I know this probably belongs in Land Use but...

I have this kind of crazy idea. Maybe we could adopt a set of five or ten rules or something like that for every 4WD truck on the trail, something that we could consider universal for every club and pretty much across the board. I know it might not help with the "violators" out there but what do you think? Call it the "Uinversal 4WD Land Use" rules or something like that. They would be like:

- stay on the trail
- If your vehicle leaks any fluids onto the trail, please clean them up.
- Please discard any trash that you accumulate
- If your trail does not have proper toilet facilities, please pack out human waste

Things like this. Then maybe make them into small stickers, key chains, little laminated cards or something so they are considered "universal." Then, when you see people violating these rules people can be self enforcing. I know that most of this is common sense but it occurred to me that there is no "set standard of rules." For example many years ago I was on a trail and my shifter got stuck in gear and I had to rip off the trans cover and drain just a "blurp" of gear oil to get this spring out and put it back in place. When I was done because I had held up the group, I made a little puddle (maybe 6" wide) but other guys cleaned it up after me and I felt (and looked) like an ass because I didn't cross my mind. Anyway, thoughts?

Andre
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
I wonder if Tread Lightly! has any such rules..? Actually, that is a really good idea....we (U4WDA) aught to look into getting some keychains made for our members.

EZ
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
I have always like this idea. I mentioned something like it quite a few months ago but it didn't seem to draw much interest.
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Dre, How about you make this another U4WDA sponsored project... we would love to do something like this, but need someone like you to head it up!
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
- Please discard any trash that you accumulate

that needs to be re-worded, overall the idea is a good one though...I just dont see how you would get them enforced as universal rules??? To me those are all common sense :confused: and we should be self governing anyways???
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
What do you call these things...anagrams?

D ispose of trash
U aren't alone
T rail only
Y ou are responsible

U nited
4 -wheelers
W ork,
D ispose, and eliminate
A ssholes!

okay, my creativity is deteriorating rapidly.

T rash out
R respect nature
A ct like an adult, or act responsibly
I nsure and register your rig
L eave it as you find it or leave no trace
S tay on the trail

Hey that one was better!

EZ
 

Rick B

S.E. Utah Native
Location
Moab
While I agree it's generally a good idea to try to get people to recreate responsibly, I believe that Tread Lightly already has the basics covered. I used to have a business card sized list of the Trade Lightly creedo, which is basically what this thread is about. Better to put more effort into an existing campaign than to start a completely new one, IMO.

Personally I like the stuff I use in my sig line, which I swiped from the Sand Flats Recreation Area pamphlet. If everyone did those 3 things the situation would imporve drastically.
 
Last edited:

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
Rick B said:
While I agree it's generally a good idea to try to get people to recreate responsibly, I believe that Tread Lightly already has the basics covered. I used to have a business card sized list of the Trade Lightly creedo, which is basically what this thread is about. Better to put more effort into an existing campaign than to start a completely new one, IMO.

Personally I like the stuff I use in my sig line, which I swiped from the Sand Flats Recreation Area pamphlet. If everyone did those 3 things the situation would imporve drastically.
Is your wallet card mounted on your vehicle where everyone can see it? Do you talk to every single person on every trail you recreate on? Show them your card? I've never seen your card.
A bunper sticker would be seen by FAR more people than your card and you wouldn't even have to go out of your way to talk to them about it.
 
Cool, nice to see this positive response. There is nothing like this, "tread lightly" sort of works but not in reality. I bet they might help fund an initiave like this though... Anyway, last time I was on rattle snake it was fully of beer cans and was a mess. So you never know I guess...
 

rrefx

Registered User
Could you also maybe work with the Forest service, make signs of these considerate guidlines, and post them at all the trail heads? It just seems to me that those who belong to clubs, and would buy the sticker, already know and live by these principles.

The ones I see messing up the trails are the groups of guys who run up two weekends out of the year to hide and get wasted. Those who regularly use the trails usually respect them. It's the occasional partiers, and once a year 4 wheelers, and true, the irresponsible avid 4 wheelers who don't belong to any organization who are doing all the damage, and need to be educated.
 
Last edited:

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
If we can agree on the list (I still like the "trail" acromyn a few posts back) and could 1) get window/bumper stickers and 2) get permission to post signs from BLM/Forest Service it would be a good idea.

Tread Lightly is a good campaign, but needs to be more specific.
 
If this is something I am involved in it will need to wait until MAy or June at the earliest, but I do think it is a great idea. If anyone else is interested in doing it helping out let me/us know! I think we need to do it in a two step process, 1) figure out what really is important to us rules and ideas-wise, then 2) come up with the acnonyn. The goal is to be effective. If they are BS or don't make much sense then there is no point as far as I'm concerned... But I really like the acnonyms and the concept of that. Nice and simple :)
 
Top