Um, where have you all been? There are upwards of 30-50 cars dumped on the forest every year. Many of them are dumped on the desert side. Littlerock area is a favorite. What is really great is about every 3-5 years, there is a bonus of a dead body in it. These are stolen, stripped, and often torched. Many a fire response comes to a vehicle that has been treated this way. There are currently upwards of about 10-15 vehicles that are on the Santa Clara/Mojave River district alone that are so remote, they can't be towed away by a tow truck. And who can pay for this? There is no money allocated to the agency for picking up this kind of dumping trash. Does the agency lock everyone out? Do they put gates on all the roads and only the "special" people get to drive the roads. After all, this is public land. There is no legal means by which the District Ranger or the Forest Supervisor could keep the road closed down to Lupine anymore. That was supposed to be a 5 year closure based on the Narrows Fire. It was in place for almost 8 years.
A NEPA process will have to be done in order for an additional gate to be put in. Who does the work? There are already 27 pages of priority one projects on the forest. Who pays for the gate? They cost over $9,000 just to purchase one. (Oh, and by the way, as of December 31, 2005 there are NO contracting officers for the 4 southern california forests--so who would process the purchase order?) and even if the money was there for the purchase of the gate, then you have to pay for the installation--dozer time, personnel time, etc. There is no money allocated for this. The budget is 25% less what it was last year and nationwide, fire is already severly in the hole. Guess who makes up the difference? Deficit spending is not allowed so any surplus from other functions (like wildlife that would pay for this gate) is sucked up to pay for the fire deficit.
It is easy to sit back and point the finger and say "this is wrong, and that's wrong." It is a h*ll of a lot harder to be sitting in the trenches trying to figure out how to do more with less until you are expected to do everything with nothing.
