Scouting Around By Using An ATV Or UTV - Accountability Or Regulation?

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The use of four wheelers and utility vehicles during hunting season has really increased in the past few years. Four wheelers and UTVs offer several advantages -- they are an alternative to walking, they cause less impact than nearly all other vehicles, they can get into terrain that would turn back other vehicles, and bringing big game out on the back of an ATV is much easier than carrying it out on foot.

You can also find down sides to the use of ATVs. Because they are easier than walking, lots more people are hunting from their All terrain vehicle rather than on foot. The sounds and smell of a four wheeler can signal game animals from a long way off so your chance of seeing game from an ATV is much smaller. And that same sound and smell that is running deer and elk away from you is also chasing them away from any other hunters in the nearby area as well -- this can develop very hard feelings among hunters who used stealth and stalking skills to get into good habitat only to have the deer and elk run off by UTVs or ATVs!

Because Four wheelers can go into terrain that other vehicles cannot, some individuals are making unacceptable use of that advantage and creating an extensive network of new roads and trails in places that were once roadless. This causes higher impacts to vegetation and soils. It also generates a pathway to tempt other recreationists to follow until those faint tracks through the forest become a full-blown access road. The elk in that certain area are then subject to year-round disruption. Elk and deer hunters should be aware that a half-dozen studies have clearly shown that big game steer clear of vehicle activity associated with a road or 4 wheeler trail. Other interesting tidbits from these studies indicate that:

Big game use declines in areas adjacent to roads for distances ranging from a quarter of a mile to almost 2 miles, depending on the volume of traffic, the grade of the road and the density of the ground cover and topographic cover alongside the road. Usually, greater traffic flow on higher quality unpaved roads produces a larger area of big game avoidance.

Slow moving vehicles on rough roads and trails are more disturbing to elk than fast moving vehicles on a state highway.

As road and ATV trail denseness grows in an area, the quality and size of the elk habitat declines considerably, which sooner or later affects the quality and size of the elk population.

When motorized vehicle use during hunting season actually reaches a particular threshold, Elk will abandon that area completely and head for out of the way areas such as privately owned land or wilderness areas. The result is that road and trail propagation and persistent use of ATVs during hunting season is lowering all hunters' chances of bagging that elk and it is degrading the ecosystem of the very animal they are hunting.

So what will this mean for the frequent hunter with an ATV? It's easy - it means be accountable while using your ATV. If, as a group, ATV users are reckless with the operation of their machines, then there will probably be increasing demands on land control agencies to restrict ATV use during hunting season. Already you can find groups, especially other hunters, that are requesting a total ban on ATV use during hunting season. In other regions, restrictions have already been established that limit ATV use to specific times of the day and then only to get a harvested animal.

Nobody likes restrictions, but if heavy ATV use persists to cause unacceptable impacts then regulations will eventually become vital to ensure the protection of the public lands. A more desirable alternative is for All terrain vehicle users to recognize the impacts their activity can cause and purposely take actions to reduce those impacts. ATV users are not distinctive in this respect -- as more and more individuals use public lands for leisure, the potential impacts of these activities are growing fast. Nearly all recreation users -- jeepers, horse owners, rafters, snowmobilers, rock climbers, campers, motorcyclists, fishermen, and mountain bikers -- have been asked to help reduce the impact of their activities so the public lands can be enjoyed by both today's citizens as well as by generations to come.

Scouting Around By Using An ATV Or UTV - Accountability Or Regulation?
The use of four wheelers and utility vehicles during hunting season has skyrocketed in recent years. ATVs offer several advantages -- they are easier than walking,

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