Deep, muddy ruts carved by trucks driven off-road at Wanoga Sno-park tore up a groomed snowfield and forced the cancellation of a popular vintage snowmobile race scheduled for Saturday.

The damage covers about the length of a football field and is found where snowmobiles and certain kinds of four-wheelers are allowed, but vehicles such as trucks and SUVs are not. The Moon Country Snowbusters, a local snowmobile nonprofit, had been grooming the 6-inch-deep snowfield in preparation for its now-canceled Vintage Snowmobile Oval Race.

“If (the off-roaders) did it intentionally to mess up the races, that’s sad,” said Moon Country Snowbusters Vice President Bill Inman. “Maybe they were just some people who wanted to have some fun and they had no idea what they were doing. If they had ridden ATVs, they probably would have stayed on top (of the snow) and it wouldn’t have been a problem. But it was a pretty heavy rig, I would guess.”

About 300 people were expected to attend the grooming club’s largest fundraiser, which it canceled Thursday. There is no plan to reschedule the event that was expected to raise more than $4,000 — nearly half of the volunteer-run group’s annual budget, member Mark Young said. The nonprofit club grooms 250 miles of the Deschutes National Forest for snowmobiling and other nonmotorized activities. Grooming chairman Mike Merritt said 16 inches of snow would have to fall before the club can resume grooming the damaged area.

According to federal law, Forest Service roads in the snowmobile trail system — those designated for grooming — are considered trails between Dec. 1 and April 1. That means vehicles such as trucks and SUVs are prohibited, said Marvin Lang, recreation forester for the Deschutes National Forest. Snowmobiles and Class 1 ATVs are the only motorized vehicles allowed on the trails, unless the trails have been designated for nonmotorized activities, such as nordic skiing, sledding, or snowshoeing, for example. Vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs are always prohibited off-road in the Wanoga Sno-park Play Area.

“(Street-legal vehicles) are off-limits everywhere except the roads and routes listed on the Motor Vehicle Use Maps,” Lang said. “There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what is legal, especially in the winter. Vehicles have to stay on those (approved) routes all the time. They can’t go off-road.”

In a Jan. 30 Facebook post, Moon Country Snowbuster member Austin Alvarez, 24, lamented the damage and the canceled race. In the comments, Bend resident and off-road enthusiast Brenden Newberg, 18, claimed responsibility for the vandalism: “It was me and a couple buddies, there weren’t any signs saying that we couldn’t go in there, and it’s a play area.”

Reached by The Bulletin for comment, Newberg said he was a passenger in a friend’s Dodge Dakota for the joy ride through the sno-park. Some of Newberg’s cousins were also there, he said.

Newberg said they didn’t know off-roading at Wanoga Sno-park was illegal. He said they assumed it was legal for them because they had an off-highway vehicle permit.

Street-legal vehicles do not require an off-highway vehicle permit because they’re licensed by their plates, Lang said. Off-highway vehicle permits are Oregon permits for operating other types of vehicles, such as quads and dirt bikes, on public land. Such vehicles are still not permitted to travel off-road on national forestland, Lang said.

“There weren’t any signs saying we couldn’t go out into the field or anything,” Newberg said.

Three prominent Forest Service signs are positioned where Newberg said they entered the play area. Two signs are affixed to tree trunks, the third to a stand-alone pole. Soupy tire gouges cut within 2 feet of each sign. They state that the trail is closed to all motorized vehicles except four-wheelers and snowmobiles. The permitted vehicles are featured in pictograms.

Informed of this, Newberg said: “Oh, really? That’s interesting. We’ll have to go look at that. … We didn’t see the signs at all, even with our lights on and everything. I don’t know where they are or anything.”

Even if future snow covers the ruts, catching a snowmobile ski on one of them can flip the vehicle, Lang and several snowmobilers said.

The Forest Service is not investigating the incident, said Kassidy Kern, the agency’s public affairs specialist. Offenses such as off-roading can carry a maximum punishment of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine, Lang said.

The state, which shares sno-park jurisdiction with the Forest Service, can write citations for operating a class 2 vehicle in a prohibited snow area.

“It’s illegal for (off-roaders) to be there,” Lang said. “The idea is when people do this kind of thing, they’re affecting a whole lot of other people. It’s a self-pleasure thing for them, but by doing that, they’re doing some resource damage potentially, but they’re certainly affecting a lot of other recreation users that would use that area.”

“There are a lot of other places they could go,” he said. “The issue this season is there is just not enough snow to keep people out of those places,” Lang said. “There is not enough snow to preclude a four-wheel-drive rig from being taken for a joy ride.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com