Standing on a hill near La Puebla, the only vegetation you can see is in small triangles surrounded by a spider web of ATV trails. A few hundred yards north, you can see the BLM barrier and non-motorized sign. They have been torn from the ground and a pile of trash is accumulating around them. A little further along, the Santa Cruz River runs brown with the silt kicked up by illegal off-road use.

Motorized recreation is the fastest growing use of the national forest system and that spells bad news for sportsmen who use public lands. All-terrain vehicles are more prevalent in the national forest than ever before and they are taking the noise, exhaust and rutted trails into the last few quiet and undisturbed places in New Mexico.

There are currently almost 10 million all-terrain vehicles in the U.S. and the industry is selling more than 1 million new machines annually. Only a small percentage of these machines are going to privately-owned land. Most are on public land and many of them
are headed right here to New Mexico. The good news is, the ongoing travel management process in New Mexico’s five national forests will designate a system of trails and eliminate cross-country travel.

Unfortunately, the voices of hunter and anglers have been mostly absent in the debate. In their stead, off-road groups like the Blue Ribbon Coalition are fighting to open more trails, talking about access and citing concerns about hunting and angling. Unfortunately, what they want is not access, but unlimited access to further fragment habitat with a crisscrossed network of user-created trails.

At a travel management meeting for the Cibola National Forest a few months ago, a representative for a local off-road group said he didn’t think there was a need for a wildlife corridor to allow mule deer to move from a wilderness area to lower elevations.

“I don’t see why Bambi needs a corridor when they already have the wilderness area up there,” he said.

The idea that a small, high-elevation wilderness area might not sustain a mule deer herd through the winter had never crossed his mind.

Some sportsmen use motorized vehicles while hunting, but at the end of the day they care about the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem. True conservation groups have always risen above their own interests. When game populations were suffering in
the 1930’s, it was hunters who pushed for ?game laws and eventually passed the Pittman Robertson Act. Fishermen cultivated catch and release and groups like Trout Unlimited have worked to restore habitat and protect native species.

Waterfowl hunters formed Ducks Unlimited and have saved millions of acres of wetlands.   If off-road groups like Blue Ribbon Coalition are so concerned about the rights of hunters and anglers, where are their efforts at protection of habitat. Mostly, they protect the right of a few unruly users to pillage and destroy our public lands. If you don’t want your favorite places to hunt and fish to become an ATV playground, then it is time to get involved. It is time to stop letting the motorized recreation community lead us by the nose and to start putting conservation first. Unchecked illegal and reckless off-road riding result in fragmented habitat and a damaged landscape. That means less hunting opportunities in New Mexico. This is not a debate about access. It is instead a debate about rational and reasonable use. If motorized recreation continues to run unchecked in the National forest, hunters and anglers will suffer the consequences.

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