Guest Column
The Case for Making ATV and Other Outdoor Recreation Vehicle Riders Accountable
In Idaho, as elsewhere, ATV riders who won't obey posted signs ruin hunts and threaten the hunting economy.By Derrick Reeves, Guest Writer, 7-18-11
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Idaho is a sportsman’s paradise and a huge draw for outdoor recreation, including ORVs, or Outdoor Recreation Vehicles. More and more ORV riders are taking to the trails of Idaho’s popular destinations.
My concern is the disregard that a growing number of ORV riders have for rules and posted signs. Unfortunately, their irresponsible riding has led to a dramatic deterioration in the quality of the outdoor experience on both private and public forest lands.
Two years ago, I took along my 11-year-old son on an opening-day hunt on “Access Yes” forestland in Idaho’s panhandle. These lands were owned by a timber company that allowed public access, but restricted motorized use to mainline roads. After hiking three hours up a road closed to motorized use, we encountered two riders on ATVs. My son was discouraged after the long hike and I was upset, knowing his first hunt was cut short.
When confronted, the ATV riders glibly admitted their trespass. When I asked how they got past the locked gate, one replied, “You can make it if you’re crazy enough.” It was not the example of responsible behavior I was trying to model for my son.
After hiking back out to the gate, I alerted the timber company’s watchman of the violation. Unfortunately, the only way I had to identify the riders were as “two fat guys dressed really warm on a green Polaris,” and there was nothing they could do.
It is frustrating to have a hunt ruined by people riding ORVs where vehicles are prohibited. Yet, it is happening more frequently. If we do not address this issue, we risk lowering the quality of hunting in Idaho, the hunting experience in our state and damaging our state’s hunting economy. We also risk people taking matters into their own hands, like the booby traps that were laid out at Soldiers Meadow Reservoir near Lewiston a few years ago.
After describing our experience to other hunters, I learned the story of my son’s first hunt was not unique. Across the country, hunters and landowners suffer from ruined hunts and private property trespass without the ability to identify illegal riders. Responsible Trails America (RTA) published a report that found only 12 states require ORVs to display a standard vehicle-sized license plate or large decal.
Idaho requires that ORVs display a registration sticker. Yet, the reason I was unable to identify illegal ORV riders is because these stickers are roughly the size of a credit card. At high speeds or covered in mud, these stickers are impossible to spot, let alone read the registration number printed on it.
To address this nationwide problem, Congress should require that ORVs used on public lands display a standard license plate or large decal, similar to a rule recently adopted by the Idaho legislature, but quietly abandoned. Visible identification will make it easier for law enforcement, outdoor users and responsible riders to report reckless and irresponsible riders.
A national ID standard would be most effective if it’s truly visible. The ORV industry can help by standardizing a location for mounting IDs onto vehicles. It would eliminate confusion and encourage responsible riders to obey the rules. The majority of ORV users that follow the law should have no objection to this type of identification – just as I have no issue with maintaining my hunting and gun licenses.
As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Jim Risch is in the position to work with ORV enthusiasts and sportsmen alike to enact a standard, visible form of identification for ORVs.
Derrick Reeves is co-chair of Idaho Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
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Comments
The proposal by CRV500 is classical "collective punishment", a favorite of the heavy handed and sometimes by the self-righteous. It is just as immoral and unethical as those who violate reasonable laws and regulations. Goodness - if people are speeding on the highways do we solve the problem by saying, "Lets just issue fewer drivers licenses!"
Idiocy.
A better argument would be that agencies charged with land management heavily fine those who violate the existing law/regulations. Does that happen? No.
As a case in point, call your local National Forest and ask to talk to "Law Enforcement." Once connected, ask that individual what the enforcement protocols are regarding those who violate the "Weed Free Hay" provisions. Guess what? The response will be "We give them a written warning." If the answer is different, insist on the data concerning those who were ticketed and fined for the
violation. Get ready to do an F.O.I.A.
Wonderful. National Forests full of Knapweed, Leafy Spurge, Hoary Cress, Hoary Alyssum, Sulphur Cinquefoil, Rush Skeletonweed and on and on and on with the tens of millions spent to attempt control of these species and they do what? "We give them a written warning."
Those ATV/ORV riders who flaunt regulation and law do a lot more than wreck hunts for those of us inclined to still engage in bi-pedal motion while in the woods, and we can go right back to weeds. While researching the question of "Weed Free Hay" back in the early part of the last decade, I engaged in a conversation with a range specialist employed by the Beaverhead National Forest. During such, he, somewhat aggravated by what he then disclosed, was that yes, horse excrement is indeed a problem but that ATV/ORV use was by orders of magnitude worse in that the undercarriages of the machines pick up seeds like magnets.
Having spend near two decades in weed control efforts in forest and wilderness settings, I concurred. As much as I personally dislike ATV's as a general rule, a small portion of my work required their use. My own observations were that an ATV collects more seeds and seed heads than a truck operating in identical conditions by again, orders of magnitude. So what are the penalties for breaking ATV/ORV regulations? It matters not if there is no enforcement of the regulations.
Enforcement is absent, whether it is the "Weed Free Hay" or illegal ATV/ORV use. The Forest Service and the BLM are now populated with desk jockeys and jockettes buried in tree-killing paperwork rather than out in the field actually doing work, real work. If an ATV operator pioneers a trail in a forest and no one hears it, did it happen?
Making violators responsible has nothing to do with reducing hunting permits, but, rather, it has everything to do with instilling morals in individuals and re-establishing proper ethics in the nation as a whole, and I might add, just a little bit of Law Enforcement doesn't hurt to get the point across.
The riders and the outfits that market the machines as anarchic joyride vehicles.
Yes, there are responsible OHV riders and clubs, but all their good work is easily undone by thrill-seeking vandals who shoot up signs, tear up streams and cause terrible erosion on hillsides with "high siding."
Yes, hikers, bikers and equestrians cause trail damage too, but it is minor to the damage caused by even one irresponsible OHV rider, much less hundreds and even thousands.
Sorry, but this riff, and RTA, is all about eliminating ORV use entirely in the long run.
I don't have any problem with enforcement against boneheads, but the fact remains that many closures are not necessary and simply shift use and pressure into smaller areas, causing more conflict and "problems" to complain about. Vicious cycle, basically.
Never mind that the agencies have never taken a proactive stance regarding use, focusing mainly on elimination instead of actual management.