Sturgill-Dennett Unauthorized Route Decommissioning Project Background: After meeting with representatives of Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG), Cecil Andrus Wildlife Management Area (CAWMU), Idaho Power Corp., and Rocking ‘M’ Ranch, we are proposing to decommission and eliminate access to an unauthorized ATV route stretching approximately between the end of Forest Road (FR) 51651 and a system of user-created and system roads on the Rocking ‘M’ Ranch. The portion lying on National Forest System (NFS) lands totals approximately 1.37 miles. According to Conservation Officer Mark Sands, the route was created by public ATV use within the last 10 years. The route incorporates an excessively steep grade in many places and it presents erosion and sediment delivery problems to the watershed which encompass the route. Of even more concern to USFS and IDFG personnel is the fact that the route introduces hunters and other ATV users in to one of the few portions of the Hunt Unit 31 (Brownlee Zone) which provides both a degree of elk, bear, and other big game security (areas of limited hunter pressure, particularly motorized pressure) and non-motorized hunting opportunities. Complaints about illegal ATV use on this route during open elk seasons constitute Officer Sands’ most frequently received public complaint. IDFG/CAWMU are partially responsible for management of the Rocking ‘M‘ Ranch. They are currently attempting to eliminate illegal vehicle access onto this route from the Rocking ‘M.’ Additional signage and introduction of sections of buck and rail fence will be constructed for this purpose. Payette National Forest (PNF) contains two means of entry to the route which many ATV users currently use illegally. The first of these is accessed via the closed and gated road 51650 (see attached map). This road is part of the PNF road system but is closed to public motorized use. From this road segment, ATV riders cross an ineffective berm meant to keep the public off the unauthorized route in question. The second access point is located off PNF trail 283 (a trail open to all motor vehicles), where the route abruptly leaves the trail and climbs an adjacent hill. IDFG managers would like to see this route closed to motorized use to facilitate the big game security concerns and non-motorized hunting opportunities discussed above. Proposal: Elimination of motorized access to this route would ideally consist of three major components: (1) Full or partial obliteration of the unauthorized routes labeled 516512000 and 516502000 Note that these “two” routes actually constitute a single linear route from PNF trail 283 to the forest boundary with a short unmapped segment joining them. At a minimum, obliteration would be performed on the segment beginning on trail 283 and extending to the hilltop (approximately 950 ft., see photos 1-1 and 1-2) and beginning at the intersection of the unauthorized route and the forest boundary and extending on to NFS lands far enough to visually obscure the route. The wire gate in the fence at the forest boundary would also be eliminated (see photo 1-3). These measures would be intended to discourage ATV use here should the barriers constructed on the Rocking ‘M’ Ranch prove ineffective.