What is Project MUD?

Four years ago, BRWC realized the off-highway vehicle (OHV) issue was exploding. National Forest Chief Dale Bosworth said, "The number of people who own OHVs has just exploded in recent years. In 2000, it reached almost 36 million. Even a tiny percentage of impact from all those millions of users is still a lot of impact. Each year, we get hundreds of miles of what we euphemistically refer to as 'unplanned roads and trails.'"

Severe erosion, habitat fragmentation, introduction of exotic plant species, degraded water quality are just a few of the problems created by the growing number of uneducated motorized users. BRWC's volunteers were motivated to address the issue locally, and our effective Motorized Use Data Project (MUD) was born.

Project MUD trains and sends volunteers into our National Forests to document motorized impacts such as unauthorized roads, severe rutting, dispersed camping damage, and intrusions into wilderness areas. Volunteers take digital photos and GPS (Global Positioning System) waypoints, and BRWC compiles the information and posts it on our Web site.

Project MUD's long-term goal is to protect and improve critical habitat in the WCNF, a key component of the western United States' biological "wildlife linkage" system. The WCNF is an 18-mile-wide "critical choke point" that offers the ONLY major link for species migration between the northern and southern Rockies—more specifically, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Utah's High Uintas Wilderness Area and the state of Colorado.

After analyzing data from their Motorized Use Data Project (Project MUD), the Bear River Watershed Council (BRWC) has found that approximately 25% of the routes in the Logan Ranger District are unauthorized.

The district has 321.43 miles of authorized roads. Project MUD volunteers have walked approximately 100 miles of these routes and discovered about 30 miles of unauthorized routes. Extrapolating for the entire district, Project MUD's figures indicate a troubling 100 miles of unauthorized routes.

We want to emphasize the fact that 25% is a conservative estimate. The reason is that many unauthorized spurs were not fully documented but Project MUD designated them for further investigation.

Three Ways To Volunteer.

The simplest is to identify areas of concern involving Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) use in the Bear River Mountains. Download our Area of Concern easy form, fill out the information, and our MUD coordinator will dispatch a trained data collector to the site.

Third is to become a trained data collector. BRWC train you in field techniques then issue you a field packet consisting of FS travel plan, clipboard, pencil, monitoring forms and instructions.

If you have any information concerning motorized impacts, please contact the Bear River Watershed Council (brwc@xmission.com) and type MUD in the subject line.

To report illegal activity in the forest: Download Report Form for Illegal Forest Service Activity