Read most any topic on this forum and you'll find out why ATVs have increasing problems coexisting with general society. Condensed, it comes down to a desire for noise, destructive riding habits and complete disregard for anyone else or private property by a group of riders who feel it's their right to impose their standards(?) on everyone else. As the number of ATVs increases the problems become magnified.
Until that group is weeded out by either legislative enforcement or the hobby itself, areas available to ride will continue to drastically shrink while gaining more and more restrictions.
In viewing the messages about land and trail it becomes obvious that most have the time to read the posts but most do not offer ideas or responses..........Many of the posts end up in an argument between the various types of ATV users or dig up the truisms about the public being disgusted at the abuses of the ATV users......The reality is that the Federal government, through the USFS and often the BLM use this discord as an excuse to close trails, increase wilderness, deny access and come up with programs to justify their continued existance...........The local district ranger even put together a draft document where the USFS referred to themselves as the "landowner"......how bout them apples. Collectively the ATV users better join in the struggle or instead of a scheduled "tee time" for golf we will be signing up for "T time" (trail time) on the only approved, paved, lined, lighted and patroled trail our governmental buddies will have built for us...........Tass
USFS and BLM are legally the landowners as the managing entities for the US government. All interested party lawsuits against those agencies and their policies for whatever purposes list them as such.
Same old story; a percentage of irresponsible ATV riders compounded by expanded ATV use get the public eye through trespassing, destruction and littering. As ATV riders in general are a small percentage of the population a majority of the public demands closure of public lands to all ATV activity and public agencies respond accordingly.
Those who use our public lands with and without motorized assistance see stream spawning beds destroyed, mountain meadows disfigured/subject to erosion problems and level areas used for track purposes looking like a D8 has been employed for housing development. How is the general public supposed to react?
The USFS and the BLM are not the land owners..............legaly they are only the stewards........the land is owned by the public, not the agencies. Language in law-suits does not grant ownership, it only demonstrates lack of knowledge on actual ownership. The public, in general, only reacts to the misinformation and information diseminated by agencies. Because population densities are so much higher on the West side of the state the negative impact on the ground from ATV's may very well be more severe than here on the East side but areas as you describe in your post simply do not exist here. Implying the use of ATV's is responsible for what you describe in your post is suspect. The litter I observe is generally from hunting camps, mushroom pickers, general vehicle travel, or pickups and cars attempting to go where they should not be. Destroyed spawning beds? Not a chance.........Even the USFS does not make this claim. Meadow destruction and ruts and trash? The largest impacts on this side of the state have been from gatherings of the "Rainbow Family" (Prineville and Ukiah) and from folks using the National Forests as battlegrounds for paint ball activities. Please note that the observations I am stating are from my personal experiences. One thing that is for sure, as more and more folks are pushed into less and less area the visual impacts are going to become greater.............Tass
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03/29/2006 09:50 PM
