Support curbs on ATVs, other vehicles
If you close your eyes and imagine “Colorado,” you probably think of an alpine meadow full of columbine, with a Fourteener in the background. A soundtrack might be a rushing stream, a breeze or perhaps some birdsong in the aspens.
That’s the image. But today the reality is different. The wildflower meadow may be rutted with tire tracks. The sounds of nature drowned out by the sound of machines.
ATVs are popular with many folks in Colorado and there is a place for them on our national forests. But we cannot allow them to go every place, all the time. If we do, we will lose the very things that make Colorado special.
So let’s support the Forest Service (and Bureau of Land Management) as they set some reasonable limits on ATVs and other off-road vehicles.
Most visitors to our national forests are like me — they hike, ride a bicycle or a horse. They are looking for some peace and quiet, not an outdoor racetrack.
Bryan Martin
Colorado Mountain Club
Golden
Gee Bryan, your footsteps mark the prestine natural beauty of the parks. The fact you brath in the air and exhale CO2 contributes to global warming. You should not be allowed to mess up the prestine forrsts of Colorado with your presence at all either. The ground you tread may be a tundra that takes years to grow moss or meadow grass. The fact you step upon it kills it and the damage is done.
You ride your bike there making the trails into rutted erosion canals, your horse eats the precious vegitation that grows. What a selfish person you are to say do as I say and not as I do. To go and visit these God given wonders and then destroy them after your pleasure, shame on you.
Posted by on September 13, 2007 02:02 AMthe problem with off road machines is not so much the machine but the morons on them. I see a lot of off road riders and for the most part they all follow the rules and stay on the trails. As with everything there are the exceptions who think they should be able to create what ever new trail they like. these are the one who will ruin it for everyone else.
Posted by on September 13, 2007 05:53 AMto the post at 5:53 am, "it is not the machines but the morons who ride them", that is the problem.
Why can't people use this same logic when they discuss guns. It isn't the gun that is a problem, it is the moron who wields it.
Most gun owners are law abiding, patriotic citizens. A few bad apples who ruin it for everybody.
"But we cannot allow them to go every place"
They CAN’T you idiot. One fourth of this state’s National Forests are Wildness Areas or Parks. How much more do you want? Can you read a map? Can you read at ALL?
There’s a huge sign in every National Forest that says “travel restricted to signed trails”, they’ve been there for decades.
"But we cannot allow them to go every place"
They CAN’T you idiot. One fourth of this state’s National Forests are Wildness Areas or Parks. How much more do you want? Can you read a map? Can you read at ALL?
There’s a huge sign in every National Forest that says “travel restricted to signed trails”, they’ve been there for decades.