Dirt bikes, four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, and motorcycles are the greatest threat to the integrity of Idaho's wild lands and the threat is growing. This is not a question of whether one type of recreation is "better" than another; it is a question of what belongs where and whether motorized use belongs everywhere. Its proponents are intent on making it so. Land, water and wildlife pay a high price for that insistence. Opportunities to know natural sounds, quiet and solitude dwindle as the range of motors expands.
A Campaign for Sensible Off-Road Vehicle Management
The campaign that Idahoans and other land conservationists across the country are waging for sensible off-road vehicle management is not a preference for one form of recreation over another. It is a recognition that off-road vehicles pose real natural resource threats, and cause real natural resource problems, on public lands.
Newer, more powerful, more reliable machines extend their range into the backcountry throughout the state. They utterly eliminate the silence and solitude that once characterized those areas, values that bring human-powered recreationists there in the first place.
They fragment wildlife habitat and disrupt traditional wildlife use patterns. The machines physically scar the landscape as riders pioneer new routes through wet meadows, up steep hillsides, and across open country. Much of Idaho is arid. And because it is, scars from dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles are likely to remain for decades. Many will simply worsen. If an ATV rider can't resist following gouged tire tracks across a hillside, neither can a cloudburst.
Sowing Weeds
Though they were scarcely designed to be, off-road vehicles are highly efficient weed seeders, and virtually till as they go. The result is the exacerbation of the fastest growing problems on Idaho's public land: the spread of invasive, exotic weeds. ORV wheels tear out and crush native vegetation, thus creating a near-perfect mini-seedbed for weeds.
Weeds and invasive annual grasses establish themselves along motorized travel routes. They spread across the adjacent landscape, crowding out native vegetation on which wildlife forages. Studies have also found that weed seeds, caught in the undercarriage of off-road vehicles, can travel for miles from the original source before dropping off the machine to germinate and start a new infestation.
Decreasing Use for Others
Off-road vehicle use has also greatly decreased the opportunities for non-motorized recreationists to enjoy the peace and quiet of trails. A whopping 78 percent of Idaho -- over 64,000 square miles -- is within one mile of a motorized route. Escape from the sounds of motors grows ever more difficult on our public lands.
Our Efforts
Through participation in agencies' planning processes, public education, research and identification of site-specific problems, and legal challenges, The Wilderness Society is trying to force the two major land management agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and BLM, to deal with the escalating problems associated with ORV use on public lands.
While site-specific conditions vary across Idaho, there are several fundamental principles we urge all public land management agencies to adopt.
- All public lands should be closed to off-road vehicle use unless specifically posted as "open." This reverses the too-common situation, in which all lands are open unless posted with closure signs. Closing lands unless posted open removes the incentive for motorized recreationists to tear down and remove signs.
- All off-road vehicle use should be restricted to designated routes. Indiscriminate, cross-country travel off of established roads and trails should be stopped.
- All areas an agency has recommended for wilderness designation should be closed to motorized recreation to protect the wilderness characteristics of the candidate area.
- Routes created solely by constant cross-country travel should not be recognized as trails, and should be obliterated and revegetated.
Challenging the growing problems of off-road vehicle use on public lands is a key component of much of The Wilderness Society's work in Idaho. We are working to seek stronger protections from ORV damage in the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and on the Boise, Payette, and Sawtooth National Forests.
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