Reader comments
ATV riders must respect land

An outright ban on ATVs is not the answer, because they are clearly valuable tools for some (ranchers, foresters, etc). They are also legitimate recreational vehicles, if they stay on designed trails that minimize their impact. The problem is the "off road" mindset that every jeep or ATV commercial cultivates, showing them spewing soil everywhere, or raising huge gouts of mud at a stream crossing, to drift down and cover up the streambed. AS long as ATV use is steeped in the idea that you can go anywhere that you want, we've got big problems.

Having spent countless hours on public lands I am yet to find all the destruction and devastation caused by ATV,s .

I have to disagree with Dave; if you go to Terraserver http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
pick some public land near a Utah city, and then zoom to full extent, you get a photo showing the roads & trails. Or Google Earth is even more vivid. While some of them may be foot or game trails, it is obvious that most are part of the spreading network of illegal ATV tracks, and every time it rains, the soil that supports all those ecosystems is washed away into stream. I see the mud flushing down all of our streams when that happens, and I see the soil thinning to bedrock up above. All of our wildlife, and especially the species we hunt, are being impacted.

I agree with your statement, "Public lands belong to all of us". I don't understand how you go from this statement to, "All citizens should demand stricter requlations or an outright ban on ATVs".

I spend a lot of time on pubic lands (occasionally on an ATV) but I haven't witnessed what you described in your opinion (ATV riders pillaging, brazen lawlessness and general disregard for public lands).

Public lands are for the public. We shouldn't be trying to discriminate or ban one group or another from public lands. All ATV riders are not "renegades". We should try to be open minded and tolerant while we work out the problems, not calling for an "outright ban" of one group or another.

How would you like it if you were banned from public property (because someone you have no control of did something bad)? We worked out the issues with longboarders on public trails, I would think we could work this out without calling for a ban.

I too have spent a lot of time on public lands, working as a seasonal with governement agencies and in private consulting evaluating land use impacts and have found an absence of a land ethic among some users of ATVs. Just take a drive over the loop road from Farmington to Bountiful and just about every curved bank in the road is devoid of vegetation beacuse of ATVs running up the embankment. Squaw Peak loop from Provo Canyon to Hobble Creek has several trails cut by ATV users that run perpendicular to the slope; causing much soil loss.

What's more is that ATVs introduce weed seed from one location to another, degrading wildlife habitat all over the state.

Any user group has a few bad apples, but the bad ones in this group are costing Utah too much. I'm for an outright ban on public land.

This state has such an incredibly wonderful array of unpaved roads and trails that are perfect for ATV riding, you have to wonder why a small number of reckless riders insist on making this such an issue. If people rode only on the roads that are designated appropriate for motorized use, there would be little controversy if any.

Coluber is right - this is a mindset problem, not one of regulation. Public land belongs to everyone, not just the person who's on it at any given time. If you treat it as someone else's property you've been granted temporary access to, we'll all get along much better.

Well said, Adjustable Spanner. I love riding my ATV on the 'established ATV' road system in this state. I literally see hundreds of other ATVs on the road every year while I am out. Better than 90% are courteous, stay on the roads, etc. Same with hikers. Some stay on the trails, some go off and cut new trails, or cut the corners and cause an ugly erosion problem (I'm walked on those trails as well). I'm not calling for a hiking ban. Let's just educate the derelict and we'll all get along better.

Then again, I don't run my ATV at the dunes.

Time and again, I have heard aboutthe "small number" of ATVers who are generating these problems; but is it actually such a small percentage? It seems like everyone who weighs in is just guessing, without any real data. It may, in fact, be a large number who ride recklessly and destructively, perhaps even a majority. If so, much of it may be innocent of malice, but Utah's backcountry is being wrecked nevertheless.