Here in NM I am surrounded by off road options on public land. They are so expansive it’s not common to even come across someone outside of hunting season and holidays. Recently a small portion of the forest here was closed to protect a species of butterflies that only exists locally. From memory it was only about 300 acres out of thousands and was temporary. By the public reaction you would have thought it was the entire forest. To an extent there is good reason for the negative public reaction. But, it is really not about the closure itself, which affected a minimal area, it’s about how it is reported and repeated. The story changes from a few hundred acres temporarily closed to “The forest is closed indefinitely!” People hear this and then do not visit, which really hurts the local economy. My wife owns a small business here and these blown out of proportion accounts of the closures does hurt her business.
On a separate note, I have a neighbor who WAS a game warden. He discovered an endangered mouse on some land the forest service leases to ranchers. (It is funny coming across cattle in the woods… my dogs don’t know what to think.)
When the forest service declined to renew a rancher’s lease he was confronted on his regular rounds by some ranchers at gunpoint. It’s important to note there are many other areas available to ranchers that go unleased. He resigned shortly after and now works for a local oil company helping them comply with EPA regulations. If he hadn’t told me the story I wouldn’t have believed it. I would have assumed it was a Hollywood story. It’s sad he left the forest service. He isnt some ”crazy liberal” that doesn’t understand. He is an avid outdoorsman and hunter born and raised here. He is extremely well educated as well, which isn’t typical of locals here. His wife manages a local store that caters to campers, hunters, and just about anyone that enjoys the outdoors. He very knowledgeably explained why the mice were important to supporting other wildlife. Also, there are a lot of wild horses here and with no natural predators we now see them quite often, even walking on the highway through town. About a year ago my wife witnessed a horse being born about 30 feet from the highway. He pointed out how much damage the horses do to the forest, much more than cattle which are limited to only certain areas that are more resilient to the damage they cause. I was unaware but he informed me they are not native to this area and have spread out from the nearby Native American reservation. He also said we are not doing anywhere near enough prescribed burns.
I recently purchased two ATVS. I am brand new to the ATV world. One is for me and one for my son. As one of them is really old and needed repair I joined an ATV forum which was very helpful in getting the repairs done. One person posted some photos of the damage done by some idiots going off the established trail becasue they found a muddy spot to do donuts and other silly things. One of the other forum members, who is a moderator, said it was most likely “illegal migrants that are here to steal our belongings and take our jobs.” That is a direct quote. Wow! His post got a ton of likes. Common sense has been taken over by politics. People let extremist politics get way too much into their lives and minds. From the stories I have heard from my former game warden friend it is wealthy tourists that do the vast majority of the damage.
The history as to why and how we have public lands is interesting. From my perspective, the same mindsets that get really worked up over conservation regulations are right in line with those that originally opposed setting aside land for public recreation activities. If the “government” had not done it so long ago there likely would be no public land for recreation.
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