Our View; Off-Road Motoring Reform Will Take Collaboration

As the decibel levels in the woods rise with the rabbit-like multiplication of off-road vehicles, the debate goes on over banning them -- partially, mostly or maybe just a little bit -- in our national forests.

And the obnoxious growling of the ill-muffled machinery in question is only part of the issue -- as in: Is there any noise if there's no one but the driver to hear it?

Of greater concern, whether wholly legitimate or not, is the damage done by the thick-treaded two- and four-wheelers to the forest floor, including contributions to erosion. Really? From soft balloon tires? Even if they do create ruts, are they that much worse than hikers and mountain-bicyclists? And don't forget the good trail-repair work being done by ORV clubs ... right.

Do-gooding by a few of the more responsible motorists doesn't do much good when so many others blaze their own trails up and down the mountains, we can hear the environmental true-believers complain.

But wait -- you're not talking about pristine national parks and wildernesses, say the motorized visitors; these are our national forests -- "land of many uses," as some clever bureaucrat long ago labeled 'em.

So no one should have been surprised when, a few days ago, Santa Fe National Forest supervisor Dan Jiron turned down a petition from environmentalists and mountain landowners to close down a couple of dozen routes through the Jemez Mountains.

Let's not be hasty, said Jiron; we're still working on forest-travel rules. It could take us another year to issue them ... and, he added, he doesn't see that motorized travel is "directly causing considerable adverse effects to natural and cultural resources sufficient to warrant an immediate closure."

That's music to the internal-combustion crowd, who note that, up in the Sangre de Cristo, the Winsor Trail has been verboten to their vehicles -- yet there's plenty of erosion just from the hordes of hikers and bicyclists.

Well, comes the response from the other side, there are stretches in the Jemez where motor travel is restricted -- by gates and signs. But the gates keep getting mysteriously knocked down, and the Forest Service takes its time fixing 'em. As for signs, many go ignored.

Chances of a compromise would seem slim, were it not for progress in nearby states. In Colorado, for example, the state legislature passed a law allowing state and local law-enforcers, including wildlife-division officers, to cite riders they catch off designated trails. This was legislation that the off-roaders could get behind; after all, a whole lot more of 'em are than aren't responsible outdoorspeople.

What would broader travel-rule enforcement be like in New Mexico? Better, we'd say, than it is now, with so few feds patrolling so much land. And jurisdictional disputes still could arise ...

The conservationists have a good advocate in our state's environment secretary, Ron Curry, who has been on the Forest Service's back about what, in some areas such as the Jemez, is rampant roughriding across supposedly restricted trails.

Curry's official concern is water quality. While his state-government department can't command federal obedience to New Mexico's reasonably strict environmental rules -- the subdivision lobbies have seen to that -- he has the ear of key officials of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, which does have jurisdiction over surface waters.

Maybe if EPA gets into the act, the Forest Service will feel some pressure to enforce road and trail closures, which might make over-regulation unnecessary.

Meanwhile, New Mexicans should take a cue from Colorado, and look, too, to Arizona, Utah and Idaho, where off-roaders are coming to realize that numbers might mean some political clout -- but they also compound the damage done to deceptively fragile terrain. ORV groups should get together with conservationists, area landowners and hikers in an earnest attempt at rules to protect our national forests while allowing a reasonable amount of motorized mayhem.

Source: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/OUR+VIEW%3B+OFF-ROAD+MOTORING+REFORM+WILL+TAKE+COLLABORATION.-a0201791231

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