Well Good for Earl!! My guess is ol' recovering cardiac patient Earl is the mild mannered sort who believes in God and country, pays his bills on time, doesn't drive around with his turn signal on for no reason. I'll bet that when Earl is out tooling around the panhandle on his Honda, he sticks to the trail, except (maybe) for the occasion when he politely yields the trail to hikers or horses.
Its funny how advocates(of any issue) always trot out the atypical "poster child" of good bevavior for their cause.
Where's the expose' on the 26 year old itinerant day laborer, all 5'10" 250lbs of him, crashing through the underbrush along some timbered ridge top, 7 miles from the nearest legal trail?
I ask because, Ten, thats the dude most of us in the anti-ATV crowd are pissed off about. I have news for you, if fat-boy is wearing orange with a hunting license in his pocket and a rifle on his back...he's a hunter, not a poacher. He might be nothing but a shitstain with a hunting license and we can play semantics over his law breaking until we get blue-in-the-face, but he's one of us (for demographic and legislative reasons) whether we like it or not.
At some point you need to come to grips with the honest-to-goodness fact that for every law-abiding Earl and Ten Bears responsibly using an ATV for legitimate access, there's 6 or 7 fat-boys out there going places they shouldn't but go anyway because they can, because the machine makes the going easy.
Personally, I think the answer is mandatory registration and plates for machines, licenses for operators and access permits to ride on NF and BLM lands. Also, give F&G officers the authority to confiscate licenses.
TB, its not a slam on you I just think you're off base on this.