About Elk Bugs and Fuel Project

By way of keeping everyone up to date with the Elk Bugs and Fuel Project that we have all been so concerned with, I have some good news from the Forest Service.

I had a meeting with several of the staff at the Northern Hills Ranger District Office and it appears they weren’t aware the closures proposed in the Bear Butte Creek area included so many of our permitted trails. The good news is they ("they" meaning the Forest Service in the Northern Hills District and Pam Brown in specific) have agreed to honor our permits for this year at the least. That means there will be a Dakota Territory Challenge and there will be a Black Hills Cruiser Classic this year for sure!

I was left with two things I have to do in the next couple of weeks. First of all, for the benefit of the Elk Bugs and Fuel Project planning process, I need to get them a detailed map of which roads and trails we are most concerned with preserving and preserving access to. Part of that includes indicating which roads and trails we would encourage them to obliterate and there are a lot of them up there. There are several user-developed trails that really have no business being there and several spurs that really go nowhere. There will likely be some joint club projects come out of this at some point although I don’t know what for sure. I just know we will need to be ready for that probability.

Secondly, the opportunity to sit down with all the District Rangers of the Black Hills and develop a plan for an organized trail system through the Black Hills came out of the meeting. Pam Brown (Northern Hills District Ranger) welcomes the thought process behind this and has agreed to set a meeting up in January for me to present a rough outline of a plan. Hopefully through this, we can open the door for a long-term dialogue that will help to avoid this type of situation in the future by proactively formalizing our existing trails and hopes for future trails.

The leadership for both the Black Hills Four Wheelers and for the Dakota Territory Cruisers have already had respective individual discussion to this end. I would surmise that joint sessions with representatives of both Clubs would be in order as well. Nothing is set in stone with this yet so I hope to get all of your input as this develops and much will be shared at the club meetings as this begins to come together. I also intend to get other motorized interests involved as well.

I believe the future of our sport in this area depends upon this effort and that we are looking at a potential model that can be used to preserve our sport in other areas of the country as well. I also believe this is a win-win situation for everyone. I know it will take a lot of work to develop and I am counting on you all to help.