Not the press we need...
 

Hope this isn't a repost, my mom just sent me this.... :pissed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/us...a1&oref=slogin

Yeah,it's a repost.

i agree, it looks really bad for us. all i can think is they will either do regular patrols out there (cops or rangers) and either suspend your licence or fine you. because you can't stop everyone from entering an area and obeying Tread Lightly rules

It almost sickens me really... I had no idea it was that big of a problem finding people that actually stay on the trail. Some people... Some people...

Yeah its sad. it pisses me off to hear stories about mudding and bogging it gives us a bad name.

Believe half of what you see & none of what you read. If the powers that be would follow that advice there wouldn't be any closures anywhere. Here in Arkansas a paper co. named Green Bay Packaging owns an enormous tract of land just North of where I live & there was a big dust up up by them saying the public (hunters, off roaders, bike riders et al) were destroying the land & trashing up the place.

Now I've been using that area for 15 years & the only trash was from the county road that goes through the middle of it (read: land owners surrounding the tract) & from Green Bay Packagings own loggers & both of those groups were pointing the finger at the people who pay to use the land & the tree huggers were out in force yelling & screaming about how it should all be shut down. What ended up happening was the state game & fish dept. threw gates up across all the roads. Well one of those is a county maintained through road! The people that live around there just drive around the gate on that single road....wanna guess what the company & state are saying now? They hold up that one single spot as proof that the public is destroying the area & are threatening more regulation. The idiots shouldn't have blocked a county road with a gate & forced people to drive 30 miles out of their way & that wouldn't have happened.

My point is; don't be so quick to believe the party line when it's spoon fed to you. The blame will be laid at the feet of whomsoever will take it without a fight; the reason the off road community usually takes it on the chin is because we aren't organized enough nationally & don't have the money to fight the lies with the truth but that's another story.

P.S. Anyone that tells you it takes a hundred or more years for nature to heal after off road use is plain out flat feeding you a line of politically correct B.S.

It is really sad, and my favorite wheeling area owned my BLM is planned to be closed due to the damage "we" have caused. Now there has been major changes in the landscape but they kick the 4wd's out but not the mining company down up stream, and is now letting one go in right above it. So the 4wheelers hurt it so we are going to let the mining company's destroy it. I have help lead the clean ups and go down there regularly and the only people i see that leave alot of trash there is the guys shooting the old cars and tv's with shotguns. I really am going to hate to see my area closed just to be destroyed and it just pisses me off.

I always have a quandary when it comes to the access issues. I do love to go 4wheeling as a way to get remote and find cool places to camp. I think that there needs to be access preserved to areas where there is currently access. I also think that a lot could be done to minimizes the issues that bother people on both sides.
By the way, I think the article was rather well written. The problem is created largely by quiet users response to OHV use. I hope I don't get flamed off this forum, but I have to agree with the premise of the article, and a number of things said in it.
Very few things are as obnoxious to me as camping somewhere beautiful and listening to the silence only to hear the whine of a LOUD two stroke motorcycle or ATV come racing up. Jeeps bother me much less as they are often street driven and as such relatively quiet. Noise is one of the biggest complaints quiet users have. There is a finite amount of land out there and the ability for each person to cover 20-50 miles with the help of an engine effectively makes that area smaller. Think about a pond with 20 canoes all spaced out fishing, plenty of space for everyone, now take away canoes and add jetskis, all of a sudden it is crowded.
But what if motorcyles and ATVs had quiet mufflers on them? Then quiet users would be less likely to hear them, effectively making for a larger quiet area.


The issue of staying on trail is also a BIG BIG deal. Perhaps in Arkansas the land heals quickly, but damage done to a place like Factory Butte as cited in the article stays around for a long time. This is because it creates a rut, which then in a heavy rainstorm gets bigger. It doesn't get covered back up with grass or foliage, because there is none. The damage stays around for a long time, and I for one do not want to go camp where the hillside has been torn up.
People who rip up the desert off of designated trails need to be prosecuted.
I will agree that most OHV users, including myself, are responsible and respect trails and others.
It is unfortunate though that a small minority are capable of doing so much damage because they choose to not respect the land, after all, it belongs to everybody.
Overall I thought the article was relatively fair except for the Little Sahara bit, and raised good points. As more and more people keep heading out, it is important to maintain natural areas as well as areas for people to ride.
I will say that I have a big problem with groups funded by manufacturers of offroad vehicles trying to influence public land policy. They do not have the best interest of the land at heart, they simply see $$$$$$$.
Anyway, bump for an interesting thread.

Soon the only places we will have to wheel are mall parking lots and HOA property :saw: