snowmobiles ruin the experience for those people.

She and others also insist the high-speed machines are dangerous.

"Its ludicrous to have a machine like that in an area with pedestrians," Ferrell said. "Its completely unsafe to have snowmobiles and skiers at the same place."

Powered by the same type of two-stroke engines used by older jet skis banned from Lake Tahoe last year, snowmobiles also pose a pollution threat, Ferrell said.

Larry Randall, recreation program manager at the Carson Ranger District, acknowledges the proposed regulation will come with controversy.

"That's pulling the trigger on a big gun because that area is important to people that use snowmobiles," Randall said. "We need to come up with a solution that's meaningful and our challenge now is to find the best solution."

Potential actions range from a complete closure of the Tahoe Meadows to snowmobiles to a partial closure or limiting the days the machines are allowed in the area. A decision on the issue could come as soon as next fall.

The Forest Service is charged with allowing multiple uses of national forest but at times limiting some uses becomes necessary, Schiff said.

"We try to have users share the forests as long they can but at some point it's no longer a viable option," Schiff said.