What’s happened to respect?

saxo-archive

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008 | midnight

Off-road enthusiasts who respect the rules and stay on designated trails while riding all-terrain vehicles on publicly owned land do minimal damage to fields, streams, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

But throughout the West, where most of the country's vast areas of publicly owned lands are, the increase in riders who leave the trails and trash virgin lands is alarming.

The scope of the problem was detailed in a lengthy New York Times story Sunday. Even private property and land designated as wilderness get no respect from the “outlaw fringe” of motor-vehicle users, the Times reported.

The forest and desert environments, and the plants and animals that depend on them, are the big losers as thrill seekers rampage through trees and sands without any regard to the damage.

People, too, are affected, as riders tearing through soft soils leave deep ruts that are later found by rainwater. As the natural drainage of open areas changes, so too do the flood plains, leaving the public and private property of residential areas suddenly vulnerable.

There are no easy solutions. “The government does not begin to have the manpower to deal with those who will not follow the rules,” the Times wrote. A Bureau of Land Management official said the number of rogue riders is so great that “you'd have to have Patton's army” to keep them in check.

One of the questions for society that the issue poses is this: Why is there such a lack of public respect anymore?

It is a question for all of us -- we see it not just in remote areas but also in our own cities and neighborhoods. Examples include people of all ages throwing fast-food containers and bottles out of their car windows, using vacant lots and desert areas as dumping grounds and trashing public parks.

If a greater sense of community could be fostered in our residential areas, perhaps that sense, over time, would be extended to the open, natural areas. We'd like to think so.