Al, like you I am a photographer.
What I cannot seem to understand is how closing many of the roads will stop the knuckleheads from going "off-road" (as in, into the woods, off the legal sand roads). Like you, I want access to the forest and drive legally. Not into spungs, or marsh, or rivers.
There are a lot of roads that are often impassable, but it appears to me that a lot of the water is seasonal or from nearby bogs. Park Police have to stop the idiots from going into wetlands, and Wharton needs a bigger budget for road repair. I think you are assigning blame where it really does not belong. The prominent posters on this forum have the deepest respect for the pinelands. Their knowledge of the history and geography is far greater than any ranger at Batsto or anyone at the DEP.
Attacking people because they have screen names is not making you any friends.
Your first statement can be handled with a map of the every State Forest and Wildlife Management Area that allows motorized vehicles to operate. The map will show what areas are permissible to drive a vehicle on and restrict the way the roads are used and the speed limits. There should also be permitted entry to posted areas for special purposes like hunting and fishing and the none damaging enjoyment. With that, you have a clear chart of where to go and not to go and the Park Police and WMA Conservation Officers have a clear mandate so they can cite people in violation of the rules. Also, everyone will have to use the same roads and then there will be more eyes on mudding, etc. Oh, and people will have to hike more....it is good for your health.
The roads are impassable because they have been overused in a big way with lots of land conquering vehicles, that is what monster trucks, over-equipped 4x4's (some look like they are looking for the Serengeti) and most dirt bikes are. It is no fun running them in normal conditions they weren't made for that and that is why they are purchased in the first place. An entire industry has been built around using these vehicles in the Pinelands, Wharton in particular. Many people have purchased these machines just for that purpose. There is a group right now that runs 25 to 40 off-road vehicles through the Pinelands nearly every weekend. Not the Park Police nor anyone in this group is stopping them or have tried to stop them. You know what happens...the first driver hits a puddle and the next 25 run through it as fast and splashy as they can. They actually hope someone gets stuck so they can show off their new winch and pull them out. Add that to the wet woods and you have roads with no future and it prevents everyday people from using them in the future. There is no courtesy or concern for anyone else. You probably know that the roads are very fragile because of the makeup of the Pinelands soils, they can't take that kind of abuse.
Take enduro events. Everyone is getting pissed because one event has been rescheduled, actually two the Jeep Jamboree has been too, and they are a group just like I described above. But think about the long story, not just one event. Most enduros will have 200 participates. Multiple that by 12 events per year and you have 2400 vehicles running over a fragile landscape and they come back week after week, month after month in pretty large numbers and do the same thing. Add to that all the jeep clubs, the tread lightly people, and rogue runs and the numbers get pretty astronomical. Everyone claims there are a few renegade people or groups doing all the damage well the is just bullshit. A couple of people or groups would have to be working day and night 24/7 to cause all the damage done to the Pinelands roads infrastructure. It is everything I have described above. When I was employed I was a fishing tackle rep and in the '80s the Delaware Bay would produce world-class weak fishing. Then it fell off. Everyone blamed the commercial fishermen, the netters. It wasn't them. It was the hundreds of boats all trying to catch 100 weakfish per trip each and every day as long as they could. The "it ain't me" cry is bullshit. It is the same thing happen in the Pinelands. The Pinelands is dying from a thousand cuts.
...."The prominent posters on this forum have the deepest respect for the pinelands. Their knowledge of the history and geography is far greater than any ranger at Batsto or anyone at the DEP." isn't cutting it. They bitch and moan and complain about everything they can but they do NOTHING but pick up trash, if that. When asked to join in repairing roads, prevent stream erosion, replanting, and blocking areas so they can re-grow they just complain they have tried but can't get cooperation for the DEP or Wharton SF. Well, maybe your projects just aren't what Wharton and the rest of the Pinelands need. We all pick up trash, all of us, but we are not all protecting areas that need it and preventing future problems.
Jon, I know that you are from my area and I would like to extend to you an invitation to join me on a trip, or two or three, through the Pinelands, not just Wharton....the Pinelands. If after that trip you still want to side with what is not going on then I will leave it all alone. Just email me and I will arrange a trip anytime that you can make it.
