Fatassed ATVers dont get a break...

[Ithaca 37]

nikster, "My point is the tracks are not healing as quickly as I would have hoped"

You gotta be kidding me! We can still see the wagon tracks on the Oregon Trail and you think all this ATV damage might disappear in a few years?! The tracks left by Custer's last stand wagons are still visible in The Black Hills! You can plan on much of this off road vehicle damage still being visible 300 years from now in the arid West!

Just how soon soon were you hoping the ATV tracks and erosion would be gone, in 50 years? Get Real!

 

[Washington Hunter]

Here is something some of you may find hard to believe...in the 90,000 acre State Forest near where I live, many of the roads are gated, but motorbikes and ATV's are allowed behind the gates. The gates are only meant to keep out large vehicles, with the idea being that somebody on a motorbike or ATV is not going to be dumping garbage, and won't do as much damage (if any) to the roads, like a heavier vehicle could, especially during the wet part of the year. Of course, around here you can't go cross country as is possible in a more arid environment. Too much brush and trees for that!

 

[BuzzH]

cjcj,

Are you serious?

I see evidence of illegal activities by ATVers on many, many, many occassions a year. Actually catching one in the act is pretty difficult for me for a couple reasons:

1. I'm usually not near many roads except while walking in or out of hunting areas in the dark.

2. I cant jog 30 miles per hour to catch them when I do see them.

3. I usually dont cover more than 10-12 miles a day while working or hunting.

Just because I dont actually see every single case of atv abuse and law-breaking doesnt mean it isnt happening all the time.

Yeah, enforcement is a problem and one of the biggest problems is most hunters are complacent about carrying a notepad and pen and dont want to turn anyone in. I not only turn them in, but offer on the spot, to take time off work to testify in court, give a written witness statement, etc. whatever it takes to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

I'll give you a prime example. I talked to a guy last year that witnessed a flagrant ATV violation in my hunting area. Some local schmuck drove an atv (on opening day of MT's rifle season) behind PC gates with HUGE signs stating year-long closures for all motorized vehicles. He said, "Yeah, it really pissed me off, until the guy offered to haul my deer back to the truck for me." What kind of crap is that?

I told him if I would have witnessed that, they both would have been reported and both gotten tickets. I dont think he liked me saying that, but I dont really care...I bet he thinks twice before getting lazy next time.

Another example:

A year or so before that, there were some guys working on an administrative site behind gates in this same area. I saw them drop off a hunter at the site. I wrote their plate number down (private consulting firm) and turned them into the MTFWP and also called their parent company back east. I talked with the violators supervisor (VP of the company), and the guy received both a ticket from the FWP as well as an official repremand from the company he worked for. While I was writing his plate number down the guy said, "I was just trying to be neighborly to hunters"...I said, "Yeah, well you'll be finishing last for being nice WHILE BREAKING THE LAW".

I'm done with BS excuses, no motorized travel means no motorized travel...end of story.

 

[the nikster]

Ithica, That's a good point.
I just sort of figured that since they had only been riding up there a few years the damage would quickly repair itself. I was obviously wrong. I still hope it repairs itself sooner than later.

 

[1_pointer]

One thing to remember, enforcement can't do anything unless the areas been officially 'closed'. For the BLM this is not just making the change in the land use plan and a map, it has to be signed on the ground etc. Much of the BLM is playing catch up on this, due to the growth of ATV recreation growing much faster than the changing of land use plans.

 

[Ten Bears]

Much of the same banter from the same ATVophobic crowd. Good posts HANGAR18 & WH.

BUZZ & MATTy, I know you and your little girlie freind JOSE' are all talk, as I seem to remember a case earlier this spring were some of you boasted about doing some physical harm, but like always you never showed, too bad, your all talk.