Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, Larry Smith, Ted Jackson, Steve Pendleton, Bobby Robertson, County Commissioner Edna Fund, County Commissioner Gary Stamper and Dave Lipinski meet Monday in Centralia.
Ted Jackson speaks to the group at the transportation meeting at PowerSports Northwest on Monday in Centralia.
Ted Jackson speaks at a transportation meeting at PowerSports Northwest in Centralia on Monday.
For a few hours on Monday, Powersports Northwest in Centralia became a political clubhouse when U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler stopped in for a little face to face time with a few of her constituents.
The Cowlitz Basin ORV Club and lobbyist Ted Jackson brought the meeting together with the help of Dave Lipinski, owner of Powersport Northwest, in order to thank Herrera Beutler for her help getting Forest Service Road 23 fixed in a timely fashion, while pleading for additional help in clearing the way for all-terrain vehicles to access that recently repaired road, along with many others just like it.
Forest Service Road 23 was wiped out in multiple locations during heavy winter storms last winter. An initial estimate from the Forest Service indicated that the road would not be fixed this year due to budget constraints. That’s where Rep. Herrera Beutler stepped in.
In an official letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the congresswoman pointed out the economic significance of the forest road to the rural communities of Southwest Washington and asked that the main line road be repaired as soon as possible in order to facilitate recreation, vocation and possible wildfire access during the summer months.
Although a few sections of the road remain washed out, a large connecting section of Forest Service Road 23 has been slated for more timely repair.
“We really want to thank you for your contributions and efforts to the Gifford Pinchot, especially the 23 road,” said Ted Jackson, a lobbyist who spoke on behalf of the Cowlitz Basin ORV Club and other citizens to Rep. Herrera Beutler on Monday. “For us to get a 50-year road as opposed to a five-year fix is really special.”
Forest Service Road 23, also known as Cispus Road, is currently being worked on by road crews and has a completion date of Sept. 19, 2016. The project will repair 9.53 miles of the road near the Cispus Learning Center. The work will include culvert replacements, road building and resurfacing. As part of that construction work, the road is closed from milepost 2.71 to milepost 5.27 through 4 p.m. Thursday.
Additional sections of the road that suffered complete washouts will require more extensive work and will not be repaired in 2016.
With progress made on reopening the existing forest roads, recreational groups such as the Cowlitz Basin ORV Club have shifted their focus to obtaining more reasonable access rights for owners of dirt bikes, ATVs and WATVs, also known as side-by-sides or UTVs.
Jackson spoke on behalf of the recreational vehicle riders on Monday and made a detailed presentation to Representative Herrera Beutler. Jackson’s talk explained the recurring issues of access for riders both in and out of the woods and expressed frustration with the lack of progress getting the rules of the road clarified and relaxed for recreational vehicle riders.
It seemed that Jackson and the small group of recreational riders in attendance found a sympathetic ear in their representative on Monday. Herrera Beutler expressed her own frustrations with the way the USFS handles some matters and noted that they operate in “a different culture” than those in attendance at the meeting on Monday. She also called a rule requiring motorized vehicles to be freeway-legal in order to be driven on forest roads “ridiculous.”
"The U.S. Forest Service’s requirement for vehicles traveling on National Forest Roads is that they be highway legal unless the road is designated as open to all motor vehicles (highway legal and non-highway legal). Wheeled All-Terrain Vehicles (WATV) are only legal on roads in the state of Washington that have a 35 mph speed limit, or less,” said Rep. Herrera Beutler.
“The ORV community wants to be able to ride on forest roads that have a speed limit of 35 mph or less and I am committed to helping with these issues in any way I can.”
Jackson further explained that the access issues have been an ongoing ordeal in Washington.
“Since the 70s we’ve seen a reduction in ORV access in Washington,” said Jackson. “In the 70s we had a lot of logging going on and there was a lot of access. It was kind of a free for all as far as that goes.”
Since then, Jackson says that the rules have become increasingly convoluted and off-road vehicles have been turned away from more and more areas. He also noted a recent trend to simply decommission forest roads rather than repair them. It is an approach he argues seems to be more expensive than simply fixing the roads, while simultaneously eliminating them from the backroad travel network for good. Jackson believes that the loss of roads is a long arching plan by the USFS to create more wilderness areas by first creating more “roadless landscapes.”
“What I shared today was the synopsis of six years of research,” said Jackson, who considered the meeting a success, noting that Herrera Beutler committed to helping with the recreational vehicle riders’ cause.
Lewis County Commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper were also in attendance at the meeting. They are currently considering a proposal to open up a network of roads in East Lewis County to four-wheeled ATVs, also known as side-by-sides.
“Southwest Washington is the most beautiful place in the world and I believe people should be able to go out and enjoy the amazing nature our region has to offer,” said Representative Herrera Beutler.
