About 327 acres of the Black Hills National Forest near Piedmont have been closed to cross-country motorized travel because of damage caused by off-highway vehicles, forest supervisor Craig Bobzien announced Wednesday.

"This is a highly sensitive area with shallow, thin soils in steep terrain that are very easily damaged by cross-country motorized travel," Northern Hills District Ranger Rhonda O'Byrne said in a news release.

"We try to keep public lands open to the public," O'Byrne said. "It is also our mission to protect natural resources, and we cannot do this under current conditions where we are seeing rutting, erosion and other impacts."

The area being closed is in steep terrain east of Botany Canyon, known for its diversity of plant life. The area is near the far eastern flank of the Ricco Fire, which burned in 2005.

People can still drive through the area on Forest Road 546.1. But they won't be able to leave the road.

The road will remain open May 15 through Dec. 15 each year. It is closed Dec. 15 through May 15 to protect big-game winter range, according to a Forest Service news release.

Bobzien said the emergency closure will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2010. By that time, the forest's new off-road travel management plan could be in effect. But Bobzien said the Piedmont area's temporary closure won't affect his decision regarding what routes will or will not appear in the final travel plan for the 1.2 million-acre forest. Bobzien expects to finalize the travel plan late this year.

Bonnie Jones, recreation specialist with the Northern Hills Ranger District, said the closure area is now crisscrossed by unauthorized and unwanted trails created by off-road vehicles. "The soil up there is really thin. When enough people drive on it, it wears down to the bare rock," Jones said.

She said the area cannot recover on its own from the already significant damage. To get vegetation to come back, crews would have to build structures to prevent erosion and seed the area.

Mary Zimmerman, a member of the Norbeck Society's steering committee, praised the Forest Service closure. "I think the main benefit is it puts a hold on things," Zimmerman said. She said the delay will protect the area while Bobzien decides what to do with it, along with the rest of the Black Hills, in the travel management plan.

Zimmerman also speculated that the closure could be related to plans by off-road interests to use a section line in the northeast part of the closure area to get to the national forest from Old Highway 79 in the Piedmont area.

Troy Hall, president of the local Off-Road Riders Association, acknowledged that his group has explored the possibility of opening up the section line for off-road riders. On Wednesday, he asked the Meade County Commission to decide whether they want public access to the section line.

"It's our position that the section line is legally open. But we don't want to force something," he said.

Jones said the section-line issue did not have anything to do with the Forest Service closure.

Hall said his group generally opposes any closure to off-road use.

"But we understand that the Forest Service's job is to protect resources. We oppose any resource damage, particularly resource damage caused by off-highway vehicles. We encourage proper use of the forest. Resource damage is illegal."

Hall said he questioned, however, whether all other options were exhausted before the closure was declared.

And he said he is concerned that the closure could be a "pre-decision" that will result in the area being off limits in the forest-wide travel management plan.

"What we're asking for is the opportunity for that route to be considered," Hall said.

He said his group is willing to help rehabilitate the area.

"It looks like somebody has built a little motocross track. We've offered to do volunteer work to correct that," Hall said. "You just can't go out and do stuff like that on the forest."

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8415 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com