I'd like to see another option added to your poll, Del.
"Doesn't matter, there are plenty of places where you can go on an average weekend and take pictures of trail abuse."
That would be my vote. Do you think the people that are trying to shut us down don't go out and snap pics every weekend? Heck, many areas are abused enough that you don't need to catch anybody in the act, just take a couple of pics of tire tracks through vegetation, some spilled oil, etc. Here's a good example (see the bold statement):
Excerpted from:
Sierra Citizen: One Big Urban Forest
By: Tim Holt, Sierra Citizen
Published: Jun 26, 2006 at 08:15
Like the mountain bikers, motorized recreationists are well organized. They have developed a close, symbiotic relationship with the overseers of public lands in the area, especially the Forest Service. And their numbers are increasing dramatically.
David Michael, who supervises off-highway vehicle (OHV) use in the Tahoe National Forest, says OHV owners in the U.S. shot up from 5 million in 1972 to 51 million in 2006. "The baby boomers aren't out there hiking as much as they used to," states Michael. "They're buying an ATV or a motorcycle and taking their grandkids out on it."
Indeed, it seems that much of the country's adult population - baby boomers and others - regard the idea of tramping through the woods with a backpack and a pair of hiking boots as just too much work.
"The whole world is becoming a drive-to environment," laments former park ranger Jordan Fisher-Smith, author of Nature Noir.
Critical OHV Issues
In an age of tightening federal budgets, federal public lands managers rely heavily on OHV clubs to help with everything from trail maintenance to cleaning restrooms.
Currently, these clubs and others who recreate in the Tahoe National Forest are participating in a comprehensive review of how much public access should be allowed in the forest's 847,245 acres. All current trails, legal and illegal, have been included in a recently completed map, and Michael and other Forest Service officials are mulling over which ones should be placed on a final map to be published by September 2008. Once that map is out, according to Michael, no new authorized trails can be added.
But some observers are concerned that the result will be the legalization of hundreds of miles of previously illegal motorized trails cut through the Tahoe wilderness. Michael, while not directly denying this claim, states that the Forest Service would resist pressure from OHV clubs to increase the number of legal trails, and the main criteria would be to allow only those trails that are "sustainable" from an environmental standpoint. (An example would be trails that do not contribute to erosion problems.)
Mike Bashore of the Grass Valley 4 Wheelers echoes that sentiment. "We're not going to get any new legal trails," he shrugs. "There's just too much pressure from environmentalists."
Still, there are skeptics like John Timmer, a former Yosemite park ranger, who has spent a lot of time fighting the abuse of public lands by off-road vehicles. "The Forest Service talks a good game," he says, "but when that final map comes out, I think you're going to see a lot more motorized trails."
On that subject, author Fisher-Smith advises, "Get on the [Forest Service] mailing list, and show up and be vocal at the meetings. Otherwise, if the OHV crowd gets 100 out to the meetings, and there are only three conservationists, you know which way things are going to go."
John Timmer has already done his share of vocalizing and letter-writing. What has really motivated his activism has been ongoing OHV abuse of a section of the Yuba watershed at Indian Springs, upstream from Lake Spaulding and readily accessible from I-80. It is a popular, and legal, OHV staging area in the Tahoe Forest, but not everyone stays on the designated trails. Timmer has seen plenty of evidence, "kind of like a spreading cancer," of OHV abuse: ruts carved all over the forest floor, trampled brush, and extensive cuts in the riverbank from vehicles that gouged out their own river crossings. One rock that sticks up from the riverbank at a 45-degree angle is used as a "traction test," according to Timmer, with vehicles attempting to power up the rock and then crashing back down on the streambed. This kind of activity, also involving vehicles driving up and down the streambed, destroys streambank vegetation and causes serious erosion problems.
Timmer has led a persistent campaign to protect and restore the area. Repeated contacts and letters to the Forest Service have resulted in more barriers being placed to keep vehicles on designated trails, but officials admit they do not have sufficient personnel to adequately patrol the area and prevent abuse. They have suggested that Timmer call the county sheriff, an idea that he dismisses as futile.
Within the last few years, legal OHV trails have been added to a large area downstream from Indian Springs - a beautiful, riparian oasis of cascading waterfalls and imposing granite outcroppings. Timmer describes it as "a little piece of Yosemite," and he's worried that it will fall victim to the same patterns of abuse.