Designing Sustainable Off-Highway Vehicle Trails

Book excerpt: Property management of off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails is one of the most important tasks for trail managers today. Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulation Part 212.1, the Forest Service defines an OHV as any motor vehicle designed for or capable of cross-country travel on or immediately over land, water, sand, snow, ice, or marsh, swamp, or other natural terrain. In this report, off-highway vehicles, OVH, include everything from dirt bikes to swamp buggies, off-road vehicles, off-highway motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, utility-terrain vehicles, four-wheel drive vehicles, such as pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, and tracked vehicles. This illustrated report takes into consideration trail guidelines, fundamentals, assessments, management objectives, and layouts to reinforce the management framework presented to help OHV managers develop sustainable trails and protect the environment of surrounding trails. This framework provides a step-by-step approach to OHV trail management, incorporating sustainable design and management concepts with traditional trail management expertise and modern technological tools. Forest service and land management personnel, including farmers and ranchers that may utilize and manage multiple off-highway vehicles may be interested in this report. Other products related to this title that may be of interest include the following: Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Parks, Forests, and Public Property, Pt. 200-299, Revised as of July 1, 2015 can be found at this link: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/869-082-00142-9