I cant' help wondering why people complain about ATV's doing so much damage to the enviroment..and you never hear anything about the logging companies stripping acers and acers of land and leaving it destroyed..[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

How about road ways and parking lots? How about people that have one home somewhere to live in and build another house out in the woods to visit once a while? Everything effects the environment but atv's are always made the goats.

There are a lot of cabins on the mountains around here. This one family was partly responsible for dividing a mountain up into 70+ small lots. (3, 10, 15, 30 acre lots) They were one of the first families to build a cabin on the mountain. This family has a perfectly fine home to live in elsewhere. They recently came to the conclusion that the mountain was getting too crowded. So they sold their cabin and bought land in another area to build another cabin. So these people are responsible for building 3 buildings and taking habitat away from the animals in 3 locations. I believe that people should tread lightly in many different ways. Not just with atv's.

Logging makes money, building cabins makes tax money, shopping malls make money. It's not about the environment. It's about MONEY. You could have 10 acres being used by 4 kids to drive quads across. They'll close down the land to the children. They'll say it's because they are hurting nature. Few years down the road, a business man wants to build a store on the land. Sure, go ahead. Clear cut the trees and roll the black top. It's about $$$$$$.

 

As long as people are getting rich or making money, no harm can come from it.....right?

At least that's the metality of the harsh reality. This is why I get so nust when I read about someone choosing a certain political party based on the fact they THINK the other will close riding lands. Facts are that we lose far more riding lands each year to commercial and residential over-development than we do political-based environmentally driven closings. And it matters not whom is living at the White House.

ATVs are an easy target. We as a group are apparently not the most environmentally friendly. I think most of it is related to the few who leave a mess behind. Part of the problem is that there are not enough places to legally ride in enough areas around the country. Too many people have to brake the law and tresspass just to get to a trail. It starts the whole negative string running.

I've seen it personally, riders who toss garbage in the woods, or ride over people's flowers just to be jerks. Even if it's one out of very 1000 it's still the one that will get the most attention.

Where I used to ride in Jersey, there was a place where we had to go right between two houses to get to the trails. We would all go real slow, keep the RPMs down as low as possible, and wave in peace when we saw a resident. For years people did this with no problem, a mutual respect existed. Then a few new people started using the path and they started ripping through the trails wide open scaring the people who had small children. It got pretty ugly and soon enough the trail was blocked with two city installed steel gaurd-rails.

Point is, sometimes we can do damage and not even know it. Just because you and your friends are being respectful not everyone is and YOU will take the blame. It's a damaging case of guilt by association. I think as our number continue to grow as they are, the good will out number the bad by even larger numbers and eventually just like everything else people will see it's not the sport, but rather the person who is bad for the environment.

 

Thanks for the response..I have to agree with your thinking.. I never really knew just how fast they are cutting down the trees until I got my ATV ..I have had it for about two years now.. Like most people I never went into the woods much before I got the ATV... Some of the tree cutting machines runs 24 hrs. a day....
I think lumbering companies don't like us traveling back and seeing the damage done ..because if enough people do.. I hope there would be pressure brought on people , if not to stop, but cut back the cutting...or maybe I am just dreaming[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

 

I think pretty much the US Forest Service has put a handle on the clear cutting. I went up to a USFS Fire Lookout tower back in June and you could still see the strips coming up the hills from the clear cutting done in the 60s. Now they go in and either tag which trees are being sold, or the ones that are being kept. They basically thin the forest. Hopefully the forest can be much healthier. Of course the overgrowth around here we've brought on ourselves with the snuffing out of any fire. Now they just let them burn as long as nothing is in harms way. Especially in the higher elevations and "back country." Some of these fires will burn the whole summer and only a hanful of people ever see them.

I never thought much about people building building taking away riding areas. I guess it's because most areas around me are off limits anyways. Unless you head up into the forests, most of the land is private land. But I do see your point, especially up in the Forest. Though up in the Sierra NF most of the cabins have been there for probably 50-plus years. There are newer development areas though. I ride near Bass Lake, CA. That area has seen a lot of people moving into the area from SoCal and the Bay Area. The still commute an hour down "the hill" but it's nothing like the rat races in SoCal and Bay Area. Though pretty much anything higher in elevation (3500') than Bass Lake (at least in that area) is closed. The Forest Service doesn't plow those roads. The County and CalTrans (CA Dept. of Transportation) do the county roads and highway.

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We all do our part or at least we should, coming from a logging community and having family who USE to own thier own logging outfit I think the way it is done now is 5000 times better than how it use to be done. Local logging is all select cut pretty much now and not much goes to waste like it did even 10years ago. I can't say how they do it in nova scotia but remeber if it wasn't for logging we wouldn't have a lot of the trails that we do today. a lot of them are old grades or cat roads that got turned into trails. As for the homes it sucks but what can you do about it, it is private property that they have a right to sell. In king county (Seattle Wa.) I heard recently that the county commisioners are going to pass a new ordinance that if you are rural with 10 or more acres you will only be allowed to use 35% of the property. No clearing brush, pasturing animals, no anything unless you pay for and get approval to use your own land through the permit process.(Kind of sounds like the way the Soviets use to do it) It states that the property is to remain natural. Now that is scary,BTW they still make you pay the full amount of taxes on the land.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]