Court Ruling

[Optimistic Paranoid]

This is posted for informational purposes only, NOT to start a political discussion for or against anything.

This will - eventually - affect how much back country in Utah is going to be open for people like us to drive on and explore.

It's about a 10 Circuit court ruling affecting BLM land in Utah and whether or not 20,000 miles of recreational trails would be closed.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=44457853&nid=148

 

[user 37446]

Things may change for usage of the mentioned 6 million acres, I noted that even those nefarious mountain bikers would be restricted.  Having been nearly run down by a couple of those hoodlums in the past, well...  

There's a balance that has to be found no doubt between ORV and the land's ecology. How much that will affect dispersed BLM camping will remain to be seen however OP is correct in showing that some of the dispersed camping that we are able o enjoy now may be restricted.

Always somethin'... :-/

 

[TrainChaser]

That mainly seems to involve Off-Highway Vehicles*, not ALL vehicles. The damage these vehicles (and their irresponsible drivers) have created is considerable, and after letting them do as they pleased for at least 50 years, someone finally raised a fuss. Such a surprise! Unless pure spite becomes involved, it may not affect what we do on these lands very much.

* Here is the govt description of OHVs: https://www.dot.nd.gov/divisions/mv/docs/faq-off-highway-vehicles.pdf

 

[highdesertranger]

I have to say something about TrainChaser's post.
blanket statements about groups of people is not a good thing. so all OHV's are bad? all OHV drivers are irresponsible? they have done as they please for the last 50 years?
what does more damage a 600 lb ATV or a 3 ton vehicle?
want to talk about environmental damage how about an interstate highway?
I will agree some ATV drivers are irresponsible, but we can find irresponsible people everywhere driving all kinds of vehicles. actually a properly driven ATV does far less harm to the environment then a heavy, gas guzzling vehicle. my 2 cents, can you tell I don't like being called irresponsible. highdesertranger

 

[minimotos95]

Thanks for posting that.
Personally I see restricting it to non-wheeled transportation only(like wilderness areas) as a good thing, it's not losing right to access to the public land but rather ensuring the land is not completely destroyed. Don't blame the groups, types of vehicle, drivers, riders, my thought is since the low lives that play mud bogger, leave trash or burn recklessly are lazy and wouldn't hike miles into the backcountry to destroy it because well, that requires more effort than manipulating a throttle(or pedaling a bike). Blame the tires that give access to the low lives so they can destroy many areas that would have otherwise been untouched.

 

[Bud Smiley]

"First they came for the OHV trails, but I don't have an ATV so I was silent..."

I ride street legal dual sport motorcycles. I behave responsibly. This sucks.

 

[Bud Smiley]

[...] Don't blame the groups, types of vehicle, drivers, riders, [...]

Blame the tires that give access to the low lives so they can destroy many areas that would have otherwise been untouched.

Did I miss the sarcasm in this post or are you really saying that?

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I might suggest that there can appear to be an element of elitism being expressed here.  If you are vigorous and healthy enough to backpack or mountain bike, you are allowed to take in the splendors of the backcountry.  If not, well then they are not for you. But thanks for your taxes, anyway!

There is some undeniable truth that there are some slob drivers.  But there are also many who embrace the Leave No Trace ethos as well.  I know of at least one group that pulls a utility trailer or two on their group outings, and goes out of their way to clean up trash they find in the backcountry and haul it out for proper disposal.

 

[lenny flank]

Alas, it is a simple reality that the more public lands are used by people, the more quickly they are destroyed by those same people.

Even "low-impact" camping, when done for decades by zillions of people, destroys the area.

There is no real solution to that problem. One can only minimize it as much as practical.

 

[minimotos95]

I might suggest that there can appear to be an element of elitism being expressed here.  If you are vigorous and healthy enough to backpack or mountain bike, you are allowed to take in the splendors of the backcountry.  If not, well then they are not for you. But thanks for your taxes, anyway!

Exactly, well almost, there should be no tires, steel or even wooden wheels rolled in the back country. How can one justify using a machine to "enjoy our public land/nature?" Currently our public lands are devastated anywhere a mountain bike, dirtbike, ATV, SxS or Jeep can reach. It seems remote but 4x4 road accessible areas and those closest to towns are misused the most. The only places that are okay are our wilderness areas, and guess what there's still trash and destruction there from hikers, horses and cattle. There's no stopping it, only slowing it and the best way to do that is to ban wheels, like in other areas of our public lands this includes everything from a bike, goat draw cart all the way up to unimogs.

 

[minimotos95]

We must remember many of the roads and trails that give us access to these places came out of our greed to capitalize on the land. Large scale mining, drilling, logging and water diversion projects. Without those, the doors wouldn't have been opened, the roads cleared allowing access by the masses with ease and tools of destruction.
Okay, maybe I am looking at this too cynically?
Positives to vehicles, bicycles and chainsaws in the back country:
it's funner, faster and easier.
Mechanical and electrical white noise drowns out the natural sounds.
Artificial light from headlights and RV porch lights must help the vegetation?
....

 

[Gary68]

if you show these people the erosion caused by rivers they would try to ban the rain

the elk are tearing up these game trails and the game trails are here for my personal viewing pleasure and must never ever change,thus the elk must be eliminated

sarcasm aside what i have observed from these people is it's not the trees,not the climate,not the trails but it's change they are afraid of,very very afraid of change in which the earth constantly does

 

[TrainChaser]

I grew up in the SoCal desert. When I was in my late 20s, I was camping out in the Mohave Desert and saw guys on motorcycles doing those hill-climb things. When I went back to the same spot a few years later, those hill-climb spots were deep gullies. The hill-climbers had moved on. And there are not a "few" of these people, there are THOUSANDS, if not tens of thousands.

If you equate a senior on a quad rolling slowly as he looks around, with a 19-yo seeing how far, how high, how fast and how hard he can run his quad, jeep or dirt bike up an incline, the problem is not mine.