Cal4Wheel Continues the Fight to Save Lake Pillsbury

Lake Pillsbury may not immediately come to mind when we talk about threats to OHV access, but what happens to this lake could have a lasting impact on recreation throughout the Mendocino National Forest.

In September, I submitted a second comment letter on behalf of Cal4Wheel to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), opposing the proposed destruction of Scott Dam and elimination of Lake Pillsbury. This was a special extended scoping comment period, giving us another opportunity to build on the comments I originally submitted to FERC on December 19, 2025.

Our position remains clear: Scott Dam should not be destroyed, and Lake Pillsbury should be preserved.

Lake Pillsbury is the largest lake in the Mendocino National Forest, covering 2,280 acres with about 31 miles of shoreline. It is much more than a reservoir. It is a recreation hub for camping, four-wheeling, OHV riding, hunting, fishing, boating, hiking and backcountry exploration. For our members, the connection to motorized recreation is especially important.

The Upper Lake Ranger District provides more than 135 miles of designated OHV system trails and roads, including 33 miles of trails in the Lake Pillsbury basin, many of which are four-wheel-drive trails. The M1 corridor north of the lake and its connecting routes provide access for four-wheel-drive touring, dispersed camping, trailheads and travel throughout this part of the forest. Take the lake away, and those trails do not technically disappear overnight. But recreation does not work that way.

Lake Pillsbury is the destination that brings people into this part of the forest. Families camp near the lake and spend several days exploring the surrounding roads and trails. OHV users stage from the area. Four-wheelers combine trail riding with fishing, camping, hunting and sightseeing. Eliminating the lake changes the entire recreation experience and removes the anchor that supports multi-day use of the surrounding trail network.

There is another problem that FERC needs to address: where do all those people go?

Closing a recreation destination does not make recreation demand disappear. Visitors will be pushed toward other campgrounds, trails and dispersed recreation areas in the Mendocino National Forest, Lake Mendocino, the Russian River and elsewhere. For OHV recreation, this problem is amplified because we cannot simply move onto another piece of public land. Motorized use is restricted to designated roads, trails and areas. Concentrating more visitors onto an already finite trail system can mean additional crowding, maintenance demands, user conflicts and pressure for future restrictions.

Our September comments therefore asked FERC to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement and look beyond the physical act of tearing down Scott Dam. We asked the agency to analyze the real impacts to recreation and OHV access, developed and dispersed camping, surrounding roads and trails, local businesses, agriculture and water supply, wildlife habitat, sediment and water quality, and wildfire response. We also called for a serious analysis of the No Action Alternative and other options that could preserve the lake, including transfer to another operator, rehabilitation, seismic improvements and modified operations.

Wildfire is another major concern. Lake Pillsbury provides a large, immediately available water source in remote, heavily forested country where minutes matter during initial attack. Eliminating that resource deserves far more scrutiny than simply assuming another water source will be available when firefighters need it.

This is ultimately about protecting an entire public-land recreation landscape, not simply saving a body of water.

Cal4Wheel has been advocating for OHV recreation on public lands since 1959. Sometimes protecting a trail means fighting a closure directly. Other times it means recognizing a threat several steps before the gate gets locked. Lake Pillsbury is one of those fights.

We will continue advocating for FERC to fully account for what Northern California stands to lose before anyone makes the irreversible decision to destroy Scott Dam and drain Lake Pillsbury.

Read the September 2026 Cal4Wheel letter to FERC

Read the December 2025 Cal4Wheel letter to FERC