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 The appended article about using motorized recreation as a local economic engine requires little introduction, other than to say that what is described for Washington and Idaho is occurring in all parts of the country.
Motorized recreation is everywhere being touted for this purpose. The worse the economy gets, the heavier it will be promoted. I hope that the response of my community will NOT be to boast and tout their preferred forms of recreation so as to engage the motorized industry in what would amount to a recreational arms race.
Better responses can be made.
Scott
"If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going
to do is make the rubble bounce." -Winston Churchill
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January 21, 2008
Northeast Washington counties look to ATVs for economic boost
COLVILLE, Wash. - At least three counties in Washington and Idaho are
looking at all-terrain vehicles to rev up their economies, but some
residents are concerned about safety, noise, dust and environmental
impact.
A recently adopted Stevens County ordinance could be amended soon to
open more county roads to ATVs, linking rural towns and forest trails.
Similar action has been taken in neighboring Ferry and Pend Oreille
counties in the northeast corner of the state.
Without those moves, "recreation money is leaving the area instead of
coming here," Stevens County Commissioner Tony Delgado told The
Spokesman-Review.
In Shoshone County in the Idaho Panhandle, where county roads are
generally open to ATVs and jamborees draw thousands of ATV enthusiasts
annually, "they said it's the best thing that ever happened," Delgado
said.
As a "business-friendly sheriff," Shoshone County Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Reynalds is happy with the move.
"It's a huge draw for ATVers to come here and spend money and enjoy
themselves," Reynalds said. "As long as people are not driving fast or
recklessly or being a jerk on the road, we leave them alone."
Others are less enthusiastic.
"The big issue is public safety," said Dave Urban, of Colville. "I
don't feel they belong on public streets with all the other traffic."
Urban said county officials are playing fast and loose with a 2006
state law that allows ordinances permitting ATV use on county roads
between off-road recreation areas and towns of up to 3,000 residents.
In Stevens County, a short list of roads grew to hundreds of miles that were opened in the late fall, he complained.
"Someone came up with the idea of, 'Let's add every road in the county,'" Urban said.
Delgado said the next move would be to add "more roads and in different areas."
"I know some are a little nervous about" dust, noise and safety, he
said, "but we feel if it works in Idaho, it should work here."
The Ferry County Rail Trail board, which supports conversion of a
28-mile stretch of railroad right of way into a recreational trail,
fears ATVs will be allowed on the trail, driving away bicyclists and
horse riders.
Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council and a Ferry
County property owner, complained that ATVs now are allowed on roads to
"virtually every trailhead in the county," some of which had not
previously been used by motorized vehicles.
"These were remote, quiet trails people could hike and ride horses on,"
Petersen said. "Now they're opened up to motorized vehicles that have a
lot of trouble staying on trails.
"They have this vision of turning our national forests into a 'thrill-craft' park."
However, Craig Newman, a recreation engineering staffer in the Colville
National Forest, doesn't expect less restrictive county ordinances to
boost ATV use on public lands.
"I think it's going to get it into a more manageable situation, where
the public will have correct information on where they can ride and
where riding will not create impacts that will create harm to the
national forest or cause them to get cited," Newman said.
Ferry County Commissioner Michael L. Blankenship said efforts had been
made to avoid letting ATVs into areas popular with non-motorized users.
Any dollars raised by easing ATV restrictions are much needed, Blankenship added.
"We lost our timber industry," Blankenship said. "I'm not here to tell
us recreation is going to bail us out, but you take all the little
dollars and add them up and pretty soon you have a bank account."
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- Outdoor recreation 
