As someone who lives near the Dixie NF boundary, I am very concerned about the continuing proliferation of “user created” unauthorized motorized routes. When I go hiking in places that I’ve previously visited, it is depressing to see more and more of these new routes. I know from experience that cheatgrass and other invasive weeds tend to become well-established along these routes, and as time passes these weeds then expand outward on both sides of the route. The expansion of cheatgrass is a huge problem. It is rapidly converting large areas from native habitats to largely cheatgrass dominated monocultures. The fire return interval speeds up, and soon the native species are killed off. This is very bad for public safety, wildlife, watersheds, recreation, scenery, and virtually all other resources and uses. It is also very expensive, with ever-greater expenditures for fire fighting efforts. Unfortunately, the response to this problem thus far seems small and incremental, while the magnitude of the problem continues to grow exponentially. Everyone says that they are for responsible motorized recreation. That’s fine, but how and when are we going to stop the continued illegal route proliferation that contributes to the cheatgrass invasion? I think that a large part of the solution must come from the motorized recreation community. They should re-double their efforts to promote better education and apply stronger peer pressure. As long as it remains “cool” for some people to go off cross-country on their ATV or dirt bike, the problem will worsen.
Comment by Richard Spotts — August 16, 2006 @ 11:34 pm
As someone who lives near the Dixie NF boundary, I am very concerned about the continuing proliferation of “user created” unauthorized motorized routes. When I go hiking in places that I’ve previously visited, it is depressing to see more and more of these new routes. I know from experience that cheatgrass and other invasive weeds tend to become well-established along these routes, and as time passes these weeds then expand outward on both sides of the route. The expansion of cheatgrass is a huge problem. It is rapidly converting large areas from native habitats to largely cheatgrass dominated monocultures. The fire return interval speeds up, and soon the native species are killed off. This is very bad for public safety, wildlife, watersheds, recreation, scenery, and virtually all other resources and uses. It is also very expensive, with ever-greater expenditures for fire fighting efforts. Unfortunately, the response to this problem thus far seems small and incremental, while the magnitude of the problem continues to grow exponentially. Everyone says that they are for responsible motorized recreation. That’s fine, but how and when are we going to stop the continued illegal route proliferation that contributes to the cheatgrass invasion? I think that a large part of the solution must come from the motorized recreation community. They should re-double their efforts to promote better education and apply stronger peer pressure. As long as it remains “cool” for some people to go off cross-country on their ATV or dirt bike, the problem will worsen.
Comment by Richard Spotts — August 16, 2006 @ 11:34 pm