Forget feds — solve off-road issues locally

We do agree with Rangers for Responsible Recreation that what little natural desert the East Valley has left is worth protecting, as members stated in a Sunday Tribune article by Sarah J. Boggan.

It’s so important, in fact, that we wouldn’t waste much time on pressuring Congress to study the impact off-road vehicles have on the desert and pass tougher regulations, which is the group’s preferred course of action.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an umbrella group that Arizona rangers have coalesced under, told Boggan that the first step is to have Congress call for a study of how much state and federal land is damaged by the vehicles, and what the result is for native wildlife and vegetation, and then pass tougher laws against this type of activity.

We think Ruch may have spent too much time in D.C. at this point, if he feels this fed-centric approach will show results quickly enough to save much habitat.

For one thing, there already are relatively stiff punishments in place for riders who tear up federally owned land — up to a year in prison and $1,000 in fines for illegally riding on Bureau of Land Management property, and six months and $500 in fines for trespassing on the Forest Service.

As far as asking Congress to get involved in a timely manner on anything, that’s a dicey proposition even when major issues such as the Iraq war and illegal immigration aren’t looming in the foreground.

PEER is a little more on track when it asks for more law enforcement personnel to monitor the weekend influx of four-wheelers, dirt bikes and other miniweapons of mass destruction, but again, deploying more feet on disconnected, under-regulated patches of desert where there may or may not be people riding improperly isn’t apt to take a high priority on either the national or state level.

If the rangers want to get anything done quickly in order to save the desert’s shrinking footprint, they’re going to have to work on the local level, through educational efforts and recruiting volunteers to help pinpoint the bad drivers, as well as help clarify what is and isn’t off-limits — not an easy task.

The most effective bearers of this message would be those who know the territory and what draws people to this activity; they may be best at explaining to violators how irresponsible use of the roads trashes the landscape that draws them there to begin with.

It also seems like a well-publicized Web site would be an ideal way to get that information out, through maps, articles, even video games could be used to spell out what the consequences of a wrong turn might be.