User Conflict

With a growing number of persons using a finite resource in order to experience an ever greater array of recreational pursuits, using ever more capable equipment and powerful machines, the occurrence of direct or perceived conflict between participants has increased to critical proportions.

The following links provide numerous opportunities to explore this extremely important, and potentially explosive issue.

(NOTE: Links that are now 'dead" at their original location
can generally still be viewed at The WayBack Machine.)

 

ARTICLES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE LOWER IMPACT USER
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  • Off Road Vehicles Create Conflict in California 
    Many public lands in California, ranging from national forests to wilderness areas, are becoming too damaged - and in some cases too dangerous - for the public to enjoy, finds a first of its kind report.

  • The Great Divide - Trail users disagree over ATVs in the wild 
    The syndrome of ATV enthusiasm and environmental backlash, already playing out in California and the Utah desert, has spread to one of the most remote areas in one of the nation's most remote states.

  • Snowmobile-Skier Conflict Grows in Yellowstone NP 
    Snowmobilers are well organized and represented, cross country skiers generally are not. The Alliance ensures that the needs of nonmotorized recreationists are heard.

  • Federal Land Managers Winter Visitor Use: Greater Yellowstone 
    (While cross-country skiing has been part of the recreation spectrum offered to forest users, much of that use has been displaced by increasing levels of motorized use. Some conflicts have been resolved in the past by relocating trails and separating uses. Identified conflicts relative to wildlife habitat, wilderness trespass, and different user groups could be addressed by local closures, permits, limiting use to designated routes, and administration. )

  • Nordic Voice and Sierra Club Sue USFS over Snowmobile Decision 
    (At the urging of the Ski Touring Sections of the Bay and Loma Prieta Chapters, the Sierra Club has filed suit in an attempt to overturn the decision of the Forest Service to allow snowmobiles to continue to travel in the area surrounding Forestdale Creek Road, despite the increasing conflict between snowmobiles and cross-country skiers. The Sierra Club is joined as plaintiffs in this suit by the Friends of Hope Valley and 7 individuals, all active members of the Nordic Voice.)

  • Yellowstone Winter Blues - Snowmobile 
    (On top of health concerns, park officials say the growing number of noisy, smoke-spewing machines are ruining the experience for visitors who come to the park to see it world-famous geysers, abundant winter wildlife, and serene, snow-blanketed mountains.)

  • There are places snowmobiles should not go 
    (Machines do more than break that experience. They annihilate it. And they do it not just where they themselves go, but throughout a swath that might be miles wide on either side. For that reason, machines cannot be permitted to go everywhere other human users of the forest go. Some places must be set aside for more placid appreciation of the natural world.)

  • Grand Canyon Experiences Major User Conflicts 
    (Brad Dimock explains why he recently quit working as a guide in Grand Canyon. He lists increased pressure on guides, the exclusion of the average person who can't afford the $200-$300 per day commercially outfitted trip, the squeezing out of private boaters, the pandering of outfitters to short-trip demand, and the highly motorized nature of the whole experience)

  • User Conflict - American Canoe Association 
    (More and more often paddlers are finding their paddling experience diminished by other user groups. Most often these problems occur with motorized boat users who either operate their craft in an irresponsible manner that threatens the safety of paddlers, or who operate their craft in natural areas where paddlers are seeking a quite, wilderness type of recreational experience.)

  • A Kayaker Against Kayaking in Yellowstone  
    (I am happy to forego what would surely be a thrilling whitewater trip. If it means not marring someone else's view of a wild scene all too rare in the lower 48 states, I am happy not to kayak past park visitors in my bright-colored life vest, and to remember instead that I have ample access to rivers outside the national park.)

  • As ATVs Grow in Popularity, Debate Gets Louder 
    ("We're losing wildness with those ATVs up here in the mountains," said Hill, owner of Swift Creek Outfitters. "They are ripping up trails. Those four-wheelers tear the hell out of roads." )

  • The Ultimate PWC Repellent 
    ("You have this great sailing spot. But lately, it has become overrun with personal water craft (PWC’s). They’re noisy, numerous, and run into things. Unless you want to risk damage to you or your boat, you may decide to turn around and go home. May we suggest a more active approach?")

  • Our View - Make off-road off-limits
    ("Not only are federal land managers in Idaho sidestepping this movement, but many are leaving in place policy loopholes big enough to allow those dirt-spewing, creek-splashing television commercials for four-wheeler manufacturers.")

     

     

    ARTICLES FROM AN UNBIASED POINT OF VIEW
  • Move over   
    ("This fight about snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park is not about protecting the park," he says. "It's about power, money and who controls access, plain and simple.")

  • Issues split outdoors fans, always will    
    (Do ATVs cause environmental damage? Of course some of them do. Do environmentalists want to drive motorized vehicles out of the desert backcountry? Certainly. Is one group right and one group wrong? Can anyone figure out how to accommodate both groups? Nobody's even come close, yet.)

  • Crossing Paths in the Snow   
    (In a variation on an old theme that has pitted motorboaters against sailors and mountain bikers against hikers, the snowmobilers and skiers here are having a hard time getting along. The noise and exhaust of snowmobiles bother skiers, but snowmobiles are legal and the U.S. Forest Service is always loath to restrict legal uses of public lands.)

  • Controversy cuts through preserve   
    (The conflict over ORVs in Big Cypress mirrors a struggle going on across the country. ORVs have grown in popularity while more and more of the landscape has been paved over. For many ORV users, the only places left to ride are environmentally sensitive parks and forests.)

  • Ski Copters Keep Permit   
    (An acrimonious debate surrounds Powderbird's permit renewal, pitting those who hike up these mountains to ski untracked powder against those who get a motorized lift. Weingardt concluded that tourers must learn to share the back country. "We can't keep cutting up the pie," Weingardt said. "We like to integrate these uses instead of separating them.")

  • Copter skiing wins a permit 
    (Rusty Dassing of Wasatch Powderbird Guides, has said the solution to the growing dispute over the recreational use of the Wasatch canyons is a simple one — share. "Should our use diminish or go away simply because other groups don't want to share? No!")

  • Boots and wheels fight over the trails   
    ("The more dirt-bike trails are built into an unroaded area like Dark Divide, the hikers say, the harder it will be to eventually persuade Congress to designate it as wilderness.")

  • Conflict brewing over trail
    ("What I'm hearing from them is they don't like the noise and they don't want to be bothered while they're skiing," Hollingsworth said. "You could make all the rules you want, but who's going to enforce them?")

  • Popularity of ATVs creates challenges
    ("There often is a fundamental disagreement between those who favor taking to the outdoors on foot and horse, and those who ride ATVs. Some hikers and horsemen take to the trails to escape the buzz of machines and view ATVs as an intrusion.")

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    ARTICLES FROM THE PERCPECTIVE OF THE HIGHER IMPACT USER

    		 Blue Ribbon Coalition BlueRibbon Coalition

    "The BlueRibbon Coalition is an organization that unites OHVers, loggers, miners, and cattlemen to share and preserve our precious natural heritage. They campaign to replace "user conflict" with "user cooperation" by educating everyone to share the trails and facilities."

     

  • Chief Pledges to End Discrimination
    (When I asked Dombeck about him drafting a letter similar to what the previous two chiefs wrote supporting OHV recreation, he said he would rather see on the ground improvements than more paperwork. I suggested that support for "recreation diversity" should then be one of the standards by which forest managers are judged.)

  • Constitutionally Correct
    (They, the self-appointed elite, ARE INSULTED by you and your ATV or dirt bike. They DON'T LIKE THEM so you should do what they want. ATVs make noise, and they don't like noise in their special places, or anywhere else for that matter.)

  • Blue Ribbon Coalition Commentary
    (Motorized recreationists have long felt the effects of the "closed unless posted open" policy. It is an unfortunate policy that has, at the stroke of a pen, restricted access for motorized trail-users in numerous regions.)

  • In Praise of 'Collaborative Stewardship'
    (Jeep Magazine praises Michael Dombeck as a ray of hope to a public that has seen land use rights and access privileges stripped away by "ultra-protectionist green troops".)

  • Lake Powell Yacht Club
    (Are the radicals attempting to dictate how John Doe recreates and vacations? If so, this is as ignorant as thinking everyone who owns a boat is wealthy! It's also ignorant to think that visitors do nothing but put the throttle down and go.)

  • Wilderness Designation Only Restricts Access to Public Lands
    ( The public lands of Utah are a treasure, indeed. Of this there can be no argument. The current debate centers over just whose treasure these lands shall be: the treasure of the elite few or of all of our people. Rainer Huck is president of the Utah Shared Access Alliance.)

  • Public Lands Users Taking Divergent Roads in Debate
    (His newest organization, the Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL) is the motorized recreation equivalent of the Sierra Club or Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). Instead of trying to protect land as wilderness, Huck wants to preserve the rights of off-highway vehicle users to public lands. )

  • Utah Shared Access Alliance / USA-ALL
    ( The main function of USA-ALL will be to educate the public, legislators and administrators as to the true and offensive nature of the currently abusive wilderness designation process, so that everyone can understand just how these designations will affect future access rights. We feel that an informed public will reject the radical programs being purveyed by radical environmentalists.)

  • Blazing New Trails
    (I might have pointed out, however, that at least my ATV did not leave behind large steaming pyramids of fertilizer in the middle of the trail.)

  • The Outdoorsman True Environmentalist Web Page
    ("With the enviro-freaks continually trying to confiscate and close ever inch of public land, those of us who enjoy this land must FIGHT to keep it." {!! a real environmental site !!})

  • Land Use And The "One For One" Proposal
    (The (relatively) small vocal minority groups (of mostly radical protectionists) are trying to exclude recreational activities (and for that matter commercial activities) from public land. It's that simple. They want us off. Hiking and photography will be allowed in the future, as well as smelling and limited breathing. But who knows what else.)

  • We've united to defend access for motorized recreation nationwide.
    ( Loggers, miners, and cattlemen work with us to share and preserve our precious nataral heritage. We campaign to replace "user conflict" with "user cooperation". All recreationists must learn to share trails and facilities. All must learn acceptance and good manners.)

  • Snowmobiling for Greater Yellowstone Area
    (Last winter, I put 4,000 miles on my trusty snowmachine, over 3,000 of it in the Greater Yellowstone Area. I'm here to tell you, I did not recognize familiar places for the plethora of problems, laments, and perceived conflicts reported.)

  • The Closure of Black Sands Beach; An outraged OHV community
    (Whereas once the "OHV" thrived across the state, it has been displaced into increasingly smaller areas by the actions of "environmental groups" exerting pressure on state and federal government, and pushed to the brink of extinction. The current state of the "OHV" population presents a clear and present danger to the continued actions of these "environmental groups, because like any other species, when cornered, and fearing for it's very survival, the OHV Enthusiast will fight back.)

  • Opposition to the closing of OHV trails
    ( It is a discriminatory action when one user group (who believes it has the moral high ground) is selfishly attempting to lock out another user group. If hikers or naturists have a conflict with vehicles, perhaps the Forest Service should consider closing the area to hiking access or rerouting hiking trails, rather than following the all too familiar route of locking out the OHV. )

  • Fight Back! - From: Off-Road.com
    ( Don't give up. Take every opportunity to drive these land grabbing socialists out of political power, and out of our lives forever. Remember, it was our apathy that gave them the power they have. Now it's up to us to take that power back.)

  • Motorized Recreationists Interested in Noise Too!
    (The meeting was arranged by ARC President Derrick Crandall. Participants included representatives of the motorcycle, snowmobile, snow ski and recreational vehicle organizations which have been contesting with land managers on the noise issue front for many years.... "The evidence is clear that the NPS grand plan is to eliminate anything from parks which produce any level of noise above a whisper," he added.)

     

    RESOURCES FOR ACTIVISTS
    Trails of Destruction A Report by:
    Friends of the Earth   and
    Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads

    Trails of Destruction describes the environmental and economic impacts associated with promoting off-road vehicle use on our public lands.

  • "Trails of Destruction"
    An extremely important report by Friends of the Earth and Wildlands Center For Preventing Roads. The threats of motorized recreation are worse than you imagine.

  • Activist Tools For Dealing With User Conflict 
    With effective citizen oversight, the Forest Service has no option except to effectively mitigate user conflict. Here you will find some useful tools.

  • Regulation of ORVs on Public Land 
    The President noted that, though often used for legitimate purposes, ORV use comes in "frequent conflict with wise land and resource management practices, environmental values, and other types of recreational activity."

  • Executive Order 11644: Use of Off-Road Vehicles on the Public Lands  
    "SECTION 1. Purpose. It is the purpose of this order to establish policies and provide for procedures that will ensure that the use of off-road vehicles on public land will be controlled and directed so as to protect the resources of those lands, to promote the safety of all users of those lands, and to minimize conflicts among the various uses of those public lands."

  • Executive Order 11989: Off-Road Vehicles on Public Lands 
    "The respective agency head shall, whenever he determines that the use of off-road vehicles will cause or is causing considerable adverse effects on the soil, vegetation, wildlife, wildlife habitat or cultural or historic resources of particular areas or rails of the public lands, immediately close such areas or trails to the type of off-road vehicle causing such effects, until such times as he determines that such adverse effects have been eliminated and that measures have been implemented to prevent future recurrence."

  • A citizen handbook for off-road motor vehicle regulation. (Sierra Club)
    USER CONFLICTS: ORV use, if unregulated, becomes an infringement on other people's right to recreation. Most nonmotorized forms of outdoor recreation are disrupted or hurt by the operation of ORVs nearby. In a 1988 survey 75.1% of those surveyed wanted more protection of ecology. Fifty-three percent wanted less areas open for off-road vehicles (or to eliminate them entirely) while only 16.9% wanted more areas open for ORVs. Seventeen and seven-tenths percent wanted more roads for 4-wheel drive use, while 44.1% wanted less roads or to eliminate them. Fifty-eight and two-tenths percent wanted more wilderness. This statewide California survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2%.

  • Shattered Solitude: Eroded Habitat (Sierra Club - June 2000)
    A very helpful resource for those wanting to learn more about the motorization of the West. Complete with many, up to the minute, statistics.

  • The ORV Report - Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative
    The purpose of the ORV report is to contribute to this dialogue by exploring one of the many types of expanding trail use, off-road vehicles (ORVs).

  • Hostile Waters:The Impacts of Personal Watercraft Use on Waterway Recreation
    The product of careful research and thoughtful analysis, Hostile Waters breaks new ground by providing the most comprehensive examination to date of personal watercraft (PWC) involvement in accidents and the impacts PWC use has on other forms of waterway recreation.

  • Sierra Club ORV Web Page
    Updated regularly with Action Alerts and evolving information.

  • Off-Road Vehicles on America’s National Forests: WildlandsCPR
    An excellent resource for those interested in road removal or in protecting public lands from Off-Road Vehicle caused damage.

  • Links to Dozens of Motorhead Web Sites
    Learn more about those organizations most dedicated to motorizing public lands.

  • American Recreation Coalition's Favorite Web Sites
    These are the organization working most diligently to Commercialize, Privatize and Motorize America's wild lands.

  • The Wiseguys' Book of Truths
    Tactics and vocabulary for recreational Wiseguys to prolong the legal use of off-road recreational vehicles. (A SPOOF!)

  • Motorized Recreation Conflict Reporting Form
    Unless federal land managers are made aware that conflict is occurring, they are unlikely to act. The following reporting form has developed by Wild Wilderness and can easily be adapted for use by activists organizations wherever user conflict is occurring.

  • USFS Memoranda of Understanding
    The US Forest Service has signed contractual obligations to service the motorized user community. These documents are available in their entirety.

     

    NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW CONFLICTS
    Coming Soon to a Wilderness Near You!

     

  • All-Terrain Skate Opens Up Whole New Playing Ground 
    Rollerblade, Inc. introduces the in-line skate equivalent of a sport utility vehicle. The Coyote™ skate by Rollerblade is designed for skaters to go into the back country. Dirt paths and rocks, previously reserved for hikers or mountain bikers, are now fair game for in-line skaters as well.

  • New Motorized Power Skis 
    ZOOM up slope as well as down them while standing on the Fast Trax motorized ski. Powered by a 138cc two-stroke engine, the vehicle can reach speeds up to 38 mph, tackle intermediate slopes, plow through 2 feet of powder ... and annoy just about everyone.

  • The Powerboard Motorized Snowboard 
    POWERBOARD is a gas powered self propelled snowboard. No more depending on gravity to get you downhill, or stamina to get you cross country. Powerboard is the perfect winter sports vehicle for frozen lakes, fields, snowmobile trails, powder packed roads or even golf courses.

  • PolarBear™ Snomoboard 
    The PolarBear™ Snomoboard is a radical new product!! Snomoboarding adds an exciting new sport for use with your ATV or snowmobile! No ski-passes required! You may even jam down a snow covered hill by way of gravity. A ski rope (35 to 40 feet in length) works best for snomoboarding. The ATV or snowmobile rider can "crack the whip" in the corners just like a boat driver with a wakeboarder.

  • "Gyrocopters" and "Gyrogliders."  
    The gyroplane (or "gyrocopter" or simply "gyro") is essentially a helicopter-airplane hybrid, offering many of the benefits of both and several of its own. A major safety feature of the gyro is that if the engine fails, the craft can be easily glided to a safe landing.

  • The Motorized Water-ski  
    The Power Ski's ease of operation is derived from it's hydrodynamic design. It neither looks like, acts like or performs like existing personal watercraft. The Power Ski is a lightweight, easy to ride, single rider stand-up watercraft that is stable and features a non-directional jet-drive system.

  • Power Blades - Motorized Rollerblades 
    Power Blades come in pairs weighing a total of 7.2kg with one skate being powered by a 22.5cc engine driving through a precision gear drive to the rear rear wheel. Max speed approx 35kph.

  • Trail Roamer 2000 
    Three R Industries, the company that brought us the Manta and the Raider, has announced that it will bring a new snow machine to the market in the new millennium. It's called the Trail Roamer 2000.

  • Solo Watersports 
    Imagine... your own Personal Ski Machine® that’s ready when you are because now, you’re the driver and the spotter.

  • Way-Cool Motorized All-Terrain Skateboard 
    This board is ready to take on some serious and e-x-t-r-e-m-e off-road riding. We have outfitted the mountain board with our TSI-21 engine to make a motorized All-Terrain Board. This design offers greater maneuverability than ever before available over dirt, grass, gravel, outdoor trails, and most other kinds of rough terrain. Not for in-street use. Be considerate of others while riding the TSI motorized All Terrain Board. TSI urges you to use this product with discretion and not to the detriment of others.

  • Is sandboarding compatible with Wilderness? 
    (National Park Service currently justifies Wilderness Sandboarding with the following words: "The National Park Service will encourage and facilitate those uses of wilderness that require the wilderness environment and do not degrade wilderness resources and character. NPS wilderness management actions will be directed toward providing opportunities for primitive and unconfined types of recreation by park visitors." )

     

    ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

  • High Country News "Recreation" Index 
    (This index will lead to many excellent article on Camping And Hiking, Mountain Biking, Off Road Vehicles, Outfitters And Horseback Riding, Rescue, Ski Industry/skiing, Water Sports and more...)

  • Literature Review 
    (Summarizes nine significant academic papers on different forms of recreational user-conflict.) [ RECOMMENDED ]

  • Boaters vs. PWCs Conflict 
    ( Personal Water Craft have become anathema with virtually everyone, including "traditional" boaters. This link provides a gateway to a wealth of information on user conflict of all types.) [ RECOMMENDED ]

     

    Other Examples of Conflict

  • Recreationists selfishly sully places they claim to love  
    (The National Park Service could also erect skateboard half pipes along the perimeter of Old Faithful Geyser, maybe open a jet ski concession on Yellowstone, Jackson and Jenny lakes, send flocks of hangliders sailing off the Grand Teton, promote bungy jumping over the Gardiner River bridge and send tourists encased in padded barrels into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Sound like fun? You bet. )

  • Feud Over Mountain Trails Heats Up  
    (These days, there's tension on the trails that wind through this pristine mountain range. A long-simmering feud pitting packers against hikers and environmentalists recently boiled to the surface as the federal government considers new ways of managing access to more than 1 million acres of California's best-known wilderness areas.)

  • Impact of helicopters hovers over Juneau's tourism business 
    ("We're particularly concerned about quiet in the back country, because it destroys the wilderness experience that people are seeking. And what happens to our community by the constant roar of helicopters taking off and landing?")

  • Shawnee battle lines drawn  
    ("At times, the forest actually has resembled a battleground. Trail riders have found barbed wire and twisted nails strewn in their paths. Environmentalists say riders have assaulted them and gathered outside their homes at night in screaming, taunting mobs.")

     

    This document was prepared by Wild Wilderness. To learn more about ongoing industry-backed congressional efforts to motorize, commercialize, and privatize America's public lands, contact:

    Scott Silver, Executive Director,
    Wild Wilderness
    248 NW Wilmington Avenue,  Bend  OR 97701
    Phone (541) 385-5261    E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org