Off-road vehicles spoil natural area
Published 1:49 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND – Kelly Heintz, natural areas manager for the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), insists that it is OK for people to roam the woods.
Just be sure to get off your motorbike first.
Heintz said the DNR is trying to curb the fleets of motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles that have been tearing up the Mount Si Natural Area over the years.
The more than 8,000-acre park, which lies north of North Bend, is home to cougars, black bears, falcons and copious plant life. Heintz said silt deposits from top-soil erosion affects the wildlife in the streams, as well as species on the surface.
“We are really trying to preserve this area and keep its natural beauty,” Heintz said. “And these bikes are causing a lot of damage.”
Damage along the established paths, which lead up to the summit of Mount Si, is visible from the broken trees and waste left behind by riders.
So much motor traffic has gone in and out of the park that the vehicles have fashioned their own paths, as well. Although there are two main entrances to the park, one off Southeast Mount Si Road and another across from 480th Avenue Southeast, multiple paths have sprouted up along the roads where bikers have made their own inlets to the forest.
Heintz said the noise from the vehicles has caused residents who live along Southeast Mount Si Road to complain.
Besides being destructive and dangerous to wildlife and humans alike, as trails are not designed for motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, riding motorized vehicles through the park is also illegal. The misdemeanor charge carries up to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
Heintz figured that most riders probably don’t know it is illegal since there are no signs around the entrance to the paths saying that motor vehicles are forbidden. Before the DNR acquired the land in 1987, it was owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co., who allowed motorized vehicles access.
She attributes most of the damage to the male adolescent tendency for mischief, but knows that some families have used the paths for motorbikes as well. The department is also hampered by the fact that when a sign warning against motor vehicles had been put up in the past, it was vandalized and taken down.
Although the park is being abused, Heintz said she doesn’t want to scare people away. The natural area may sound like a fragile wilderness, but Heintz said hikers, bicycles and horseback riders are more than welcome to go through the park on the established paths.
“We want to have a good relationship with the community,” Heintz said. “We don’t want to appear standoff-ish, but we want to stop the problem before it gets worse.”
