National forests and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) suffer frequent abuse from dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles whose drivers cut trails cross-country and ignore signs posted on closed routes. The challenge of protecting important public lands from unmanaged off-road vehicle use is national in scope and a national coalition has formed to meet it.
Defying Management
Dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and other recreational tractors grow in number, power and range. Users gouge new routes, trenching wet mountain meadows and destroying soil-saving organisms in desert environments. They damage streams, their banks, their vegetative cover. They disrupt wildlife habitat and habits. They knock down signs that identify routes as closed. They defy management and demand the right to go wherever they can go. That, increasingly, is nearly everywhere.
Colorado's national forests and BLM areas are suffering from the onslaught. The problem, though, is national. So is the response it is receiving from conservationists.
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