Access and Habitat road closure agreements.

[Rank Amateur]

Is there anybody on here that knows the details about the road closure agreements made between the timber companies and ODF&W and OSP? ODF&W has what is called the Northwest Oregon travel management program, where the timber companies select roads that are to be off limits to vehicle traffic. We also have the Northwest Oregon A&H OSP retired officer program that was used as a bargaining chip to help keep roads open in the northwest units.

Specifically what I'm looking for is the details in the agreements involving the travel management roads that are closed to motorized vehicles. My understanding is that they are closed to everybody with the exception of forest industry workers in the performance of their job and that they are excluded from possessing a firearm while doing so.

I have two instances where I think one certain area was violated, first was on Friday afternoon when I was approached by a vehicle inside a travel management area and I knew the occupants, I was a little indignant and they just gave it back to me. It was brought up that one of the persons had a contract to do road maintainence, sure 4:00 on a Friday afternoon we are doing maintainence, oh while we glass all the clearcuts. That's fine, I still called it in to OSP. I have been told the matter has been taken care of, I still have the option to press charges myself.

The second matter was during the first season a guy killed a bull, one of the local contractors had a skidder in the area and it ended up that the bull was retrieved with the skidder with the timber companies permission. My understanding is that the timber companies can not grant motorized access to recover animals from these areas and that this can be a very serious offense for the timber companies.

I'm not looking for suggestions for how to deal with these situations, I have that handled, but whether or not there are any loop holes in these agreements that allow this type of conduct. Are other people seeing this abuse of these agreements? It seems the rules and the word of these programs are a little slow in being understood.

[Etonfish]

I don't have the answer you are looking for, but I know the weyerhaeuser security guy used to drive down elk to the highway from closed roads. I didn't hunt there this year, but their recording indicates that he is no longer allowed to do this. We never asked him to haul an elk out for us, but I thought it was a great service for those of us that walk or ride many miles from the gates.

[CombinationLicense]

RA - You should just call the ODFW Access and Habitat Coordinator and request copies of the contracts in question. It's public record and they can't refuse the request. However, they can charge you for the time spent to make the copies and for the copies themselves.

"CL"

[Rank Amateur]

Originally Posted by CombinationLicense

RA - You should just call the ODFW Access and Habitat Coordinator and request copies of the contracts in question. It's public record and they can't refuse the request. However, they can charge you for the time spent to make the copies and for the copies themselves.

"CL"

I hoped you would chime in, yes I will do that, but first I will approach the timber company and make sure of just what happened on their end.

[GDuck]

And a call to one of the senior gamies in St. Helens wouldn't hurt either. Also, I am aware of more than one case in your/my neck of the woods where certain people have keys to those gates under agreement with the timber companies for access. The one case I know of was handled that way out of a lawsuit. Probably a lot of variables........

Let us know what you find out.....

G

[Joe Schwab]

Definitely call one of the active gamies in the area. No employee of any business may violate road closure act under the North Coast Management Rules. They may enter gated areas for business only. Even if it is their company property. They could easily lose their jobs for violating the rules.