Coeur d’Alene River District Emphasizes Safe, Legal Road Travel

COEUR D’ALENE— The Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF) announced on Wednesday the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District will implement a new motor vehicle use education and patrol program beginning Friday, October 4. Throughout the weekends of October 4 and October 11, visitors will find information booths at Babin's Junction along the Coeur d’Alene River Road and at Fourth of July Pass in the Mullan Tree area north of I-90. Both booths will offer resources to help visitors travel safely and legally by motor vehicle on forest roads. 

The program will also include emphasis patrols by law enforcement, who will put additional resources into enforcing designated road and trail use in the coming weeks. 

Every fall, a schedule of seasonal road closures established in the Forest’s Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) goes into effect for wildlife protection and other purposes, leading to more routes closed to motor vehicles during hunting season. 

“There can be a temptation, particularly in the fall, to drive or ride around closed gates or operate OHVs on nonmotorized trails,” says Holly Hampton, District Ranger for the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District. “This year we’re emphasizing the message that operating motor vehicles in conflict with the MVUM’s designations is not only illegal, it’s also bad for wildlife, trail and road tread conditions, and negatively impacts the odds of successful hunts, and can lead to resource damage.” 

The MVUM is the binding legal document establishing which uses roads and trails are open to. Copies of the MVUM are available for free at all ranger stations, in PDF form on the IPNF website, and for mobile devices for free through the Avenza app. Printed copies of the MVUM will also be available at the program’s booth locations. 

“We encourage everyone driving or riding on the forest to have a copy of the MVUM,” says Hampton. “I like to use the Avenza app because it overlays your GPS location right on the MVUM, so it’s really easy to see if the road or trail you’re about to turn on is motorized or not.” 

In addition to emphasis patrols, law enforcement will investigate vandalism to gates, which can cost more than ten thousand dollars each to replace—funds that often come from taxpayer-funded sources. Hampton also states that funding for maintenance is a major reason roads are gated on the IPNF. 

“The Coeur d’Alene River District is among the most ‘roaded’ districts in the National Forest System, and many of those roads were built by and for timber sales, not for recreation,” says Hampton. “It would be impractical and an unreasonable use of tax dollars to maintain all of those roads to vehicular standards indefinitely, which is one of the reasons roads are closed to motor vehicles.” 

The Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District asks that road use violations on the district be reported to the Fernan Office at (208) 664-2318. Poaching should be reported to Idaho Fish and Game’s Poaching Hotline (800) 632-5999.