Motorcycle Trail to Reopen Despite Threat to Toads

The U.S. Forest Service announced Monday that it intends to reopen a motorcycle trail through a remote stream bed, despite biologists’ warnings that the cycles could wipe out the local population of the fragile arroyo toad.

The world’s largest population of the tiny toad, which is a candidate for the federal endangered species list, is found where the popular Snowy Trail crosses Piru Creek in Los Padres National Forest in northeastern Ventura County.

The Forest Service will move the crossing 10 feet downstream, install flat rocks in the stream bed to prevent stirring up silt and build fences to keep cyclists from riding off the trails and destroying sensitive stream habitat.

Officials hope to have the trail reopened by spring. But biologists who oppose the move have promised an appeal, which may delay the opening.

Moving the crossing 10 feet away from the breeding pool will prove no help to the three-inch-long amphibian whose population in the forest now numbers fewer than 1,200, said Sam Sweet, a UC Santa Barbara biologist who is considered an international expert on the toad.

“You’re trading the killing of tadpoles and eggs for the deaths of adult and juvenile toads,” said Sweet, who joined biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in opposing the reopening. The young and adult toads will be crushed when they sit on the flat rock crossing or hide beneath the boulders at the stream’s edge, he said.

But Forest Service officials said money to patrol the area comes from recreational vehicle user fees, so less money would be available to pay for officers if the trail is closed.

The trail, used by up to 7,500 motorcyclists a year, was first closed during the summer of 1990 because of potential fire danger. Last November, the Forest Service decided to keep it closed while it evaluated the vehicles’ effects on wildlife.