Honestly, folks, everyone needs to do better. Pretty much every day, I log onto the internet, scroll through my feeds, and see people behaving badly while off-roading. They’re behaving badly everywhere else, too, but let’s stick to what the people of this site enjoy, and that’s recreating on our public lands.
Moreso, it isn’t just one group. It’s everyone. I’ve seen dirt bikers, 4x4ers, UTV and ATV drivers, snowmobilers, and everyone under the sun doing something absolutely stupid. They’re going off trail, making new trails, going over obstacles that affect protected habitats, and generally acting a fool. No one is clean in this, every group is culpable, and I’m tired of the respected groups fighting amongst ourselves when there are bigger fish to fry.
Recently, conservationist and friend of RideApart Randy Newberg released a video detailing how he uses his Kawasaki Ridge side-by-side, and went into all the ways folks should act responsibly while driving them on our public lands. It amounted to a PSA to the concept of “Leave it Better.” It’s a great video, and Newberg’s thoughts are what you’d expect from someone who’s spent the better part of his adult life striving to protect our public lands.
Yet, the comments section on the video was strictly hating on side-by-side owners. Glass houses, people. Glass houses.
Only a week ago, I watched the internet devolve into chaos because the truck drivers and 4×4 SUV owners, lost their collective minds and made Johnson Valley a rager. They trashed the place during King of the Hammers, and it was painful to watch. Fights were had, beer was thrown, and the whole place filled up with trash, with folks just leaving things everywhere.
Months ago, the East Coast was fighting with ATV and dirt bike riders who were creating new trails on public lands, and right through protected areas. One of my first stories here at RideApart was a rebuff of folks calling out UTV drivers and their supposed penchant for tearing up trails. And don’t even get me started on the Wyoming wolf-whacking situation. There have even been multiple stories of PWC riders harassing ocean-bound wildlife, and doing stupid things close to shore. All of which we’ve covered.
Again, no one, no group, is clean in this. But everyone acts like their group is some special snowflake that doesn’t have rogue agents. That has to stop, as to quote the Romans, “The barbarians are at the gates.” And they’re wearing a nametag that says “Secretary of the Interior.”
Right now, the Trump administration is doing its level best, along with a handful of key Senators and Representatives, to dismantle our nation’s public land, and its people’s access to those public lands. From the Boundary Waters, to Bears Ear, to approving of the Ambler Road, killing the Roadless Rule, taking over Johnson Valley, and gutting both the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management, it’s a full-scale attack on public lands. And this type of tit-for-tat gamesmanship is what those forces of evil want, as it divides us when we need to be united.
Last summer, everyone put aside their differences and fought for public lands. We fought, hand-in-hand, as good stewards for the outdoor places we love. Hunters and hikers, off-roaders and environmentalists, campers and anglers, everyone said with one voice, “Not one acre.” And we won. So it’s disheartening to see we’ve already fallen back into the trap of tribalism.
But these comments are also not wrong, yet it’s far less prevalent than reality.
I’ve spoken about the 90/10 rule before, and in the need for communities to police their own. Basically, it comes down to 90% of the public are law-abiding citizens and do good within their specific community. 10%, however, are idiots and cause the most strife. They get the news coverage and the like, even while the vast majority are good people. In the case of Newberg’s comments section, those comments speak to the 10% of side-by-side owners who are idiots. But you can go to any other group and see the same thing there, too. That 10%, however, is still too much for anyone.
What I want and hope for is that not only do you remember it’s not everyone acting irresponsibly, but that you police your own groups within your community. If you see a dirt biker acting like a tool, call them out. Same for truck and SUV owners. Same for hunters and anglers. Same for snowmobile and side-by-side riders. It’s our job to keep our lands protected and not destroyed. Because if we don’t, we’ll lose them to those who’ll sell them to the highest bidder.
As my friend Doug Duren likes to say, “It’s not ours, it’s just our turn.”