Sublette County residents came out mostly against a proposed 18-mile mountain bike trail network near Pinedale on Tuesday, telling the county commission it would harm a vital migration route for the prized Sublette mule deer herd.
Supporters told the commission the project is planned in a way that it wouldn’t disturb the deer and could provide much-needed recreational access for locals and visitors.
The final decision rests with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees the roughly 600 acres involved.
The commission took no direct action on the matter during the meeting at the Sublette County Library.
Commissioners voted unanimously to send a letter to the BLM asking the agency to follow the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). They also asked for the county to be included among cooperating/stakeholder agencies if and when project planning moves forward.
The commission didn’t take a formal position either for or against the proposed project.
Dave Richey, acting field manager at the Pinedale BLM office, told the commission an application for the project had been submitted by the Sublette County Trails Association and was under review.
The BLM’s next step is to release a draft proposal and open it up for public comment.
There’s no definitive timeline, but it’s hoped the draft proposal will be ready for comment “sometime this fall,” Richey said.
Concerns For Prized Herd
Controversy has been brewing over how deer might be affected by the proposed non-motorized trail system near Fremont Lake.
Each spring and fall, the 20,000-strong Sublette herd passes through what locals call “the bottleneck.” That’s a narrow strip between the southern end of Fremont Lake and Pinedale.
It’s part of a route declared a designated wildlife migration route through a 2020 executive order from Gov. Mark Gordon.
The mule deer and pronghorn migrations through the area are the longest and second-longest overland mammal migrations in the Lower 48 states.
“Deer cannot accommodate their migration to our recreation, so we believe that we should accommodate our recreation to the deer,” said Cora and Green River resident Bill Ames, speaking at the meeting as a representative of the Wyoming Mule Deer Alliance and Muley Fanatics.
The trails project could disrupt the migration route as well as “stopover areas” where deer rest and forage during breaks in migration, he said.
Mule Deer Alliance member Luke Shultz said mule deer represent “the culture of this county.”
The trails could also disrupt pronghorn migration routes and moose habitat, he added.
Mark Anselmi of Cora told the commission that he was frustrated over an apparent lack of concern for the deer.
“I don’t know what people don’t understand. This is a designated (migration) corridor, and people would ruin it,” said Anselmi, a past president of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.
Others expressed concern over the trails possibly drawing large crowds for mountain bike races. Or that some people might ignore the rules and use the trails for off-road motorized vehicles.
“We all know that a world-class bike trail is going to lead to world-class bike competitions,” said Jocelyn Moore of Pinedale.
Several speakers said they’re not opposed to a local mountain bike trail system, but they would like to see it in a different location.
Trails Would Be Out Of Deer’s Way
Sublette County Trails Association member Ryan Grove said the project is planned so it wouldn’t ruin deer habitat.
Of those roughly 600 acres, only the southernmost 300 acres are in the migration corridor, he said. And that would remain undeveloped.
“There is zero overlap with the bottleneck or the high-use migration corridor,” he said.
The population of Pinedale is expected to double within the next decade or so, Grove said.
Many newcomers will want outdoor recreation opportunities, and the proposed non-motorized trail system would offer that in a specific area where it could be well-managed, he said.
He added that the trails would not be intended for large events but rather for easily accessible recreation for locals.
Pinedale resident Noah Chutz said that “front county” access is vital for locals because the high country is snowed in and not easily accessible much of the year.
Concentrating mountain biking on one set of trails would be better for wildlife than the dispersed and uncontrolled riding all over the countryside, he said.
And he also stressed that the trails would be for local use.
“This isn’t going to turn into Jackson. It’s not going to turn into a Durango (Colorado) anytime soon,” Chutz said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
