Why is it so hard for ORVers to accept the fact that their sport is outrageously destructive and does not belong everywhere? Can you just simply acknowledge that all the peaceful plants, animals, streams, people, especially small children, are heavily impacted and downright frightened by your vehicle’s mere presence, let alone what it does to their beloved home?
It is so weird to see a headline claiming motorized recreationists feel “discriminated” against, when they are the ones suing my town council for trying to slow them down and reduce the impact of their outrageously obnoxious form of recreation.
Have you been to Moab lately? Most of my friends won’t even come anymore, unless it’s in January, so they can avoid the side-by-sides, RZRs, ATVs and extreme 4x4s that have invaded and destroyed our town. I wish our legislature would try to hold a session on Main Street on a big weekend. I can’t even have a conversation in my yard anymore without shouting over the ruckus. We usually just stay inside or try to find a hike where we don’t have to see or listen to them.
How did it get this way?
As a wildlife biologist, park ranger, guide and environmental advocate, I’ve worked alongside off-roaders like Ber Knight for 30 years to protect the places ravaged by motors that are finally getting some protection. I have many friends that use Jeeps and dirt bikes, but none that are so single-minded and adamant about keeping every inch of land that has ever been driven on by a vehicle as Ber Knight, friendly old saint that he may be. I was on a committee with him when a very different county commission tripled the size of the travel plan based on his group’s everything-salad road map. We are just now dealing with that disaster by closing the worst of them. And yes, closure is the answer in places like Ten Mile Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon, the premier flat water trip in Utah and perhaps the nation. Some uses are incompatible with others. Riparian areas (rivers and streams) make up less than 1% of Utah, yet over 70% of all species depend on them. Jeeps, buggies and Trail 90s that pioneered recreational use of rancher and uranium-based routes are often compatible with conservation, even on a road system that was never designed or constructed for continual use, but not so the earth-shredding modern vehicles ricocheting the roar-of-the-apocalypse off canyon walls and turning our fragile sandy desert and roads into a dust bowl. Huge swaths of land are being lost to these vehicles, not to mention how hard it is to get away from the noise. They are destroying popular routes all around town such that only their extreme vehicles can use them. Hikers and bikers are at risk of being hit, and many trails near town are so blown out and trashed that people avoid them. Anyone can witness the extreme difference in impact by walking Fins n’ Things or Hell’s Revenge, where 60 foot wide swaths of destruction are crossed by the barely noticeable Slickrock bike trail (open to e-bikes and motorcycles as well). The huge commercial rigs are the worst, sometimes cavorting and slinging the road base around, daring timid walkers to risk the impact of a multi-ton vehicle. Why should we normalize this and act like every closure to this on our spectacular and sacred public lands is a loss? It’s a gain, a reclamation of our birthright to have some places where vehicles of this kind are not allowed to rip to shreds the very beauty and quiet that the majority lives here for. There are still thousands of miles of routes in Grand County open to all vehicles. No more whining that you can’t drive through every cathedral in the desert you want to and are restricted to a mere several thousand miles of routes to and through what used to be paradise…
Daniel Kent
