Current Project:
Rubicon Trail
The Rubicon Trail, a county road, is arguably the most famous four-wheel-drive trail in the world. Unfortunately, it is also a source of a million cubic yards of soil that has eroded into streams and lakes on Eldorado National Forest. Oil and transmission fluid also find their way into the environment because vehicles often suffer damage to their oil pans, differentials, and transmissions when negotiating boulder-strewn sections of the Trail.
The trail dates back to the 1800s, when it stretched from Georgetown to Lake Tahoe. Today the trail runs from near Wentworth Springs to near Tahoma on Lake Tahoe's northwest shore,but many 4x4 users access the Trail from Loon Lake via the Ellis Creek Trail.
In winter the paved road to Loon Lake is plowed only to the first dam. The additional mile of unplowed pavement up to the second dam, where the Ellis Creek Trail actually begins, forms the popular Polaris ski and snowshoe route. This route is routinely rutted by 4x4 users in winter.
Snowlands Network and the Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation are advocating for the development of a management plan for the Rubicon Trail that contains adequate measures to ensure restoration of the Trail and a halt to motorized use during the wet season (fall through spring), when most erosion occurs.
When El Dorado County dropped their efforts to complete a multi-year planning process for the management of the Trail, Snowlands and CSNC took a new approach. The result came on April 23, 2009 with a stunning unanimous vote of the seven-member Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in favor of a Cleanup and Abatement Order (CAO) for the Rubicon Trail that set in motion a series of tasks that El Dorado County and the Forest Service must perform to protect the environment through which the Trail Passes.
The CAO describes a list of milestones that must be met by the County and the Forest Service. Snowlands will be monitoring their progress. Please read the Rubicon Trail article on page one of the Summer 2009 Snowlands Bulletin for more information.
The environmental problems of the Rubicon Trail can be tied to the change in the use of the Trail. Historically, the Rubicon Trail was traveled using 4x4s, either stock or slightly modified. These traditional users have been displaced by non-street-legal 4x4 vehicles customized to navigate the increasingly difficult route caused by erosion and purposeful changes. These vehicles, some called "rock crawlers" for their ability to navigate up a rock face, have displaced traditional uses and are turning the trail into an extreme-off-road-vehicle park.
At the September 20, 2007 meeting of the state Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission, environmentalists were joined by traditional jeepers in speaking out against the madness of radical 4x4 owners who have taken over the Trail. This unusual alliance highlights the extremeness of those who are abusing the Trail.