SOUTH HILLS — Standing in a popular streamside camping area in the South Hills, you might think the hillside dirt road leading to the site had been there for years.

You would be wrong.

Over Memorial Day weekend, visitors in the Sawtooth National Forest carved the road, likely with full-sized pickups. The road emphasizes a variety of problems, including inappropriate recreation, insufficient law enforcement and increased pollution in Rock Creek — a stream that already faces water quality problems downstream.

“It’s not the kind of thing you want to see in a riparian area,” said Scott Nannenga, a district ranger with the Forest Service, as he looked at the road.

On Monday, Nannenga and fellow Forest Service employees led Twin Falls County and Cassia County commissioners and congressional representatives on a tour of problem areas in the forest south of Hansen.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has worked with counties, industry and agriculture to decrease pollution in Rock Creek over the past several years. The Twin Falls Canal Co. and county parks department have cut dramatically the levels of sediment, phosphorus and fecal coliform flowing into the stream. Yet, their efforts are thwarted when recreationists in the South Hills create more pollution upstream.

Sediment levels in Rock Creek have increased in the past two years, said Mike Etcheverry of DEQ. Roads, like the one created in May in the Magpie Basin camping area, are good examples of how that occurs. Increased all-terrain vehicle use and camping near Rock Creek also have caused sediment levels in the stream to rise.

The Forest Service is considering closing some of the undeveloped camping sites in lower Rock Creek and replacing them elsewhere in the forest, Nannenga said.

However, “we’re having a real struggle,” he said. “If we do choose to close this off, how do you enforce it?”

The Forest Service employs only one law enforcement agent, Tom Ramsey, to patrol not only the South Hills but also the Sublett region and south toward the Utah border. That makes it difficult to catch troublemakers in the act.

“Each year, it gets more and more wild in terms of blatant lawlessness,” Ramsey said.

And Twin Falls County Commissioner Tom Mikesell can see the problem growing along with Magic Valley’s population.

“I think a lot of it is that this is a popular area, and there are just not enough recreational opportunities,” he said.

Times-News writer Michelle Dunlop can be reached at 735-3237 or by e-mail at mdunlop@magicvalley.com.