Flashing red and blue lights
sent me a strong message: I was busted. I’d just passed a
truck as I drove into a small, southwestern Oregon town and
neglected to slow down to 30 mph. I got a ticket.
Deterrents work, yet there are places where deterrents don’t
reach, and drivers of all-terrain vehicles know this all too well.
There’s not enough money to pay for effective policing on our
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, and the sad
result is that you can’t find a desert or forest that
hasn’t been trashed by lawless drivers with destructive
streaks.
Here’s a local example near my home in
southwestern Oregon: There’s a parcel of BLM land that we
call the Green Tops. It’s outstanding winter range for
blacktail deer and Roosevelt elk, and it has abundant quail and
wild turkeys, along with poison oak. As a boy, I planted pine trees
on its slopes for science class, hunted squirrels below those
trees, and once packed out a 25-pound rock as a gift for my mom (at
that age I didn’t consider the potential legal issues and so
didn’t consult with a lawyer). A 12-year-old can hike to the
top in about 50 minutes.
But that’s too much work
for some people. Recently, “mud-boggers” — drivers of
huge, tricked-out pickups with big tires — plundered Green Tops.
In 2006, the damage was so bad that BLM shut down the area to all
motorized use. It was not a day too soon. I took advantage of the
new peace and quiet, hiked up near the top last May and shot a nice
turkey. Along the way, I was troubled by what had become of my
childhood stomping grounds. All-terrain vehicle trails had torn up
the meadows and deeply rutted the slopes; piles of beer cans and
cartons, broken glass, washing machines, cut-up fences, and other
assorted garbage was strewn everywhere. We always hear that
“it’s a small minority of people that do this
damage.” That may be true, but a small number of careless or
reckless people can do a whole lot of damage, especially with
nobody there to witness it. In the West, it’s not unheard of
for one game warden to have the job of policing over 4,000 square
miles of territory.
This spring in the Klamath Basin,
Oregon State Police finally caught a band of mud-boggers
who’d ripped up one of the best redband trout spawning
streams. The stream had only recently been rehabilitated from
widespread damage done to it in the past.
We hear the
excuses: “ATVs allow the old and physically limited to hunt
or explore our public lands.” I am all for responsible
access, but the 60,000-plus miles of Forest Service roads in Oregon
provide lots of choices for access. Besides, as any game warden
will tell you, nine out of 10 folks on ATVs or driving those big
pickups are healthy men in their 30s, fully capable of walking.
Sadly, every time people hunt illegally from their ATVs,
trash our public lands just for fun, or use high-tech doodads on
their rifles that violate fair chase, they give animal-rights
activists and the non-hunting public more reason to condemn
hunting. Today’s craze for high-tech all-terrain vehicles has
completely altered the way I enjoy the outdoors. I rarely hunt on
weekends anymore, choosing instead to burn valuable vacation days
during the week. I cherish the time I hunt with my children, and
want them to understand how traditional and meaningful it is, but I
don’t want to subject them to weekend mayhem. Hunting’s
not supposed to be easy; it’s about deserving your kill.
Folks who abuse public land certainly understand the
language of heavy fines, arrest, lost hunting privileges, or
confiscated vehicles. If states required license plates for ATVs,
that would guarantee better accountability. And responsible
sportsmen must insist that our state and federal agencies fund more
law enforcement so our hard-working and over-extended game wardens
can be more effective. It’s also up to us to attend public
meetings when travel management plans come up, write letters and
get involved. If we don’t, my kids and yours will lose what
is everyone’s birthright – our magnificent public
lands.
Meanwhile, I’ve been driving a little more
carefully after that county sheriff slapped me with my
well-deserved speeding ticket. Deterrents work.
Mike Beagle is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). He is a former U.S. Army officer and
high school teacher and coach who now works with sportsmen for
Trout Unlimited’s Public Lands Initiative. He lives near
Eagle Point, Oregon.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
