When much public land access shut down during Covid my wife and I started taking our dogs for long walks within Greenwood Forest WMA, primarily weaving through the roads around the quail fields. Wanting to let the dogs roam off-leash ahead of us, and as a hunter, I knew Sundays would be the best day for our outings. We’d run into the occasional other walker, dog person or even stray dirt bike, but generally had many fun days with no problems and my wife, who isn't as much of an outdoors person as I am, grew to love the outings.
Yesterday we decided to head out for our first walk since our warm season lay off. Within fifteen minutes we realized it was a bad idea. In that short time we were passed by two separate groups of quads and dirt bikes. One slowed down as they passed us but I still didn't have time to retrieve one of the two dogs, leaving its safety to their mercy. The next group passed us at a faster rate, barely slowing down at all. Luckily both dogs were leashed by that time. The road we were on required climbing over a berm separating it from the main sand road. Every other tree on the berm had "No Motor Vehicle" signs posted on them. And none of the vehicles had plates, which meant they weren't registered, which also meant they aren't allowed anywhere on the tract. At that point my wife wanted to leave so we headed back to the car.
As we got to the car a caravan of at least eight large ATVs passed us. I'm not sure what they are called but were twice the size of a typical quad, with a somewhat military appearance, although definitely not military. None of them had license plates either. I've spent considerable time in the woods and haven't encountered these before, at least not in such a group. It made me feel like we are entering a new phase in the illegal off-road vehicle issue.
On the way home my wife was bewildered on how things could be this bad, with a Wildlife Management Area turning into an off-road vehicle park. Working on public land myself, I explained to her the complexity of the issue and the reasons it is so hard to fight. Enforcement was obviously discussed, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to confront groups the size of what we encountered alone if I was an officer, and doubling the conservation officer force would still not be sufficient to safely deal with the problem, unless a majority of them were stationed at one tract at a time. I know such "sting" operations have perennially been conducted but haven't had any long-lasting effect.
I know this issue has been discussed ad nauseam on this site, and I'm neither proposing nor expecting a simple solution. But if the problem is indeed getting worse, as I've observed it to be where I was yesterday and on the Forked River Mountain Tract that I frequent more often, something is going to have to be done at some point to address it. As it is, I will be hard pressed to get my wife out to that site again and I can't help but wonder how many other legitimate users of our natural lands have or will be throwing in the towel.
Yesterday we decided to head out for our first walk since our warm season lay off. Within fifteen minutes we realized it was a bad idea. In that short time we were passed by two separate groups of quads and dirt bikes. One slowed down as they passed us but I still didn't have time to retrieve one of the two dogs, leaving its safety to their mercy. The next group passed us at a faster rate, barely slowing down at all. Luckily both dogs were leashed by that time. The road we were on required climbing over a berm separating it from the main sand road. Every other tree on the berm had "No Motor Vehicle" signs posted on them. And none of the vehicles had plates, which meant they weren't registered, which also meant they aren't allowed anywhere on the tract. At that point my wife wanted to leave so we headed back to the car.
As we got to the car a caravan of at least eight large ATVs passed us. I'm not sure what they are called but were twice the size of a typical quad, with a somewhat military appearance, although definitely not military. None of them had license plates either. I've spent considerable time in the woods and haven't encountered these before, at least not in such a group. It made me feel like we are entering a new phase in the illegal off-road vehicle issue.
On the way home my wife was bewildered on how things could be this bad, with a Wildlife Management Area turning into an off-road vehicle park. Working on public land myself, I explained to her the complexity of the issue and the reasons it is so hard to fight. Enforcement was obviously discussed, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to confront groups the size of what we encountered alone if I was an officer, and doubling the conservation officer force would still not be sufficient to safely deal with the problem, unless a majority of them were stationed at one tract at a time. I know such "sting" operations have perennially been conducted but haven't had any long-lasting effect.
I know this issue has been discussed ad nauseam on this site, and I'm neither proposing nor expecting a simple solution. But if the problem is indeed getting worse, as I've observed it to be where I was yesterday and on the Forked River Mountain Tract that I frequent more often, something is going to have to be done at some point to address it. As it is, I will be hard pressed to get my wife out to that site again and I can't help but wonder how many other legitimate users of our natural lands have or will be throwing in the towel.
