Actually.. its placing everyones experience in jeopardy ..from horse groups,moutain bikers,hunters...all stand to lose if we don't stand united,it's making allies of some pretty differce groups..many who couldn't stand each other ,untill they realized that No ONE will be allowed in the woods...except of course the Sierra Club.
Educate oneself and read Between the lines....

 

Well, Slick ***** will be in Boise this Tuesday to take a look at the fire situation here in Idaho. I plan on being at the airport with a sign when he arrives. The sign will say: NO ROADS = NO FORESTS.
Maybe even: NEED FIREFIGHTERS, ASK THE SIERRA CLUB .

 

Yes ...when millions of trees blew down in the Boundary Water Canoe Area in northern Minnesota last year ....all the so called environmentalist wanted cleanup...Loggers wanted to go in and get the job done right..the Sierra club blocked it..saying no profit should be made...the forest service has been able to open a few routes , but many (millions) of trees still are on the ground.This is setting the table for a Huge firestorm when this downed wood dries and burns!
All because of the elitist special interest groups who won't allow roads or loggers to do their job.
I doubt the Sierra Club will chip in and help..they'll be busy trying to fix the blame on who started the fire!!

 

Quads are now outselling snowmobiles, personnal watercraft, & motorcycles. With the exception of the PWC, we quad riders are the least organized of the bunch. Up in the North West there are three times as many snowmobile clubs & twice as many motorcycle clubs as ATV.

How do we get more quad riders involved? A good question! There is not any "new" land available to build or maintain existing trails in the state or federal forrests that is not already spoken for.

The place we ride, maintained by a motorcycle club, doesn't mind quads however many of their trails are only wide enough for a bike & they will not widen the trails to accommodate quads. After showing interest in joining, I received a "cold" shoulder from them. The bottom line is they "can't" refuse to let us ride since its state land. They basically told me to find my own place to ride and they have been maintaining these trails for over 20 years.

 

This might draw some criticism, but I have to say that I can see the issue from both sides. While I don't hink many will disagree than the enviromentalists have become more of enviro-*****. The current (and alarming) trends in our society seem to call for a knee-jerk reaction whenever something is determined to be bad. This is just a perfect example; 4-wheelers emit pollutants and can cause minor damage to the environment... Well, we gotta ban them.

Do you see those enviro-freaks banning jetliners, r the space shuttle? Do they have any idea how much pollution commercial aircrafts put into the atmosphere? Jet fuel is just another diesel derivative, and like diesel it isn't very clean burning. What about the shuttle? I heard that a single shuttle launch emits several hundred TONS of CO2 in to the atmosphere.. But it's easier for them to force the automakers to make our cars to clean burning. Cars have gotten so high-tech nowdays, that even minor repairs are costly.

Getting back to the topic at hand, I can also see where they are coming from to a point. I live in New York State, and do my riding in the Tug Hill Plateau. There are no maintained trails in my area, the only trails on state land are the ones that we make. Unfortunately everyone seems willing to create them, nobody wants to maintain them. If a tree comes down, then someone blazes a new trail, if a low-spot becomes impassable, they go around. I can see how this process can cause more harm to the land than necessary.. Some trails I have been on have many detours-within-detours.

This problem may be limited to my area of riding. I try to do my part, I often will travel with a small folding shovel and small tree saw. I prefer to keep the existing trails passable instead of forging new ones to get around obstacles. Perhaps more of us need to start putting some additional effort in to save the sport before the enviro-***** ban it altogether.

 

Y2K,

I help to maintain trails even though another ORV group is responsible for the riding area. I have cut fallen trees or removed other obstacles from the trails in order to help keep everyone on the path.

People should try & stay on the trails. The state rangers do not look favorily upon people "blazing" a new trails in our area. In fact when this is brought up at meetings & give the eco-extremists more ammunition to close down our riding places.

Here is an example of "their" logic. At a meeting I heard "the ORV riders are dumping & destroying the area." When I asked what was being dumped? The response was "your people left a refrigerator & old beat up air conditioner near the staging area!"

All I could do was laugh at their insane logic, how many ORV riders carry "garbage" to the local riding place to spoil it?

 

The 1 race riding area that was ruined by insidious lies and snipe jokes was the blackwater 100,I remember being a young teen an seeing that race for the 1st time in dirtwheels and I oohed and ahhed that someday i would ride/race there,now it will never happen and my spirits are sunk in that blackwater crossing forever.I would love to get into forestry/ranger cause i love the outdoors but i will not be pushed around as a middle man(read BLM) these people are controlled by the feds enviros and offroaders and they always listen to the 2 other groups ,Id love to patrol the woods on my kdx 220 make 60 grand ayear do what i love being outdoors and around people, abit sane 1s that dont bite your head off yup siiggh that would be the perfect world indeed

 

I'd be laughing too,except for the tears ...
We have the same problem here also...canoest drop off bags of garbage...we ride by and...quess who gets blamed?
We even have a cabin owner who hates Atvs and dumps his garbage near our trails..then calls the local town cop...and the county sheriff...both who belong to our club!! (DUMB) we'll catch him on film one of these days!!

 

Snowshark, what group do you belong to? I have raced with the MT Scott bike club and they were very helpful and nice in the Portland area.
Another example of a horse group give in us the cold shoulder was when I was testing a sprint PCS phone (it didn't work) up above our home. There is a multi use trail in the national forest and when I said the eco freaks are closing it to everyone they said that they would always have access. I mentioned hunting it from my ATV and they said that ATVs were not allowed up there and didn't seem the slightest bit concerned at the closure.

 

has anyone know of any trails in eastern Kentucky for atvs. please advise or e-mail at lew-wr@webtv.net
thanks