DOUGLAS - Jim Johnson lives in Glenrock, but has a little cabin high up in the Laramie Peak unit of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.

He and his wife consider the cabin "a home away from home," and throughout the summer they spend 10 days or so at a time there, riding four-wheelers along the Twin Peaks trail or dipping a fishing line into several nearby streams.

Johnson is upset with a proposal by the Douglas Ranger District to close many miles of roads, turn some roads into trails and convert some trails into nonmotorized hiking routes. He's worried that the grandkids will run out of places to ride the four-wheelers.

"Open up some of land," he proposed instead. "We pay taxes on it."

Of particular concern is the proposed closure of more than 100 miles of roads that are either user-created or on which the Forest Service has no legal public access. That action is part of all three possible alternatives in the Laramie Peak travel management environmental assessment, out now for public review.

"Get the public access to these roads," Johnson urged. "Once they are off the map, you'll never see them again."

He made those comments and others at a public open house in Douglas Monday evening, where Forest Service officials answered questions about the travel proposals.

Marilee Houtler, travel manager for the Douglas Ranger District, assessed the 20 written comments submitted at a public open house Monday evening in Douglas. She will respond to each one and assemble the range of comments in an appendix to the environmental assessment. Then, District Ranger Bob Sprentall will have the comments to consider as he selects one of the three offered alternatives. A decision is expected in May.

In its preferred alternative, the Forest Service wants to:

* Convert about 33 miles of roads to ATV trails.

* Change about nine miles of motorized trails to allow only nonmotorized use.

* Close four and a half miles of roads to all but administrative use where travel is damaging natural resources.

* Decommission about seven miles of roads where resources are being damaged.

* Close nearly 20 miles of roads seasonally to motorized use.

* Eliminate more than 100 miles of roads illegally created by users.

Several commenters asked for more restrictions on motorized use. Mary Katherman wants the Forest Service to keep nonmotorized trails well away from those allowing ATV or vehicle use. Houtler pointed out that under the proposed plan, Cow Creek Mountain is one large block of federal land where people will have to travel on foot or on horseback and won't be hearing the hum of motors.

Other comments came from people who like to ride four-wheelers with their children and want the Forest Service to ensure that opportunities remain for family-friendly adventures. A couple of commenters said the Forest Service should keep all roads open to all types of vehicles. Houtler noted that the Big Bear Canyon road - which is now open to all vehicles but under the new plan would be available only for four-wheelers and dirt bikes - seems to be of particular concern.

Listening to some of comments in Douglas, Sprentall said he is getting a good feel for how to prioritize which roads the Forest Service should pursue legal public access on. The maps of the three alternatives depict huge webs of roads in brown. Those are among the 100-plus miles of roads that the public is used to driving on, but on which the agency has no legal access. That creates issues on the Laramie Peak district, where intermingled land ownership patterns seem to blotch the landscape and could make getting from point A to B a bit more complicated.

Closing the roads without legal access won't necessarily keep people from accessing pieces of Forest Service land, but may force more round-about routes in getting there.

Although it's not formally part of the travel management plan, the ranger district does have money to pursue legal access on some routes, and officials are counting on people to help them figure out which roads are most important to forest users.

J.R. Riggins of Casper is on the Motorized Recreation Council of Wyoming. He's also an avid off-road dirt biker, hitting the trails "every nice weekend when I don't have something else I have to do," he said.

He's concerned that the proposal doesn't leave enough options for people like him who want daylong loop trips and lots of riding near campgrounds. He'd like to see the plan changed to keep open more user-created trails and to establish more new ATV trails.