MVUM Is Coming To Washington
Jan 23rd, 2010 by C. Alexander Leigh
The USFS recently announced that that they intend to publish a MVUM for the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest by March of 2010. This is, as far as I know, the first MVUM to affect any of the parks in Washington state.
Under the 2005 Travel Management Rule, which I had never heard of until about a month ago, National Forests are standardizing how they communicate with forest end-users about vehicular access. Under the new rules, each forest will publish a map (the MVUM) which indicates which routes are open for use to which classes of vehicles (e.g. ATV, motorbike, 4×4). All other routes within the national forest, regardless of signage or anything else, will be off-limits to any vehicle use.
I have heard but haven’t yet confirmed that users will be required to carry a MVUM with them in their vehicle, and can be cited if they don’t have one while on national forest land. If this is true I can’t imagine they will be enforcing it for the paved, touristy bits of the NF system, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see USFS and other law enforcement workers issuing citations to off-roaders for it.
