Editorial: Forest off-road ban overdue

Written by Payson Roundup

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Gentlemen, start your engines. Let the furor begin.

We expect that some off-roaders will get all revved up about the long-delayed, urgently-needed plan to control cross-country travel on the Tonto National Forest.

The draft plan will ban almost all cross-country travel and restrict Jeeps and quads and mountain bikes to the thousands of miles of existing roads and trails.

We have certainly bumped and rattled along many a rutted road, eager for the treasure around the next bend. So we understand the joy of off-roading. But really, guys, let’s be honest: We’ve got some yahoos out there, packing more beer than common sense.

You’ve seen it — the fools who gun their quads straight up the side of a hill, leaving a track that will become a gully with the first rain. They go screaming through the forest, shattering the silence, skittering the wildlife and filling the streams with silt.

The popularity of quads has resulted in a seven-fold explosion of use in the past decade. The Tonto now has more ORV users than any other forest in the country.

Forest officials had no choice but to try to contain the carnage, and every responsible user must support that effort.

Mind you, we haven’t seen the details. But that’s why the Forest Service has started a 30-day comment period, to refine the details. We’ll study the plans and report in greater depth.

But for the moment, we just wanted to celebrate the release of the draft plan, after such a frustrating delay.

And we urge responsible ORV users to stretch their legs, turn off their engines and take a long, quiet, careful look at the proposal.

Source: http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2009/oct/27/forest_road_ban_overdue/

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Community Voices

“During the past decade, I have personally had six out of seven elk hunts ruined by the careless intrusions of ATV operators. This epidemic has forced me to abandon one prime hunting area after another, only to encounter the same situation elsewhere. The shameful part of this picture is that the overwhelming majority of these ATV’ers are young and healthy, not decrepit or physically challenged. Maybe these riders would be more respectful of other people's outdoor experience if they knew we could ID them."

- Bill Sustrich, Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers