But we are disappointed that the plan allows OHV riders to continue to use unauthorized trails that they created by plowing their way into formerly protected and often pristine public forests. Hundreds of miles of renegade roads and trails are gouged through forests each year, damaging meadows, streambeds and other sensitive areas.

That is like reversing long-standing policy and allowing people to throw litter from their cars onto a highway, simply because they've been doing it for years.

Condoning degradation of the environment and at the same time telling OHV users, "It's OK to do it here, but we won't allow it anywhere else," sends a mixed message that some OHV users are likely to interpret as, "If I don't get caught long enough, no one will care what I've done."

The Forest Service seems to be saying the damage done by unauthorized trails is irreparable, that those lands are a lost cause. But, if OHV proponent Rainer Huck is right and "the tracks [caused by off-road vehicles] go away," those trails can be reclaimed. And they should be.

OHV users deserve to be able to ride their machines on designated trails. But they do not deserve to go wherever they want to go no matter the consequences to the environment or to hikers, horseback riders and cyclists.

The majority of OHV users are responsible and understand they have a stake in maintaining wild places as habitat for animals, places of quiet and solitude and as sources of clean water. But an irreponsible minority - those who carve out trails in areas that are off-limits to motorized recreation - can do immeasurable damage.

It will take up to four years for the Forest Service to designate roads and trails for OHV use on all 193 million acres of public forests. Keeping OHVs on marked trails and protecting areas that are off-limits will be a huge challenge in the meantime and after all the forests have been mapped.

But enforcement is key to a workable plan, and it is unlikely the Forest Service will ever have the manpower to police all public forests. OHV users will have to police themselves to protect the beauty of public forests for everyone.