County map leaves off-roaders in the dust

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, May 8, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

Equestrians and all-terrain vehicle owners have a precarious relationship: The horseback riders say four-wheelers are too loud, while the four-wheelers argue the equine community is pampered.

Both groups of recreational users are coping with sprawling development quickly blanketing the desert and snuffing out open land. But they are hardly unified.

For owners of "off-highway" vehicles, an ongoing battle with Clark County planners designing a new trails map in the northwest has boiled down to a two-mile stretch along an undeveloped portion of Grand Canyon Drive.

The county has designated a tunnel below U.S. 95 and the Grand Canyon strip -- which allows four-wheelers to gain access to federal land to the west -- for unmotorized vehicles and horses.

On the trails map brought before the Clark County Commission on Tuesday, none of the trails in the Lone Mountain community was designated for motorized vehicles.

Despite pleas from off-highway activist Mark Trinko to delay approval of the trails designations until further talks with four-wheelers, commissioners voted 4-0 to move forward with the northwest map.

The board, however, was empathetic to Trinko's concerns that all-terrain vehicle owners are being squeezed out of the valley.

"We have a huge group of (off-highway) supporters and with all the growth it's getting harder and harder for them to find places to use their vehicles," said Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

"We need to protect residential areas but also protect opportunities for this popular sport."

Trinko said he believes four-wheelers are being alienated because of the personal preferences of Jory Stewart, a horse owner and the county's manager of advanced planning. Trinko said Stewart is favoring the horse community.

He argued that the equine community and off-highway groups helped develop the Highway 95 tunnel, which now serves as a popular trailhead leading into the desert mountains north of Red Rock Canyon.

"We caused the trailhead to happen and now we're being shut out," Trinko said.

Stewart said the delay in designated trails for four-wheelers as opposed to bicyclists, hikers or horse-riders is simple. The vehicles do more damage, they cover more land per outing, they kick up more dust and they are louder.

The county must consider pollution levels, whether neighborhoods are planned adjacent to trails and whether there are endangered species or plants in the desert to which the trail leads.

Stewart said the county is working with the Bureau of Land Management to determine the sensitivity of the land.

"(Trinko) has interpreted my sensitivity to our federal partners as manipulating the system to work against him and his cause," Stewart said. "Until we can determine where those sensitive areas are, we're not going to show specific trails or trail heads because what would be the point?"

Stewart added that the county provided four-wheeler trails in the Valley of Fire and Rainbow Gardens, which is near the Las Vegas wetlands area.

Planners agreed that after the studies are finished, the maps will be revisited and off-highway users will be given their own trail in the northwest. Four-wheelers aren't as compatible with other trail users because they tend to spook horses and can put hikers at risk.

Trinko said the north side of the disputed Grand Canyon trail is zoned for industrial and the south side will be residential. He said owners of off-highway vehicles have offered put up fences and walls between business parks and neighborhoods.

Allowing them access to open public lands will reduce the number of irresponsible four-wheelers who simply tear along residential streets, Trinko argued.

"Effectively we channelize the current helter skelter users into an organized, controllable situation," he said.

Planners said it will take several months before the county and federal government conduct the proper environmental studies.