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Friday, May 3, 2002 | 10:18 a.m.

Letter: Off-road folks care for the land they use

Regarding David Gregory's April 29 letter, in which he stated his views of the off-road community and its "ignorance" to wildlife and land use:

If ignorance is going to be assigned, then Mr. Gregory might want to look a little closer to home. The off-road community probably devotes more time to preserving our public lands than most self-proclaimed "environmentalists" ever even think of doing themselves.

As a member of the Southern Nevada Off Road Enthusiasts, I am proud to say we give back a lot more than we take. We have several "Guzzler Runs" each year where we inspect and repair watering sights for animals all over Southern Nevada. We have several clean-up projects throughout the year -- these involve picking an area and cleaning up the garbage that our fellow Nevadans dump in our desert. We give money to several charities throughout the year.

We also do something else very important to our community: We create an atmosphere for families to come and enjoy a sport that everyone can be involved in. Would you prefer that our children be in the desert riding in race cars or on motorcycles and spending time with their families, or should we just let them run the streets with no direction?

There really isn't a need to remind people of the fact that we run on existing trails and roads because I think we all know that they already know that. As for our being revoked of our permit to race, the allegations for which we were "cited" were unfounded and our permits reinstated.

As for "untouched" land, let's just leave this as a parting thought: One of the courses that was run at one time is where Spanish Trails sits now. So much for nature there.

MELISSA SHEPARD