The new trail policy is an attempt to create a consistent approach to motorized travel management in all 155 national forests and 21 grasslands. Currently, some forests have trail systems and plans, others don't.

The larger goal is to get a handle on the explosion of all-terrain vehicle use in the forests. Unlimited ATV travel has created more trails than the Forest Service can manage. In Utah alone, there are at least 130,000 registered ATVs, and folks from out of state also visit to ride their machines.

Unrestricted romps through the forest on four-wheelers with big, nubby tires tear up the soil and streams, causing erosion and damage to water quality, fish and other aquatic life. Left un- checked, unlimited cross-country riding harms plants and wildlife in the forest.

Vroom, vroom may be music to some people's ears, but it's annoying to other visitors whose peace and tranquility are disturbed.

The best way to share the forest equitably, and offer good experiences for ATV owners and others, too, is to designate a certain number of motorized trails and then require people on machines to stay on them. That also would give rangers a fighting chance to maintain the trails in conditions that reduce impacts on plants and animals.

Designating a system of trails and roads in each forest would be a good first step. But the Forest Service does not have enough money to maintain trail systems. The answer to that might be charging a fee to ATV riders to use trails. Many forests in the East do that; in Utah, they don't.

However, earlier this year the Utah Legislature increased the registration fee for ATVs to $17, and about $1 million of that revenue will be used to mitigate impacts, for rider education and for grants or matching funds to public-lands agencies to improve and maintain off-highway-vehicle facilities. That's a start.

No amount of enforcement or trail management can keep every renegade ATV rider from doing violence to forest resources, but education might help. ATV riders' groups deplore the vandalism and ecological damage caused by a thoughtless few.

The national forests are public lands for all Americans to enjoy, whether they ride ATVs or backpack or hunt or watch birds or just take short walks from their cars. Plans for a designated trail system for motorized use in each forest could improve management, but only if they are fueled by cold, hard cash.