After seeing what has gone on with the discussions about 1/4 mile and other areas I thought there must be some way to come together on this. I believe there are intelligent people on both sides of the four-wheeling/land use debate but I think there is one thing we can agree on, there is damage being done.
I propose that we document such damage and document other things, such as illegal dumping. I hear different numbers being thrown around about ATV's or illegal four-wheeling cause x amount of acres of damage. Do they? Maybe, maybe not. It's really not about pointing the finger at anyone or any activity, just documentation so one can easily point out what areas are being affected.
It would go like this: You are driving along a road and see an area that has been damaged by four-wheelers driving into a wetlands area. You mark the coordinates, maybe take a picture and that's it. Later on you upload the coordinates to the map and possibly add the picture. That's it. No comments, no blame, no finger pointing, just pointing out what you saw. We could keep everything anonymous.
I think this would also work great for cleaning up illegal dumping. You would know right where to go.
I am not an expert on maps and computer software like some others on here are so I am not sure if this is even totally possible. I'm pretty sure it is fairly easy with Google Maps. I don't want to be the police and turn people in, I would just like to have a map of the Wharton State Forest for instance and be able to lay back and say, okay this is going on here and that is going on there, so on and so on.
What do you think? It's kind of a start.
I propose that we document such damage and document other things, such as illegal dumping. I hear different numbers being thrown around about ATV's or illegal four-wheeling cause x amount of acres of damage. Do they? Maybe, maybe not. It's really not about pointing the finger at anyone or any activity, just documentation so one can easily point out what areas are being affected.
It would go like this: You are driving along a road and see an area that has been damaged by four-wheelers driving into a wetlands area. You mark the coordinates, maybe take a picture and that's it. Later on you upload the coordinates to the map and possibly add the picture. That's it. No comments, no blame, no finger pointing, just pointing out what you saw. We could keep everything anonymous.
I think this would also work great for cleaning up illegal dumping. You would know right where to go.
I am not an expert on maps and computer software like some others on here are so I am not sure if this is even totally possible. I'm pretty sure it is fairly easy with Google Maps. I don't want to be the police and turn people in, I would just like to have a map of the Wharton State Forest for instance and be able to lay back and say, okay this is going on here and that is going on there, so on and so on.
What do you think? It's kind of a start.
