Off-road enthusiasts pushing for tougher OHV enforcement

Staci Matlock

Santa Fe's Garrett VeneKlasen is a longtime hunter, angler and off-road vehicle enthusiast.

Carol Johnson in Glorieta is a longtime horseback rider and hiker.

They both think off-road vehicles are damaging public lands, and more needs to be done to prevent it. "The degradation (from off-highway vehicles) I have seen all over New Mexico in terms of wildlife and wildlife habitat is tremendous," said VeneKlasen, who's been riding all-terrain vehicles for 15 years. "If something isn't done, we're all going to regret the outcome of the destruction."

VeneKlasen and Johnson are among the newly appointed members of the state off-road vehicle advisory board, which meets Wednesday for the first time since the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish took over the group.

The board will meet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Fisheries Conference Room at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, 1 Wildlife Way, west of Santa Fe.

The board will discuss changes to the state's off-highway vehicle rules and set term limits, among other items. VeneKlasen grew up hunting in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and splits his time now between Taos and

Santa Fe. He said the increased use of off-road vehicles push elk and deer herds and turkeys out of areas where they usually thrive. "The impacts are so much more profound than people realize," said VeneKlasen, who runs the guiding business InterAngler. "Not just the obvious impact of soil runoff, but the noise — animals move away from that."

Johnson has recently seen increased damage from off-roaders in areas between Pecos Canyon and Glorieta where she has ridden horses for years. "The incursions from ATVs, that's what it looked like to me, seem to be increasing. It used to be a really pristine area," she said. "The enforcement has not been effective at all, either from Forest Service or Game and Fish. They just don't have enough people."

The OHV safety board will advise state Game and Fish on how OHV use can be addressed and rules enforced.

She said she's not opposed to OHVs at all. "There are appropriate places for them to be and inappropriate places," Johnson said.

Public land agencies are trying to get a handle on off-roaders. Like other national forests around the country, Carson and Santa Fe National Forests are finishing up travel management plans that will spell out where off-road enthusiasts can go. Trails and roads not marked for them are closed to off-road use. In many places, cross-country travel will no longer be allowed.

This summer, the Forest Service and Game and Fish closed a 5,000-acre area around Valle Escondido on the north side of N.M. 64 to off-road use, VeneKlasen said. "They did a good job of closing it and a really good job with enforcement. In two months, the elk, deer and turkeys moved back in," he said. "It was the way it was 20 years ago when it wasn't used."

VeneKlasen calls himself a "reformed OHV outlaw," who once rode where he wanted and figured anyone who tried to stop him was wrong. But as more people rode cross-country and made trails like he once did, he began to see the impacts on the other activities he loves — hunting and fishing.

"As an ATV user, I was kind of on the front lines of what is going on in the forest," VeneKlasen said. "I saw the biggest problems from user-created trails. The off-road community needs to say enough is enough and rethink what we're doing."

Plus, as a father now, he thinks differently. "What it really boils down to is a moral obligation to my daughter and future generations," he said. "We are stewards of the land and we need to start acting like it."

All forms of off-road vehicles must be registered if used on public lands, under state law. Rules also restrict anyone under age 6 from riding on an OHV and require all OHV enthusiasts to wear helmets and eye protection when riding.

Other members of the board are Murrae Haynes, co-owner of Santa Fe Harley-Davidson; livestock owner Gerald Chacon of Española; architect and off-roader Leo Hubbard of Santa Fe, Greg McReynolds of Trout Unlimited in Albuquerque; and Dr. David Doezema, an emergency room doctor in Albuquerque.

--

Source: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Off-road-enthusiasts-pushing-for-tougher-OHV-enforcement

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites