Well, it seems fairly obvious that people who ride in the woods, trails, and on non-designated trails cause the most damage. Riding through the woods creates ruts, stagnant pools of mud and water, destroys natural vegetation and animal habitats. This includes hunters, woods riders/racers, etc.

Those who do the least damage are people who ride in specific, designated areas such as motocross tracks, sand dunes, drags. These are already ploughed and dozed dirt areas where the environment, aside from the air, is not being affected. (Responsible) Dune riders are not destroying vegetation, habitats, or the turf. It's the desert, there's nothing out there.

 

There's TONS of room for ALL of the outdoor enthusiasists in the forest lands..But the enviro wacko's think they run and own the woods..It is up to every outdoor person to make sure that they personally do the right thing when they are using the woods,and it dont matter if your an ATVer,dirtbiker,boater,hunter,fisherman,ect ect ect..

Get educated by a professional user first,than use the outdoors the right way.

Bill

 

Raptor dude, I can see your point, but it sounds a bit like how an environmentalist would answer the question. First let me say that many enjoy a leisurely trail ride, and if constructed properly, minimal damage to the environment is done.

Second, I think you are seeing trail systems being developed around the country that support our sport. In many cases, the trail systems are being created on reclaimed coal mines, silver mines, etc. In short, the developers are taking what is a bad situation environmentally, and turning it into a good situation. Not only are the areas being cleaned up and Nature is taking the land back, but the economic benefit being realized is a boon to local enocomies. I think the people living around the Hatfield McCoy, or the Paiute trail can attest to that.

The real deal is ATV enthusiasts realize that damage is made, and can be controlled.. and for the most part, we just want to coexist with everyone. Where we have issues is when an environmentalist refuses to acknowledge our rights to ride too. They want us all out...

Your argument about ruts, water holes etc.. is irrelavent. The last time I was out in mother nature's realm, I found ruts, and water holes that were the result of deer using a trail they created through the woods, and mud holes that were the result of natural terrain.. not because an ATV had passed through. That is a garbage complaint. A person's footsteps can over time create the same situation.

Even if the land is declared a wilderness, and no man can enter on foot or on an ATV... you will STILL have the same environmental impact over time.

For the most part though, I and the majority of enthusiasts agree that designated trail systems are the way to go, and that riders should ride responsibly and stay on marked and groomed trails. This is why we are demanding that the designated trail building funds that states are collecting should be used for the stated purpose, and not spent on some pet project that is not related to ATVs.

 

As a whole-hearted ATV enthusiast who is going riding on an abandoned coal mine/waste dump turned sportsman's club next weekend, I agree with you. However, I am making my argument simply to express the other side because those people are not here, and it is good for us to examine how things might be seen from an environmentalists' perspective.

Regarding ruts, trails and stagnant water, it is not an irrelevant complaint. These types of scars to the natural landscape are accelerated ten fold when just five or six ATVs traverse the same trail twice in one day. The damage done by ATVs is incomparable to a deer trail that may be three or four inches wide after six months use by two or three deer.

If you've ever ridden a trail at high elevation in the mountains of Colorado or Pennsylvania, and then you look down the mountain at the trail, or at the trail on the mountain across from you, it looks like one big brown scar across the hillside. Whether these are marked, groomed trails or not, these types of marks do not appear where herds of deer and elk have existed for half a century.

I am all for groomed and marked trails. It gives us a place to ride. Especially when they are on places like old, reclaimed waste dumps or mine areas. Nothing else can be done with the land. But you have to acknowledge the impact we as ATVers have on nature. Just like everything else, whether it be a steamer on the great lakes or a jet streaming across the sky. But our sport is still at the age where we can have an affect on curbing and minimalizing the affects on nature.

 

Yes but I can vouch for cow trails doing the same thing on a dairy farm... and they can become just as wide.

I agree that ATV riding can accelerate the damage, but the point I want to make is that properly constructed trail systems can make a big difference in the amount of errosion etc. We must begin to hold those in power accountable. If we have to fund programs via registration fees, we should expect those funds to be used to build the better trails...

 

Well that's a different point entirely. Do you know of instances where this is happening? I'm sure the local newspaper, or magazine, even ATV Connection, would want to know this so a story could be put together.

 

the stagnant water and ruts from an atv is kinda far fetched you say it can be there for years. well on our own private hunting land we have been using the same bulldozing trails year after year to get to different deerstands or just driving around our own land. these trails have been here for about 15 years now and it is alot of floating bog and marshes and we have rutted the bajesus out of these same trails year in and year out and the land repairs itself more quickly then people realize. the next summer we go out on the same trails and you can't tell that an atv has ever been there and heck we even take a 4440 john deere and a brush hog pending if it gets dry enough and we leave ruts with that and after a year you can't see them. yes i do feel that people should be sensitive towards nature when they are out on a trail to stay on it and tread lightly cause we don't need to give the environmentalists any shells for their guns. but to be fair to the loggers to they are cutting the wood down in the woods i think that has a bigger envionmental impact then a couple lil tracks going into the woods. and in the long run logging actually benefits the environment to bad people can't see this.