For the longest while, pro-off-road vehicle interest groups have promoted the PR-message which says there is nothing inherently wrong with off-roading and whatever problems are associated with the activity can all be attributed to "the few bad apples" who fail to follow the rules and, by so doing, spoil it for everyone else. That's the "Tread Lightly" message and it has served the motorized recreation community well.
More recently, the conservation community began using a remarkably similar message. According to their newly adopted frame, "Everyone  has a right to access our public lands, but no one has the right to abuse these lands or ruin the experience of others enjoying America's Great Outdoors." That's really not very different from the Tread Lightly message, is it?
With there being so little difference in the way both sides of the motorized recreation issue frame their messaging, I found the appended article from Alberta Canada refreshing. It offers a stark, and presumably heart-felt, contrast to the carefully managed, professionally crafted, sterile messages that now dominates all discussion of this issue.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
August 18, 2007
Burying the facts does not eliminate the truth about off road vehicles on public lands
Guest Article by Brian L. Horejsi
Crimes against the land, crimes against our streams and rivers and
wetlands, crimes against clean air, crimes against fish, wildlife and
birds, crimes against wild plants, crimes against soil, crimes against
quiet and solitude, crimes against peaceful non motorized public lands
users; the list goes on and on. All crimes documented by scientific,
social and public lands management evidence. That is the legacy of off
road vehicles and their users, not just in Alberta, but across North
America.
This is one crime spree that most Albertans do not have their heads in
the sand about; no fairy tale ostrich impersonations here except in the
blinkered self-serving world of off road users. Albertans are fed up
with this bunch; all that remains for the people of Alberta to do is
clear out a government and the old boys network of land managers that
are protecting off roaders. It is probably more accurate to say
protecting manufacturers and dealers – the money people - who act as
the pushers for the addicts – the gloriously self endowed “enthusiasts”
that desecrate public lands. These are the people that are fueling the
destruction of the natural and real recreational world.
The core group of off roaders are notorious machine and party idolizing
young males best characterized as environmental deadbeats. Most are
abysmally poorly informed about the destruction they and their machines
impose on the landscape. The majority fancy themselves immune to
responsibility, as are the manufacturers and dealers. The latter are
the people who provide the money, they hook “the clubs”, who Minister
Morton apparently wants to “work with”. These almost private deals take
place outside the political and public process, in the backrooms, where
the money men curry political favoritism. The fact is Morton, and this
government, have no legal, moral, ethical or democratic authority to
give off road “clubs” preferential treatment; Morton and Stelmachs
moral, legal and scientific responsibility is to implement a high level
of protection for all public land, native biological diversity, water,
and the collective public interest. That is their one and only
obligation.
There’s something offensive about the defense employed by off roaders
when they take the position that “it must be OK because I do it”. Its
analogous to a child locking itself in the closet to escape reality. It
resembles a deck that’s short 51 cards. The reality is, it is NOT OK;
off road vehicles on public land are never OK.
There is a carefully and monotonously cultivated misconception by off
roader spokespersons that its only the bad guys that cause the
conflicts, the disruption and the damage. Dead wrong. The fact is that
there is no acceptable form of off road motorized use of public lands.
It matters not whether its “the bad bunch” or those who consider
themselves immune to criticism. Any off road vehicle on public land
brings unacceptable impacts; No government can justify crimes that lead
to land destruction and the destruction of true, solitude based non
motorized recreational experiences; no government has the moral or
legal right to sacrifice public resources and the majority of public
land users for mindless, obnoxious destructive activities fraudulently
labeled as outdoor recreation.
I have sat high on the top of a hard gained ridge in Albertas foothills
and been forced to endure the incessant whine, drone and buzz of off
road vehicles obliterating the entire drainage, stealing from me
solitude, any sense of time and place, the sound of wind and bird, the
value and reward of something hard earned, destroying the very essence
of what the outdoors means to the mind and spirit of humans. I have
watched as adults and children, the latter on down-sized off road
vehicles, ravaged the gravel bars, banks and fish habitat of a clear,
gently flowing fresh river, engaged in the mindless churning up of fine
particles and gouging the river floor; Could this be the deceptively
touted family outing to teach children respect for of the outdoors and
its wild inhabitants? As A wildlife scientist, I am alarmed by the
indifference, the ignorance, and the arrogance of off roaders whose
activities and mere presence alarm and often terrify deer, elk, bears
and all other forms of wildlife, leading in some cases to death, to
reduced reproduction, to injury and separation of young and adults, to
extra energy costs, to flight and displacement from preferred habitat
and to reduced energy intake and lower body weights, almost all of
which are unseen to casual observers. Off roaders, of course, are not
there to watch wildlife and they never see those animals that fled in
advance of their appearance.
There’s also something offensive, and deeply disturbing, about
government agents, whether they be conservation, forest or police
officers, who treat off road crimes as though they were “folksy”
offenses. There are too many cases in history where intimidation of the
law, democracy, and the public breeds anarchy. Mob rule is a threat to
any honest decent society hoping to achieve some level of democracy,
and only full democracy will protect public processes and public assets
like out Public land. Destroying the ecological integrity of streams
and fish habitat, terrorizing wild animals, shredding vegetation,
polluting the air, offending non motorized peaceful users of public
land, mocking the public, intimidating law enforcement, and belittling
scientifically and ecologically sound land conservation are not
“folksy”. What they are is lawless and those who trivialize these
activities, particularly those in the presumed role of authority, are
betraying the public.
In a land that is unfortunately renowned for private control of
resources, it is a paradox that virtually no private land owner will
tolerate off roaders “enthusiasts” on his or her land. Its interesting
that these people are not prepared to tolerate the destruction and
abuse that off roaders bring; apparently they can see the emperor has
no clothes. Are Ted Morton and this government willfully blind to the
onslaught?
In the last twenty years the Alberta government and government agents
in what is now deceptively labeled Sustainable Resource Management have
abandoned the protection of public lands and the will and vision of the
people of Alberta and sunk into an unholy alliance with motorized
industrialization of public land. The engage in fraudulent attempts at
reform, as in the shape of “workbooks” designed to contain and restrict
public input, as is the case in the ongoing round of land use “plans”;
dare not go to full legislated public hearings because democracy might
break loose. No small wonder this government and the premiers public
support are in the gutter, or should I say mud bog. It is long past
time that Albertans seize control of our land and reclaim our
democracy; A critical and significant step toward that end is to
provide all public lands total protection from all forms of motorized
destruction at all times, in perpetuity.
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- Outdoor recreation 
