Grousing About ATV’s

I’ve let it be known here a few times that I’m no lover of ATV’s. The damage they can cause when misused, plus the noise they make coming down an otherwise peaceful trail are a pain.

My personal complaints can be fairly easily dismissed by an ATV lover though as the predictable rantings of one of those left-wing type hikers who doesn’t fish or hunt anyway.

But when the criticism comes from someone who is an outdoors community insider, who does hunt and fish and all the rest, it’s a little tougher to dismiss. Dennis Anderson is the outdoors columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and when it comes to ATV’s and hunting grouse, he doesn’t like what he sees.

Some say hunters and anglers, no matter their differences, should stick together, knowing that no single activity — walleye angling to dove shooting — has universal appeal, even among sporting types. Live and let live, the thinking goes, lest hunters and anglers become divided among themselves, and everyone loses.

That said, count me out when the subject is “hunting” ruffed grouse by four-wheeler, a practice I find demeaning not only to the sport of upland hunting, but to ruffed grouse.

While Anderson is concerned with rutted trails and the possibility of ATV hunters success leading to an over-harvest of grouse, he also sees long-term implications for the attitudes of hunters in general if they continue to rely on ATV’s.

Barring that, Minnesota will raise still more generations of grouse “hunters” whose primary concern about the birds isn’t their habitats and the purchase and maintenance thereof, but whether trails leading into grouse woods are open to ATVs.

This is no small deal. Hunters who pass enough time chasing grouse away from trails soon develop keen appreciations for aspen cuttings, willow thickets and alder lowlands. Wear out enough boot leather and you, too, over time might concern yourself with forest management and — perhaps, even — the politics tied thereto.

A trail-loving hiker couldn’t have said it better.

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Source: http://skinnymoose.com/thinkingoutside/?p=2502