SPANISH FORK -- The U.S. Forest Service says it will enforce a ban on all-terrain vehicles in certain Diamond Fork Canyon areas, while also proposing to build more trails and a large group campsite.
It's never been legal to ride ATVs off trails in the canyon, but riders persist and have been damaging the environment, said William Ott, a ranger in the Spanish Fork district.As new and longer trails are built, rangers will close off trails that riders have created.
"We are trying to create increased opportunities for motorized users," said Mark Sensibaugh, district recreation specialist.
The Forest Service wants to build three miles of trail connecting Monks Hollow Trail and the Teat Mountain trails and roads within Diamond Fork Canyon, which are open to ATV users.
The service plans to reconstruct two miles of existing trail and also close off half a mile of old road and trail and a stream crossing. The riders who traditionally ride in protected areas will be directed to where they can ride, Sensibaugh said.
"We want to manage (the canyon) with a new series of trailheads and trails," Ott said. One of those trailheads scheduled for improvement has evolved with use where Monks Hollow Trail intersects with Diamond Fork Creek.
The Forest Service also will improve parking farther up the canyon at Three Forks near a natural hot springs, add toilet facilities and build a bridge across Diamond Fork River where motorists have been fording it, he said.
The federal agency is seeking public comment on the trail proposal and the construction of a large group campground in the lower canyon area by Thursday, Feb. 18. The proposed campground is about a half mile from the junction of Highway 89 and Diamond Fork Road.
It would accommodate 475 people at one time, a Forest Service public interaction document says. Encompassing several smaller camping sites for 50 to 100 people, the campground would meet Central Utah Water Project recreation objectives in the federal act that created the water project and Uinta Forest Plan.
The campsite would replace the 350-person Palmyra and Diamond Fork campgrounds higher up in the canyon, which were found to harm the environment during an environmental assessment four years ago, Ott said. Single--family campsites will replace the two group sites and reduce the number of campers in the area. They will open in the summer of 2001, he said.
Those new camping areas on both sides of the Diamond Fork Creek will be called Diamond Campground. A bridge has been built to tie them into one campground. During the recent reconstruction of Diamond Fork Road the Forest Service eliminated several access roads into the camping area. It now has only one way in and one way out, Sensibaugh said.
Federal officials called for the group-camping environmental study four years ago when they were planning to build the Monks Hollow Reservoir in Diamond Fork, Ott said. Federal officials later replaced the planned reservoir with a new tunnel and pipelines to transport Uinta Basin water to the Wasatch Front. Seven miles of pipeline were put in as part of the overall $2.3 billion CUP project that will eventually carry water from Strawberry Reservoir to the Spanish Fork River. Now the water dumps into the Upper Sixth Water drainage area and flows down Diamond Fork Creek.,
For decades the water coming through the older tunnel doubles in the spring and "blows out" the hydrology of the water system, Ott said. New pipelines connected to the new tunnel will correct that havoc.
Meanwhile, Forest Service officials are mulling how the new campground will affect threatened species, including the Ute Ladies--tresses orchid, and how the campground would influence future stream restoration along Diamond Fork.