I am co-founder and president of a nonprofit serving Boulder and the broader Escalante River Basin. The genesis of our group in 2006 was initially a response to Garfield County's promotional plan touting the entire county as one large ATV playground.
Just as the governor is striving for balance, we have discovered over the past two and a half years that the dialogue must be rational and inclusive. If we focus on the worst cases of off-road abuse, then we polarize the discussions.
One classic example: The local ranchers all own ATVs as ranch implements and rightly so, but they share our concern about fresh tracks rutting, cutting and denigrating the watershed. Therefore, we make sure that it is not about the machine, but about use versus abuse.
Our primary thrust has been to propose local options and what we believe to be a better marketing plan as opposed to the present one-size-fits-all. If the county wants giant ATV rallies, 500 machines from California, to romp over in Panguitch or up on the Bryce Plateau, then that should involve those towns - their residents and businesses - cooperating with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to establish logical trails, infrastructure and enforcement.
But we don't want that in Boulder or the Escalante River Basin. We live in some of the most pristine and stunning country in the United States. Our businesses want to promote "quiet use" throughout our area because they understand that quiet uses and noisy uses are incompatible, that you cannot have it both ways.
In cooperation with us, these businesses just sponsored the design, printing and distribution of 10,000 quiet-use brochures distributed throughout the county, thereby demonstrating a willingness to invest in and actively promote a plan of their own.
We also remain heavily involved in the scoping notices, the lengthy process of commenting upon the Dixie National Forest travel plan. When the BLM reviews its own travel plan, we will be out in force, going trail by trail, bringing a lot of local knowledge and helping design a rational trail system.
The crux, however, is enforcement. It is seriously underfunded. And without harsh penalties, riders will continue to believe that they can head out cross-country, rip the place to shreds and risk only a modest fine on the very slight chance that they will be caught.
This is a risk a lot of riders are willing to take; it is a huge problem throughout the West. Any ATV found blatantly off-trail should be subject to confiscation after a fair hearing. That single rule, if ever adopted, would keep 99 percent of the riders on the designated trails.
We sincerely hope that the governor will strive for a balanced policy and put weight behind it. Garfield County is ever so slowly shifting away from its traditional extractive mentality (if you can't dam it, dig it or drive on it, what good is it?) and realizing that our primary asset is at our feet and in front of our eyes - this wild country that embraces and inspires, or, for those less poetically inclined, a low-maintenance cash machine that keeps on giving. All we have to do is show a little TLC and leave most of it alone.
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* CURTIS OBERHANSLY, co-author of "Downwinders: An Atomic Tale," was an attorney and businessman in Salt Lake City before retiring to Boulder.
