Dear Editor:
When we read the article, “Volunteers repair and improve Poison Spider Route” (Moab Sun News, Nov. 11-27, 2019, page 7), we thought it was a parody. We have been hiking in Moab for many years, and each year the destruction of the environment gets worse.
Our public lands are being destroyed by cattle, mining, oil and gas drilling and by an onslaught of ATVs, Jeeps and motorbikes. Ever more powerful machines rip up the earth, kill the vegetation, frighten the animals, pollute the air, and mar and destroy the rocks. But what do the BLM and the very organizations responsible for all the damage suggest? Bring some rakes!
Rake over the “hundreds of tire tracks” made by ATVs on the many ruinous paths taken by their owners. That will restore the land to its former glory! …sure it will. You can’t make this stuff up.
In terms of nature, there is not one positive thing that can be said about ATVs and Jeeps running amok on trails. They do only harm. The more of them there are and the more powerful they become, the more harm they will do. A million rakes wouldn’t make a bit of difference.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Yates and Karen Korenoski
Moab
