Shifting the Recreational Paradigm, by Aaron Clark

In 2006, the US Forest Service identified unmanaged off-road vehicle recreation as one of the four greatest threats facing our National Forests. Coincidentally, it doesn’t take to great a stretch to closely link two of the remaining three threats to off-road vehicle (ORV) use-habitat fragmentation/loss of open space and invasive species. ORV users continue to illegally create and demand an ever expanding network of routes which further fragment wildlife and the habitat that they rely upon, while use of these routes leads to an increased spread of invasive species deep into the backcountry.

Years were spent trying to convince the public and the agency that uncontrolled ORV use was an increasing threat to our precious public lands. While people were fighting oil and gas leases, logging operations, and seeking Wilderness designation, ORVs were systematically altering the landscape by carving routes deeper into the backcountry than previously possible-further degrading the last remaining wild places on our public lands. During this period, the use of ORVs grew by nearly 300%. But sometime during 2005/2006-when the Forest Service released the National Travel Management Rule in November of 2005 requiring all forests to restrict ORVs to designated routes-a subtle change occurred. Nearly overnight, the public and many in the management agencies seemed to finally ‘get it’ that ORVs were causing irreparable damage and the issue needed to be addressed. This was significant, as before people were either ignoring the problem or completely oblivious to it. Finally, we could start addressing the solution.   The time had come to completely shift how recreation was managed on our public lands.

Unfortunately, herein lays the current challenge. While land managers were finally willing to acknowledge the problem, they have been less than willing to take the steps necessary to adequately address it for fear of a backlash from the less than 10% of Americans that use ORVs. Even with the “Four Threats” and the 2005 Rulemaking, the agencies and the public have been reluctant to take the appropriate measures to truly solve this problem-opting instead to put little band-aids on each hemorrhaging wound. Meanwhile, the threat continues, and as we crawl towards success in this non-dramatic fashion, ORV users are reveling in the remaining glory days of near unrestricted use on many Forests and BLM landscapes across the country-each day/month/year they migrate to the next unregulated landscape when the current favorite is faced with unwanted closures.

Despite the little changes that are occurring-the closures, the travel maps, the reroutes-the reality is that the landscapes that make up the majority of our public lands in the Southern Rockies and across the country remain intensely and unsustainably motorized. No wonder hunters are coming forth in mass complaining of the loss of quality experiences-more then 95% of the federal land game units in Colorado are predominately motorized play zones. Our culture has long since left the notion of utilizing motorized vehicles for innocent exploration, instead, ORVs are now tools for exploitation. As a result, those seeking quiet (non-motorized) human powered activities such as wildlife watching, birding, hiking, biking, ski touring, and traditional hunting and angling have been pushed onto the remaining islands of quiet surrounded by an ocean of loud and dusty ATV and dirtbike trails, extreme rock-crawl routes and jeep roads lacing the lands.

The solution we really need, and need quickly, is a dramatic shift in the recreational paradigm. Agency mangers must stop being demand driven and start being resource driven in the way they prioritize land management. Everyone has a right to enjoy our public lands but no one has the right to ruin it for everyone else. If we want future generations to be able to enjoy the natural beauty of these public lands then we must reverse this trend so that ORV use is restricted down to a few small “islands” that can be proven sustainable and the remaining lands are in an “ocean” of quiet-where one can easily find solitude and enjoy the natural sights, sounds, and smells of nature. This can be done but can only be achieved through strong leadership and with the support of a public that is unwilling to accept anything less. All quiet recreationists and conservations must engage in the management plans that are occurring on our public lands so that the agency can hear loud and clear that the time has come to regain control and through it secure the future of our public lands.  To get involved and be linked with a local group addressing this issue, contact Aaron Clark with the Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance.

Aaron Clark is the Recreation Campaign Director for the Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance (SRCA)  –  an ad-hoc alliance of more than 26 recreation and conservation organizations in Colorado and Southern Wyoming. Aaron can be reached by phone at 303.324.7031, or by email at aaron@quiet-trails.org .