a couple of nights ago i was watching c-span 2 and i caught the open forum for the states of Wa and Or on the roadles legislation being looked at by the forest service. it was a public forum with each person given about 5 minutes to speak. about 40-50 people commented. it was more like a gang of hikers. i never seen so many women who looked like they never wore makup a day in their lives... they all had on green t-shirts and ball caps,and from the first name atta-boys, you could tell they were all together.
what was their message???? basically they want everything shut down completely, no roads, no logging, no atv's, no vehicles with engines, nothing.....except their hiking boots. one comment was, "when i walk in the wood i do not want to hear anything." i kept waiting for the voice of reason, any one person to come up and say, look, access should be for everyone, not just a small precentage of hikers who want to be alone.
it would appear this small group is sending a strong message to the forest service. if we do not speak up or get involved our public lands are going to be off limits to the public unless they want to walk in. it is so unfair in the way they continually gave a negative spin on atv's. over and over again it was stated, "they destroy the environment." is this fair? so do walking trails, horses, mountain bikes, and anything else that touches the soil. these folks have an agenda and it is simple, no access to public lands unless you do it with their sanctions. sorry for the long post, but we need to speak up or we are not going to have anywhere to ride......

 

Well said, Rancher! I too watched C-Span hearings; chilling!

Don't get me started. Basically, Clinton-Gore, and its green-colored enabler/accomplices, want to convert the USDA Forest Service into something of a hooligan Department of the Interior; that is, instead of stewardship and public use of public lands, the traditional role of the Forest Service, the Clinton administration would convert forest rangers into museum curators.

The absolute preservationism ("Cutting a tree is murder!", never mind the fact that trees actually are renewable resources) sentiment is indulged in the hope Clinton leaves a reputation as "The Environmentalist President," instead of, well, you finish the sentence.

Al Gore vows, "Mo', betta!" in this regard; watch out!

As a minimum, click on the hyperlink in the related "Other ATV Topics," "Where To Ride," and "Land . . ." topics (e.g., "Shovel Brigade"); express your opposition to your government denying you access to your lands, aka "Roadless Initiative." (Anyone ever read, "Animal Farm?")

Tree Farmer

 

Daily, there are groups / invividuals complaining about something that is not going there way. What happens afterwards? Spineless vote grabbers agree and the people that are affected the most do nothing because it is such a small issue that does not affect them at that point and time. So these groups / individuals keep chipping away at the huge rock (almost unnoticable), and keep gaining momentum until it finally affects us personally...but by then the snowball is nearing the bottom of the hill with much more force and momentum and is sometimes too late to be stopped. It is definately time for a change in our ways.

 

Sometimes I attend the state of Washingtons DNR meeting. The ATV & other ORV riders are always outnumbered at least 10 to 1. The tree huggers seem to do all off the talking. There are over 500 miles of hiking & horse trails available. They complain about the 40 miles the ATV users have.

Cant we get along, the answer is NO. They wan't us totally out of the woods!

I sold my PWC because there were not many places to ride except the ocean. Atv are being restricted. Snowmobiles are now under attack.

The manufacturers need to spend some off there profits on advertising & purchase some Senators because if we don't have any places to ride, then they are not going to be selling many quads.