I am a master hunting, fishing and recreation guide and I live in a place that is very pristine, but since the advent of more atv's I have noticed more garbage along back roads and more beer cans everywhere....trout brooks that I use to spend the time to peacefully walk into are now fish out and beat down along the edge by lazy fishermen who use their atv's instead..looks like **** and lack of alders along the edge warms the ground up causing the brook to warm and killing off the trout over a period of time.....I have also noticed a lot of atvers on the beaches and shorelines of the remote lake I have a camp on ...not only is this illegal, but harmful to small plants, trees, and small wildlife as well...it also changes the once pristine, untouched look of the lake....sign of the times I realize, but where is the tread light and stay on the trail ethics? I have also noticed people atving in the middle of brooks and streams in their videos....it is one thing to cross in a designated place, but the fjiord up or down the stream puts mud, debris, oil, etc...into the delicate ecosystem, especially in the Spring when things are developing....example is all the vids you see on youtube where atving is happening in wet lands and brooks that are flowing not dead water...example is the one with the Brute force with the snorkel kit (Brute takes a sip)....wardens here in Maine frown on that and many of the water baths ya see on youtube they would be fined here....aren't there enough trails and mud holes or old pits to ride in without damaging our flowing brooks and the shores of our lakes???...tread lightly ethics need to be thought about hard and long before we lose a lot of our rights we already have now....anyways I know I am on a soap box and off on a tangent...sorry....I am all for fun, but it just frustrates me when I see people's vids and trips damaging viable land and water ways....please tread lightly and carrry out what you bring in...please dont litter....happy trails to all.....Maine

 

Are you an atv rider yourself, or just someone who came here to vent? If you don't ride, that is just fine and you are welcome here, but it does suggest the possibility that you have a built in bias to start with...so you may be looking past the 99% good and just seeing the 1% bad. Remember, the land belongs to everybody (even more so in Obama's socialist paradigm!!!), not just YOU!

Second, as for the video's, you have no idea where or when they were taken. Sure doesn't mean it was your back yard, or even public land. And as for the trash, did you actually see an atv'er specifically leave it there?

As for those who abuse, education is the best answer. But there is always going to be that ignorant contingent in any outdoor activity, that is going to do dumb stuff, and they need to get ticketed by the rangers.

I'm mostly a desert sport quad rider and a mountain woods utility quad rider. I am not down with the mud wollowing crowd, even one little bit, ok! We have a few "open" riding areas in the desert, where one can ride anywhere they please, and that means ride off trail if you like. But the vast majority of places I ride are "limited use", which means already established roads or trails only...and I am just fine with that.

But....there are thousands of square miles in the West that are tied up as "wilderness", where you can't go except on foot or horseback. Desert wilderness travel on foot/horse is limited by how much water you can carry. There is a reason they call it "Death Valley"....becasue folks who went there on foot or horseback, didn't survive! Vehicular travel is all that makes sense out here! (Who would be stupid enough to go to sea without a boat?) So, basically this is limiting access to vitrually nobody at all!

 

Without exception, the trails that I ride on are virtually trash-free. That is, until you get to a trail that is accessable by regular car. When we are exploring a new area, we can always tell when we are getting close to a road - the trash starts gathering. Out in the middle of the trails in the places that can only be used by ATV's or motorcycles we see just a few odd pieces of trash.

Jaybee

 

Hello Recon...yes I ride...I started out on one of the first three wheeled go gart type machines in 1969 before the advent of the honda 90 atc's...rode three wheeled big reds and so on....been on many atv's....the bombardier traxter 650 I use to borrow was what got me hooked to buy my own...couldnt afford the Outlander so looked for used...wasnt fixated on one brand but found a deal on 06 Brute force 650 with 200 miles on it...it will be used for guiding recreational trips on established trails and for work at my camp and for just plain ole fun for me....it is my first owned by myself 4 wheeler so I am kinda a newbie....With all that said I once again am sorry for spouting off and being a newbie who is perhaps a little behind the regs in here in regards to all the facts....I agree it is a certain percentage and that is the percentage that my speel was directed at....it came after seeing many vids of atvers traversing down viable brroks n streams on youtube....I have never road in the desert I bet it would be a blast and in my eye that is very low imapct on the environment....Here I am blessed to go right out the front door at our sporting lodge and hit the trails, but it is being talked about them closing trails that go thru our small municipal airport that gives us acess to the gas stations and to the bigger logging roads....because of a few idiots who arent staying on the marked trails and hitting the airport itself and the wet lands around it....they dont realize that lights at nite from the machines can hinder landing for small planes...anyways....My intentions were not to point a figure at any one in here because I feel most people with enough time to post in here are already on top of thier game and follow good tread light ethics...my intentions were to raise an eyebrow to create awareness, which is already there for most of us, but to create awareness forus to educate other riders we see doing the infractions I mentioned in the email....once again...yes I ride but I try to ride so as my grandchildren some day will see the same beauty I see now here in Northeast Maine.....well I gotta hit the trails....we are still snowmobiling and our small local club is having a work day....yesterday I went around putting up signs and cleaning up garbage/beer bottles on the trails...yes local snowmobilers here are litterbugs too....we have a landowner who gives us permission to snowsled across his field to get to services, but he does not want atvs on it at all and especially in the Spring, but they keep doing it even though we put up the signs...and most of the signs get shot up by so-called hunters, but that is another topic...lol...well I throughly enjoy this site and how all the regs step up to help the newbies...happy trails to all....Maine

 

I understand your concern. People won't hire you to guide them to trout streams that have been messed up by ATVs. We can all use frequent reminders that when you tear around off trail you **** off more people than just tree huggers.

 

Actually deep laker I do not guide people trout fishing...that is my alone quiet time to my self...love to walk miles up a brook and enjoy the day out even if I catch nothing....but thanks for understanding....yes you are right as a recreational guide people like to sight see and what they dont want to see is garbage and rutted up lake shores...I am not writing all this with the loss of my guiding income in mind because I guide mostly small mouth bass fishing...I was just trying to perk up some eyebrows one way or another and I guess I have succeeded...lol...happy trails to all....Maine

 

As a fellow Maine rider, I'd like to say that not everyone who rides is a reckloose. I believe the majority of us are people who stay on marked trails, wait for trails to open, and ride responsibly. I think that some of that trash might not even be from ATVer's too. I always try to portray a good image of atv's on the trails, pack in pack out, not making unecessary ruts, and not going in sensitive streams. Its just that sometimes the few idiots who for whatever reason don't care often leave the things you see, and not the majory who just passed through, leaving only tire marks.

 

I always pay to ride and NEVER ride in public areas not designated for ATV use. I also NEVER throw trash on the trail. I paid a lot of money for the quad I have and don't want to limit where I ride and when I can ride my any inappropriate actions on my part.


As far as the videos on youtube unless you know where they are doing it at I don't think it's fair to say that. The "brute takes a sip" video you mention doesn't mention where they are or what....and I'm no forensics linguist, but it doesn't sound like they're from Main or anywhere in the North East.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: jaybeecon55

Without exception, the trails that I ride on are virtually trash-free. That is, until you get to a trail that is accessable by regular car. When we are exploring a new area, we can always tell when we are getting close to a road - the trash starts gathering. Out in the middle of the trails in the places that can only be used by ATV's or motorcycles we see just a few odd pieces of trash.



Jaybee</end quote></div>

You took the words right out of my mouth! I live in a very rural area with no limitations. We have thousands of miles of trails we can ride, lakes, streams, etc. Some of the most beautiful country in the west. We have many designated wilderness areas that I use my horse to travel. Otherwise, I ride my atv, be it sport or utility. There are areas I no longer like to go because of the trash and ruts. It disgusts me. I cannot blame it on atver's. I have never seen an atv hauling a trash can to dump in the woods, or have the weight (even though popos are heavy! LOL!) to produce the 2-3 foot deep ruts I find. I have seen pick up trucks drive in with a bed full of garbage that should be destined for the dump, not the woods. I do report them to the police. They will get cited. They do not go easy on you! That is the way it should be! Realize the police cannot patrol all the rural areas, but we can. Do not hesitate to report these dirtbags. Get a description of the vehicle, person, plate number, area, what they may be dumping and where. They can cite them any time. You don't even have to be involved. Atleast, in my state of Oregon. They have ZERO tolerance! But, it doesn't matter where you are, there are always people who don't follow the rules. Maybe stiffer penalties would deter there efforts to pollute our countryside.

On another note; I, too, have seen the youtube videos of atv'ers mudding through streams, etc. I only hope they are in their own back yard and not destroying public land that so many of us take for granted.

 

I am an atver that enjoys the mud, that being said the only mud I play in is on private land of my own or my friends, or a place that is pay to ride with mud pits.

I also carry a few trash bags in my rack bag at all times, not just for my own personal trash but our group will pick up others trash if we see it on the trail we dont want our right to ride removed by some careless ppl.

I understand your point completely but I honestly think at least 90% of the atv community rides responsibly, but like the saying goes only takes one bad able to spoil the rest ( or something along those lines [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] )