Commissioners to press Forest Service on rescue costs from more motorized use

Teton County commissioners are set to send a comment letter Monday saying the U.S. Forest Service should study how broader motorized access in national forests could drive up local rescue and response costs before changing its travel rules. In the county's draft letter, commissioners say expanded use by utility task vehicles, side-by-sides, and off-route riders could mean more rollovers, breakdowns, stranded users, and backcountry incidents that fall to Teton County Search and Rescue, Teton County Fire/EMS, dispatch, and deputies to handle commissioners comment letter.

The letter asks for that cost analysis to cover call volume, route conditions, radio coverage, response distance, vehicle access, enforcement needs, staffing demands, and fiscal effects on county services. It says those responses can require ambulances, rescue rigs, specialty gear, long operations, and sometimes helicopter support, with county taxpayers carrying part of the bill if the federal government opens more ground to motorized travel commissioners comment letter.