To Anyone Driving Off Trail (From EWOR)

[Grumpy]

Off-Road Vehicles

Shattered Solitude: Off-Road Vehicles on our Public Lands

All across America, irresponsible and illegal off-road vehicle (ORV) use - driving all-terrain vehicles, four-wheelers, motorcycles, swamp buggies, jet-skis and snowmobiles off designated routes and into the back country - is threatening our national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands. Off-road vehicles pollute our air and water, degrade wildlife habitat, and carve countless miles of new roads into wildlands.

More than twenty years ago, the White House Council on Environmental Quality had already recognized that: “ORVs have damaged every kind of ecosystem found in the United States... In some cases the wounds will heal naturally; in others they will not, at least for millennia.â€

[Grumpy]

Sierra Club Conservation Policies

Off-Road Use of Motorized Vehicles

Use in officially designated wilderness: The Sierra Club reaffirms its support for the Wilderness Act's prohibition of "mechanized modes of transport," including non-motorized vehicles, from entry into designated wilderness.

Use of vehicles on other public lands:

1. Trails and areas on public lands should be closed to all vehicles unless it is determined to be appropriate for their use through completion of an analysis, review, and implementation process, and officially posted with signs as being open.

2. The process must include application of objective criteria to assess whether or not environmental quality can be effectively maintained, and whether the safety and enjoyment of all users can be protected; a public review and comment procedure involving all interested parties; and promulgation of effective implementing regulations where impacts are sufficiently low that vehicle use is appropriate.

3. Trails and areas designated for vehicular use must be monitored periodically to detect environmental damage or user interference inconsistent with the above criteria. Where this occurs, the trail or area must be closed to vehicles unless effective corrective regulations are enforced.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, May 7, 1988 [replaced policy adopted in February 1972, as modified in May 1985 and March 1986]


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Background

Off-road use of vehicles can present serious and special problems of impact on the environment and incompatibility with other users of the land. Experience has shown that off-road use of vehicles may result in one or more of the following effects:

All vehicles:


1. Physical soil damage, often readily visible, resulting in:
- a. Erosion, causing soil loss and damage to stream banks, streams, and fish habitat;
- b. Soil compaction and serious adverse impact on flora and its regeneration; and
- c. Degradation of trails, including rutting and breakdown of trail edges.

2. Disruption of wildlife breeding and nesting habitats, especially of vulnerable species, resulting in loss of young;

3. Disturbance of wildlife, leading to weakened physical condition, death, and possible extinction of some species;

4. Damage to archaeological, scientific, historical and other significant sites, and damage to natural features, sometimes with irreversible effects, especially on rare features of interest for scientific study;

5. Facilitation of illegal hunting fishing and the talking of game and non-game wildlife;

6. Danger to the safety of other land users because of vehicle speed, steep terrain, sharp curves, slippery or unstable trail surfaces, and/or limited visibility; and

7. Competition with other land users: vehicle operators, with their increased mobility, generally use a greater quantity of scarce land per recreational user.

Motorized vehicles:

1. Introduction of air and water pollution to areas presently removed from any such sources;

2. Excessive noise, which, in close proximity, may result in physiological effects on animals and humans, or may induce anxiety, altering animal behavior patterns, and which, in most circumstances, seriously degrades the solitude of wild areas for other users;

3. Litter: by virtue of mechanization, operators of vehicles carry more gear, with potential to leave more litter;

4. Vandalism: motorized ease of access is often coupled with increase of acts of vandalism on public and private property; and

5. Fire: illegally or improperly operated vehicles can often create a fire hazard on public or private lands.

Guidelines for Implementation

The following guidelines were developed by the Club's Public Lands Committee to help interpret and implement the policy.

All vehicles:

1. Vehicles should be excluded from areas of fragile, rare, relict, or vanishing vegetation; areas where erosion or other soil or resource damage will occur with their use; wildlife sanctuaries and sensitive areas; areas of fragile natural features or scientific interest; areas of archeological interest; and areas where speed would adversely affect other users of natural areas.

2. If areas or routes are not found unsuitable for vehicle use because of environmental impact or user interference reasons, two additional tests should be made:
(a) Are the area or route boundaries self-enforcing? Areas and routes from which it would be difficult for irresponsible vehicle users to stray are preferable to those that would require high management activity levels to enforce.
(b) Is the vehicle use area or route appropriate for the overall area? Regions where less intense use is desirable should have lower densities of vehicle activity than more disturbed regions. Many routes used by vehicles for access would be inappropriate for intensive vehicle play, for example. Also, all but one of several closely parallel routes should often be closed.

3. Educational programs should be initiated to instruct vehicle operators on safety, consideration for others, environmental impact, and on places legal to operate.

4. When using private land, all vehicle operators must have in their possession written permission from the landowner.

5. Trail construction and maintenance workers and trail users should report vehicular trail damage to land managers for possible trail closure or other remedial action.

6. For most effective implementation of policy, local regulations that exceed state and federal standards for control of vehicle use off-road should be encouraged.

7. State, county, and local law enforcement officers should have authority and resources to enforce vehicle and public resource laws on all public land.

8. The Sierra Club does not consider wheelchairs, when used as necessary medical devices, to be vehicles.

Motorized vehicles:

1. Motorized vehicle operators should be tested and licensed on their ability to operate the vehicles and knowledge of all laws relating to vehicle operation off-road.

2. All motorized vehicles used off-road should be licensed and clearly identified for off-road use. The license fee should be placed in a fund designated for the repair of environmental damage caused by vehicles; for personnel and equipment for patrol and law enforcement; for educational services; for financing of continuing studies of the effects of vehicles on wildlife, vegetation and other elements of the environment disturbed by their use; and for ensuring the safety, peace and enjoyment of the environment by other users.

3. Mufflers and spark-arrestors should be made mandatory on all motorized vehicles used off-road, with provision for periodic inspection.

4. All motorized vehicles used off-road should be equipped with air pollution control devices that meet the same standards set for automobiles.

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[Grumpy]

Let's see some thoughts on this topic.

[sams88]

Well I've got another one for you. Out at Hover (Finley) there are a few canyons that some of us have been going out and running. Was out there this afternoon and sometime within the past couple of weeks some jerk(s) unknown dumped off 50-75 old tires. Looks like they just dumped them from the ridge of one of the small canyons and let them roll down. They weren't there a couple of weeks ago the last time I was out there. Pretty sad and discouraging. Unfortunately stuff like that is what gets public land closed down. We could get some guys to go out and pick them up, but then there is the issue of how to get rid of them as it costs bucks per tire to take them to the dump. One of the guys I was talking to mentioned talking to some of the tire businesses around like Les Schwab to see if they would take the tires if we got some wheeling club(s) to haul them in, and maybe get some public/civic improvement press coverage out of it possibly and some brownie points with BLM. Has anyone any ideas, knowledge or experience with this kind of stuff?

[Grumpy]

What's anyone doing next weekend Sunday is only day I have as I will be on the 'puter Saturday along with Jafo tracking the Silver State 300...

[sams88]

Free Sunday. Saturday is tied up.

[White trash]

Might be able to break free for awhile sunday. Could bring a trailer behind the ranger too....

[XJ_Owner]

saterday is all tied up and im not sure i can make it sunday to help ya guys out

[Grumpy]

As I don't know what the ground out there is like, how close will I be able to get with my pickup?

[Lurch]

I'll be at the race I would help out if I was in town though.

[White trash]

As I don't know what the ground out there is like, how close will I be able to get with my pickup?

Dave my ranger can get back there with no problems....

[sams88]

As I don't know what the ground out there is like, how close will I be able to get with my pickup?

In that section we have driven a stock cherokee to the rim. The tires are down in the bottom of the canyon. The real problem is what to do with the tires after they are out of the canyon. I think I could get some of the guys with beds on their yotas to bring the tires out of the canyon. It's a crawlable canyon. And while I haven't talked to any of them yet, I'm pretty sure I could get some of them to haul the tires out of the rough stuff. Everyone that see's that kind of stuff knows that the wheelers are the ones that will be hurt the most from it due to more land closures so they are usually willing to help.

If a business could be found to sponsor the fees for the dump, or a tire company to take the carcasses, and then someone from the club that does good camera work and writing, I'm sure that some good press coverage for the club (and wheelers in general) could come out of this. Like stuff Ceg has been doing in the Yakima area. I guess the point is Grumpy, if you could get the club sponsorship of this, I could come up with some non-club people to help do it. I'm not a member or even a candidate, just a concerned associate at present. I'd just like to see some public recognition come out of this that the wheelers give a hoot about the environment too. Might help the BLM realize too that we aren't all bad, and that they have some people available that are willing to help take care of the land.

[sams88]

UPDATE -- I just finished talking to some of the hard core canyon crawling folks. The tires were dumped during the past week as they weren't out there the weekend before last. They are in the process of getting some arrangements made for the trash issues. So at this point things are on hold awaiting what they find out. I'll stay in touch with you on this Grumpy and call you up later and fill you in on everything.

It's a downer that people continue to trash out property. But on the "up" side of this, we are definitely seeing more of the 4x4 fans out there that are getting more and more vocal and involved in these issues. I think that more and more wheelers are finally beginning to realize that if we don't get very active in pursuing the causes and effects of this stuff that we aren't going to have any place left to pursue our hobby.

[Grumpy]

Please do keep us posted on here. My guess is once some of the gang checks in, they'll be on board! I'm going to post on EWOR, too, as there are a few on there that are in the area, but not on this site.

[iaccocca]

I might be able to drag my utility trailer out there, depending on when. Just need to know what we are going to do with the tires.
What a pain! I've run into this before myself. Had a little canyon out here south of Kennewick that I liked to play in with my ole Jeepster. Get out there one night and there are tires everywhere. Not just one dumping, but there had been a flash flood and tires that had been littered at each little draw were washed down into this one canyon.

[TJDave]

It's amazing how stupid and lazy some people are. During the "Pick up a Mt." this past weekend, most of the trails were pretty clean. It was around dispersed campsites that a stock pickup could reach that had the majority of the garbage---and tons of cans and bottles all along the fire roads. Idiots. Guess who probably will be blamed for that?! Also alot of big stuff: flattened temporary shelters and even a mattress. With the hundreds of concerned wheelers that participated, I think we only picked up 1/8th of the Mountain.
Dave, back to your original post my thoughts are: tree huggin', control freak land Nazi's. Everyone does not hate the sound of an engine in the woods. I like it! (they live in houses don't they? from wood cut with a motorized smoke belching chain saw??) must be ok if the wood is being cut for their house!
Edit: I would love to help clean up Hover.

[rjjff]

I'm tied up next Sat., but next Sunday I'm free. I have a small ultity trailer (5X8) that I could take out if we needed one.

[Grumpy]

Okay, sounds like a bunch of us are up to this. One of you who knows a good spot to meet, speak up. Pizza parlor in Finley 10ish?? I need my rest. It's an age thing

[sams88]

Graump a PM is coming your way.

[Grumpy]

Okay, so here's the deal. There is some research being done on this issue, so we need to hold off some, and keep it low profile. Stay tuned for more as I get up to speed with some of the guys involved.