ATV Restrictions On The Way

[Outdoor Writer]

Outdoor Wire snippet:

 

The U.S. Forest Service is imposing travel restrictions on off-road vehicles across the country, reversing a principle that said areas were considered all areas open "unless designated closed". The new regulations seem to establish that all areas should be presumed "closed unless designated open."

 

The net of the ruling means that off-road vehicles will only be allowed on trails marked on new travel maps currently being drawn up for each national forest. Those new maps, we're told, will exclude some very popular existing routes.

 

The reasoning behind the decision is the burgeoning popularity of off-road vehicles. Land managers say they can't adequately handle the network of illegal trails created by ATVs. In fact, the land managers say there are thousands of miles of illegal ("user-created") trails in the national forests.

 

And ATVs continue to grow in popularity with hunters, anglers and recreational riders who have purchased more than 10 million four-wheelers and dirt bikes since 1995. That number of ATVs, officials say, even if only 1-2 percent stray off-route produces a cumulative impact that is tremendous.

 

The maps are being created today, and will gradually be phased in over the next two years at which time all routes will be either open or closed. ATVers caught on the closed routes will be ticketed.

 

Today, there are complaints that the maps - available at only a few locations - aren't really much help. Critics say they're printed in black and white and don't show any landmarks, making navigation difficult.

 

The federal travel rule isn't really new. It was established in 2005 but has only been applied to a few national forests nationwide.

 

The chances in each district become official as soon as the maps are available, with some not expected until 2010, creating the potential for varying rules across boundary lines. At this point, however, the Forest Service has closed 2 million acres that have been open to cross-country travel.

 

Ultimately, the Forest Service says it is seeking to restrict motor vehicles to designated routes on all 193 million acres.

 

Conservationists are praising the decision, and as you can imagine, some ATV proponents are livid.

 

But not all.

 

Jack Welch, of the motorized users advocacy group Blue Ribbon Coalition, says most people he's been in contact with think the decision "appropriate." But both sides have admitted concern over which trails make lists of "official" routes.

[Red Rabbit]

The past few months the Coconino and Kaibab NF has had open houses for the travel management plans. After these, the reg of having to camp within a car width of the road is still proposed, as is not allowing a vehicle to recover game.

[Outdoor Writer]

The past few months the Coconino and Kaibab NF has had open houses for the travel management plans. After these, the reg of having to camp within a car width of the road is still proposed, as is not allowing a vehicle to recover game.

 

If these proposals take effect, I can see lots of citations resulting, providing the ability to enforce the rules materializes. -TONY

[aztrophytakers]

I must say it's about time they did something about the quads. They have been way out of control for way to long. I own and use a quad daily when I'm hunting , but only to save my truck and gas bill and I don't offroad it. The AZ Game and Fish has showed us their lack of ability to manage our deer herds for a evenly mixed age class of animals , so maybe by limiting access and closing areas will we grow a greater number of mature bucks. But like Tony said the new laws are are worthless unless they are enforced , which will be extremely diffucult. All in All I think there are more pros than cons to come from this.........AZTT

[.270]

the usfs, blm and about every other federal agency that has anything to do with land has been legislating their way to this for a long time and it is the fault of jerks with quads. instead of showing a little bit of responsibility and respect, a part of the quad population have been abject jackasses and now everyone else is going to pay for it. the road past honeymoon to malay and saunders is closed for about 5 months of the year just so a couple jerk idiots can't take their quads in there and tear up the country looking for elk horns. for no other real reason too. they close it to all vehicles during that time just to keep a couple anal orifices from tearing things up. some guys are too lazy and too stupid to get off the quad and do a little footbackin' and the folks that use em with common sense get lumped in with the bad guys. it's shotgun legislation, but sometimes that's the only way you can do things. Lark.

[hunter4life]

I am all for keeping ATV's on designated roads and trails, but to really change things they need to enforce the new regulations. We will see if the enforcement occurs.

[ultramag]

keep them on the trails. I think a big problem is people who go off trails are still going to tear stuff up, they are the ones that never seem to get caught. I know of places that are tore up real bad.

[Ron G.]

Like others have said, enforcement is key. I don't see any enforcement now that could curb a lot of problems. I utilized 3 closed roads over the weekend to check out waterholes checking for turkey, deer, and elk tracks and just see what condition the water holes were in. All 3 of those closed roads had fairly fresh OHV tracks going down them.

 

I can't tell you how many water holes right beside the road I saw quad tracks driving around the whole waterhole. Have people gotten that lazy that they have to ride the quads around the waterholes or ride quads 200 yds off the road to the water hole? There were several I stopped to look at in different areas that had this, so I don't think it was a single handicapped rider riding up to and around the water holes...

 

With as many water holes I checked out this weekend looking for tracks, I wonder how many times I got my picture taken???

[Huntn coues]

Are they still doing the "copper sticker" deal and won't that money from that program put more officers in the field

for this very reason?

[azbighornhunter]

To make sure that I make myself clear, I do own a quad, and I do use it to get around on existing roads. But, I sure hope that the new rules will provide some areas where a person with with a little physical ambition can get away from the massive hordes of people. I am sorely dissappointed with the amount of country that is being "motorized" each fall. With the increasing "hunter opportunity" tags that G&F keeps issuing and the lack of respect of many of todays hunters, I cannot seem to find very many secluded places for a QUALITY hunt. In addition, my observance has been that the wildlife are having a harder and harder time finding a safe haven to survive the fall. Maybe, limited access will help to pick up where our management fails. I just hope that if these rules are put into place I'll actually see a green forest service law enforcement vehicle in the northern Tonto National Forest for a change.

 

I guess I need to get off of my soapbox now.