Forest Service to Use Plane to Spot Off-Limits Snowmobiles

The U.S. Forest Service is turning to a bear in the air to look for people whose snowmobiles stray into off-limits areas.

Forest officials will use an airplane this winter to make sure the Lake Tahoe Basin’s motor-free zones are just that.

“Unless we actually see them with their snowmobiles in the wilderness, it’s difficult to prove,” said Dennis Cullen, a supervisory law enforcement officer for the El Dorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

The nation’s federal wilderness areas have prohibited motorized use since the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Meiss Country and Freel Peak are designated for primitive use, also making them off limits to motorized vehicles.

Cullen said the closures are there to protect the wilderness experience and provide a place for people to get away to, but snowmobile tracks and public reports indicate that several hundred riders venture into the basin’s wilderness areas each season, despite the legal ruling.

Riding in a closed area is a misdemeanor offense carrying a first-time penalty of $150. Repeat violations are assigned fines up to $5,000 and may include six months in jail.