Illegal ATV use penalties

[mtmuley]

Thanks for turning those people in mtmuley.

I'm done with any kind of abuse by ATV/UTVs. A tire off the road and I turn them in. mtmuley

 

[Elkmagnet]

Idaho will choose not to prosecute if it's a well connected rancher riding from point to point glassing for sheds

I need to post his spot on the web so everyone blows it up next March.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Most ranchers are immune to prosecution by G&F. I see their hands riding wherever they damn well please...they're looking for/checking on cattle. That's BS too.

 

[RobG]

I got this in an email from a FWP Bio working the issue

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]We are working with USFS, BLM, DNRC, and MFWP enforcement to try and improve this situation. It is going to be a difficult challenge. Success will require public participation at several levels. Part of the challenge is the need to keep closed routes signed. Dillon BLM and DNRC has agreed to return to signing closed routes as closed. Versus signing open routes as open and non-signed routes being closed. Enforcement officers are indicating to us that a ticket will not hold up in court unless there is a sign on the route indicating it is closed to motorized travel. Also, public understanding of this signing approach is poor. Another part of the challenge is public ignorance on travel regulations and the importance of well managed travel. Many folks don’t see any issue with having wide open travel and think the government is simply locking them out of public lands through motorized closures. The resource impacts and associated costs of managing poor travel are measurable – as are game displacement from public lands. Penalties for motorized travel are relatively minor. The Montana state fine is $135. Federal BLM and USFS are $225 and $250 or vice-versa. The federal officers have the ability to issue steeper restitution penalties if significant resource damage can be proven. State officers do not. In many cases, the penalty is less than what folks pay in gas during their trip. We literally have hunting camps in this country that maintain collection jars for paying a fine if they get caught and tell enforcement officers to just take the jar from the tent if they see them. There is little that enforcement can do on USFS lands west of I-15 because there is no travel management plan completed for those lands. As federal agency budgets continue to get cut, this challenge becomes more impossible. [/FONT]

I'm looking into this issue more...
[/FONT]

 

[Nameless Range]

Thanks for sharing that email Rob.

Enforcement officers are indicating to us that a ticket will not hold up in court unless there is a sign on the route indicating it is closed to motorized travel.

Many folks don’t see any issue with having wide open travel and think the government is simply locking them out of public lands through motorized closures.

Penalties for motorized travel are relatively minor. The Montana state fine is $135. Federal BLM and USFS are $225 and $250 or vice-versa

We literally have hunting camps in this country that maintain collection jars for paying a fine if they get caught and tell enforcement officers to just take the jar from the tent if they see them. There is little that enforcement can do on USFS lands west of I-15 because there is no travel management plan completed for those lands. As federal agency budgets continue to get cut, this challenge becomes more impossible.

Kinda makes the blood boil a bit. In my own neighborhood shed hunters on motorcycle go everywhere. They are nearly impossible to catch in the act. A guy on a motorbike can practically use an elk trail to go darn near anywhere.

 

[el unit]

Our ranch is surrounded by National Forest. There are two "no motorized vehicles" signs up the trailhead behind our place that have been torn down and driven over and around by atvs during hunting season. We have notified the USFS and game warden. We're meeting with the USFS today and looks like we will be re-posting signage. Plus, I'm taking it upon myself to police this area better this fall and photograph and turn in violators.
The atv hunters just drive the game farther and farther away.

 

[mtmuley]

And then these same people bitch when closures are enacted. mtmuley