JACKSON - For the first time ever, two full-time law enforcement officers are patrolling the south end of the Shoshone National Forest.

The officers are looking to stem the problem of all-terrain vehicle users creating new trails and riding in closed areas, Wapiti District Ranger Dave Myers said.

"The amount of use and owners of ATVs, and those people wanting to recreate on the Shoshone, has just escalated," he said Monday. "It's not a new discovery. It's just a building problem over the last 15 years as the ATV use has just escalated."

The two patrollers will hand out tickets for as much as $100 to people using motorized vehicles in wilderness areas, off-road, or on closed roads. Mandatory court appearances are also possible, and violators may be required to pay for resource damage.

Myers said new trails are being created on the forest in "fingers" off open roads, in areas specifically closed to protect natural resources.

For example, he said a designated motorized trail ends at a lake in the Beartooth area, but ATV users have kept going and made trails around the lake. And, motorized recreation ends at wilderness areas, but in parts of the Washakie Wilderness, users have continued on the road into the wilderness.

But Darren Bailey, an ATV user from Fremont County for 38 years, said the problem stems from a lack of adequate trails.

"The Forest Service and greenies have it cut down where there's not a lot of places to ride," Bailey said. "It's been better. When there are no trails to ride on, people are going to go wherever they want to go."

For example, forest officials have closed off some creek crossings to ATV use, Bailey said, because the kick-up of mud creates ruts and might harm fish. But elk do the same thing, he said.

"Take this (state surplus) money and instead of closing the road off … build a bridge," he said. Without a bridge, illegal use will continue and even more land will be torn up, Bailey added.

Myers said there is still "good access" on the forest for ATVs.

Areas closed to ATV use might be horse trails, or where the trail might not be wide enough, Myers said.

He said people have been taking signs down or driving around "closed area" signs.

"This isn't really unique to the Shoshone," Myers said. "Most national forests I've been on are having problems with it."

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has identified unauthorized ATV use as one of the four biggest threats to the future of national forests.

Bailey said people taking signs down has been "going on a long time," and isn't exclusive to ATV users.

"Locking (lands) away as wilderness is worthless in my book," he said. "We're talking about grown men. … You close down places where these people have been going, they're going to cut the locks. They're going to go around it. You're really not going to lock them out."

Myers said other forest users want to know what areas are open to ATV users.

The problems are occurring from the northern end of the forest in the Absaroka-Beartooth and North Absaroka wilderness areas to the Washakie Wilderness and Dunoir special management areas, to the Fitzpatrick and Popo Agie wilderness areas in the south end.

Four-wheel-drive vehicles are also illegally trespassing on some forest trails, according to forest officials.

Both Myers and Bailey agreed most ATV users are not riding illegally, but if just a few riders begin a trail illegally, more people will follow unknowingly, creating an illegal road.

"Even those that do it knowingly may not think it's that bad," Myers said, "but they don't see the cumulative effects of the multitude of trails."

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.