Special Closure for the Highway 260 & Salt Mine Road Corridor

cyndi · Dec 13, 2018

First seen on freecampsites.net FB page

City of Cottonwood, Arizona
37 mins · https://www.facebook.com/CityOfCottonwoodAZ/posts/2009728612397366#
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: (928) 443-8130
Web: https://www.fs.usda.gov/prescott/
Special Closure for the Highway 260 & Salt Mine Road Corridor
PRESCOTT, AZ (December 13, 2018) – As cooler weather approaches Arizona, visitors begin to flock to the Verde Valley to enjoy their favorite outdoor activities. Many of these visitors enjoy dispersed camping in the Verde Valley on forest lands. Over the past few years, dispersed camping in these areas has become a major safety concern due to high use, overstay violations, abandoned property, trash, and illegal activities. In the last 10 years multiple strategies have been used from providing volunteer hosts, improving signing to ensure understanding of Forest Camping Policies and Regulations, to intensive monitoring and compliance in an attempt to keep the areas open. These strategies have been ineffective as overstay violation, trash dumping, abandoned property, resource degradation and human waste issues continue to occur creating an unsafe environment for other forest users and continued resource degradation.
In order to address the issue of overcrowding and overuse in these areas on the Verde Ranger District, Forest Officials are issuing a 2-year temporary closure which will start January 7, 2019. During this closure period camping will be prohibited within the restricted areas adjacent to Highway 260 from Cottonwood to Camp Verde and Salt Mine Road in Camp Verde from the intersection with Highway 260 to Beasley Flats Day Use Area.
Over the next two years the district will be analyzing current dispersed camping corridors, areas of overuse and look at the long term management of these areas. This process will provide opportunity for public involvement and input.
The closure order and map can be viewed online at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/prescott/notices/….
For more information please contact Todd Willard, Verde District Ranger at (928) 567-4121.
The public can obtain additional Prescott NF information via the following:
• Prescott NF Forest Website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/prescott/
• Twitter: @PrescottNF
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF/
• Verde Ranger District (928) 567-4121
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

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https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/prescott/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD605765

bonvanroulez · Dec 13, 2018

That sounds like the Thousand Trails area, Camino Real across the road, Cherry Creek Road and a few other Forest roads. I chatted with an LEO ranger in 2017 that talked about the possibility of a closure. They had already put up signs restricting some areas but people were taking down the signs and ignoring the restrictions. Those areas had a terrible trash problem. The ranger said Thousand Trails was being way over-used; I saw people packed in there, camped on top of each other. He said the impact of the big groups in that small area was having too much impact.

With people looking for other areas to camp, the closure is going to increase the impact on the 89A corridor and roads like FR525, which are already way over-used. I've seen groups of dozens of campers packed into small clearings and trailhead parking sites. Seen people using drainage cuts for campsites. Crazy competition for dispersed camp sites. I wouldn't be surprised by more future closures in those areas.

C-Cat · Dec 20, 2018

That seems like a very heavy handed approach and though I understand that there was a problem with trash (we often cleared out other peoples trash there) and local homeless people, I wonder if ulterior motives are at play (someone mentioned new for-profit RV parks appearing in the area) and I wonder how other businesses benefiting from us avid boondockers are looking at this change. I bet the Walmart in Cottonwood will definitely see less business because of this move...

drysailor · Dec 22, 2018

City of Cottonwood, Arizona
37 mins · https://www.facebook.com/CityOfCottonwoodAZ/posts/2009728612397366#
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: (928) 443-8130
Web: https://www.fs.usda.gov/prescott/
Special Closure for the Highway 260 & Salt Mine Road Corridor
PRESCOTT, AZ (December 13, 2018) – As cooler weather approaches Arizona, visitors begin to flock to the Verde Valley to enjoy their favorite outdoor activities. Many of these visitors enjoy dispersed camping in the Verde Valley on forest lands. Over the past few years, dispersed camping in these areas has become a major safety concern due to high use, overstay violations, abandoned property, trash, and illegal activities. In the last 10 years multiple strategies have been used from providing volunteer hosts, improving signing to ensure understanding of Forest Camping Policies and Regulations, to intensive monitoring and compliance in an attempt to keep the areas open. These strategies have been ineffective as overstay violation, trash dumping, abandoned property, resource degradation and human waste issues continue to occur creating an unsafe environment for other forest users and continued resource degradation.
In order to address the issue of overcrowding and overuse in these areas on the Verde Ranger District, Forest Officials are issuing a 2-year temporary closure which will start January 7, 2019. During this closure period camping will be prohibited within the restricted areas adjacent to Highway 260 from Cottonwood to Camp Verde and Salt Mine Road in Camp Verde from the intersection with Highway 260 to Beasley Flats Day Use Area.
Over the next two years the district will be analyzing current dispersed camping corridors, areas of overuse and look at the long term management of these areas. This process will provide opportunity for public involvement and input.
The closure order and map can be viewed online at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/prescott/notices/….
For more information please contact Todd Willard, Verde District Ranger at (928) 567-4121.
The public can obtain additional Prescott NF information via the following:
• Prescott NF Forest Website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/prescott/
• Twitter: @PrescottNF
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF/
• Verde Ranger District (928) 567-4121
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.