There is no such thing as responsible OHV use...

[Seth]

Your daily dose if jacka**. Post a comment on the tribs board.

http://166.70.44.77/comments/read_comments.asp?ref=8056480

OHV riders
Public Forum Letter
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2008 03:21:25 PM MST

In response to Steve Larkin's letter about off-highway-vehicle abuse ("OHV solution," Forum, Jan. 21), as one who spends considerable time hiking and backpacking the mountains and deserts of Utah, I have yet to run across this "responsible OHV person" I keep hearing about.
I have encountered nothing but irresponsible, drunken, destructive yahoos. I have seen areas laid waste by their childish, nonsensical motorized madness. They cut down live trees for gigantic bonfires and leave their beer and oil cans on the ground.
There is no such thing as responsible OHV use. It is the nature of the sport to create new trails, to punch open new territory. Every time I go out into public lands I see a new trail branching off an existing trail.
With 22.9 million acres of public land and most of it accessible to OHV use, they still whine about not having enough space to continue their destructive practices.

Daniel Fjeld
Taylorsville

 

[SAMI]

I find it interesting how dogmatic environmentalists are. I can enjoy a hike, a bike ride, riding my dirt bike, and ATV. I even throw my leg over a horse on occasion... I ride responsibly and courteously.
I've got an idea, since we are held to the standards of the 2% that ride irresponsibly, why don't we pidgeon hole all the environmentalists into groups like the ELF? You know, the idiots that burn down lumberyards full of boards cut from farm grown trees (a renewable resource by the way). I can make statements like ALL environmentalists spike trees and KILL people over land management. I can boldly state that people are a blight on the land and don't deserve to live.
Then I can take my three dogs on a nice long walk...

All the while, my dogs are chasing every deer, squirrel, duck, or living thing my 2mph speed keeps in range. That's natural, though...

 

[SAMI]

OK... for the muscle powered who insist of damaging the environment... here is the comments that I have written to the BLM.

I am adding to my comment letter on both the BLM rmp's (Moab and Richfield) that there should be much more control on the sport of rock climbing. These guys are disturbing raptor nests, during the critical nesting season. The sport should be closed from February to the end of June. Rock climbers deface the areas they climb in by drilling holes in the rock and pounding anchors in crevasses for anchor points. This drilling and chipping of the rock surface will last for centuries. Rock climbers should be limited to "free climbing" only. Possession of any bolts, drills or hammers while on public lands would not be allowed and should be issued a citation based on prima facie evidence of use. Rock climbing accidents drain huge amounts from search and rescue budgets each year. Climbers should be required to take a climbers safety course and receive a certificate of competency before climbing, similar to the hunter education and ATV education courses. Climbers should also be required to purchase an annual permit to climb with proceeds from the permit going to search and rescue organizations in a manner similar to the system used with ATV license and hunting license. Fines and penalties should be increased for climbers who violate regulations. Especially in cases of climbing closed areas, such as the Delicate Arch instance last year. An impact tax of 10% should be imposed on all rock climbing gear and equipment to be held in reserve for restoration of drill holes, chipped rocks and a reward system for those who turn in climbing violations, again similar in fashion to the poaching reward system.

 

[Cody]

I'm a little long winded sometimes

 

[SAMI]

sweet, i'm up to +4

great comments Cody

 

[Seth]

Cody you need to be writing this stuff for the magazine. Good stuff.

You know, I attended (as a spectator) a mountain biking event a few years back in the Moab area and I have to say, I was very disappointed with all the pot-smoking soap dodging hippies that left trash around the area after it was all done. It’s sad that these people demonstrate the same disregard for the environment as they do for their own personal hygiene.

Those are fair generalizations right?

I hate generalizations by extremists because they are so myopic and often times completely intolerant and ignorant. I just don't understand where all of this hate comes from towards other people that have different interests. I sincerely hope they don't actually buy into the blather that they are force fed from different "environmental" organizations (which are generally just a font for private interest and personal capital gain—a little due diligence can show the interested party what I mean) because it doesn't take more than an open eye and a little common sense to see right through it.

It's sickening really and sad that people who claim to have so much respect for the earth and it's creatures have so little respect for other people. How is that justified? For every one day that most people spend hiking our back country, I probably spend five out hiking, biking, on a river, or exploring trails in my jeep. Realistically, if 95% of motorized land users were bringing 6 packs and throwing trash everywhere, don’t you think it would be piled up higher than you can see—even with the prevalent short sightedness inherent to most wilderness activists. Just up AF canyon or in Moab, there are literally 100’s of people that use those trails a day, and if 95% of them are leaving beer cans, oil cans, and getting “green points” (which I must say is probably the most ridiculous statement I have heard from an “environmentalist” since I was told in a BLM scoping meeting by a SUWA rep that I was disrupting the Earth’s heartbeat and deafening native lizards) don’t you think there would be a lot more evidence? We all know that hikers aren’t up Mineral Basin picking up dumpsters full of trash—so where does it all go?

Sure, ATV/OHV’s have the ability to do more damage if not used responsibly, and unfortunately that uneducated and disrespectful element still exists. But they aren’t going away no matter how much you complain about it, so it’s on all of us to share the trails and help inform the uninformed. Shoehorning everyone into 30% less trails is only going to make the problem worse. It’s like prohibition and abstinence and many other things—people will still do it no matter how much you want to legislate against it, so we might as well teach people to be responsible while they do it.

 

[Cody]

Haha, I don't think the magazine is ready for me I'd probably piss off half of the readers with my pro buggy anti finger pointing mentality.

 

[Kiel]

Haha, I don't think the magazine is ready for me I'd probably piss off half of the readers with my pro buggy anti finger pointing mentality.

No way, we need more pro buggy guys

 

[Cody]

I'm blastin bitches now. I need a bigger audience to feed my ego.

 

[Seth]

Cody uses big words. And correctly I might add.

 

[SAMI]

Cody uses big words. And correctly I might add.

I feel smaller and smaller everytime i read the opprobriously voluminous words that are fabricated by his very fingertips. I am in awe.

-Jason

 

[Seth]

don't you mean diminutive and infinitesimal?

 

[SAMI]

infinitesimal?

i had infinitesimal on the outer reaches of the fleshy muscular organ that resides in my mouth. But the tip of my tongue isn't allied as well as it could be to my brain