Off-roaders blamed for recreation area abuses

Who ruined Lower Sycamore Creek? This popular recreation area 10 miles northeast of Fountain Hills is littered with cans, bottles, furniture, burned-out cars and large kitchen appliances perforated with bullet holes. Steep hillsides are scarred by trails.

Off-highway vehicle enthusiasts consider Lower Sycamore a favorite destination, so many conservationists fault them for the man-made disaster. Adding to their culpability is a new survey showing game and fish experts nationwide blame all-terrain vehicles for ruining the environment for sportsmen.

But an executive with the Arizona OHV Coalition wants to stop the blame in its tracks.

“When was the last time you saw a refrigerator on the back of a motorcycle, coming in to be dumped?” Jeff Gursh said. “You don’t.”

Lower Sycamore will be the site of a Tonto National Forest cleanup event on Saturday, which is National Public Lands Day.

Registration starts at 7 a.m. at Lower Sycamore’s entrance on Forest Road 403, off state Route 87. The cleanup begins immediately after registration and will continue until around 3 p.m.

With the number of off-highway vehicles quadrupling from 1996 to 2006, Lower Sycamore has turned into the local battleground over the environmental effects of the machines and their drivers.

The Arizona’s Wildlife Federation’s vice president of conservation, John Koleszar, has a blunt description for Lower Sycamore: “Absolutely destroyed.”

Koleszar sees the negative effects of the vehicles statewide, with early-morning riders scaring wildlife during hunting season, and irresponsible hunters shooting from the seats of their vehicles.

“There are a lot of responsible people, but I’m not putting them at anything more than 30 percent, 40 percent (of all riders),” Koleszar said.

That sentiment is echoed in a survey released Thursday by the conservationist group Izaak Walton League of America.

Fish and wildlife managers from every state were asked their opinions of off-highway vehicle activity and its effect on the environment. A majority said those vehicles negatively impact hunting and fishing in their states.

“Our survey points to the need for more enforcement to protect hunting and fishing,” Kevin Proescholdt, director of the league’s Wilderness and Public Lands Program and conductor of the study, said in a statement.

Actually, Gursh agrees with the sentiment expressed by Proescholdt.

With enforcement, Gursh said, off-highway vehicle riders would know trails’ locations, and those who strayed to create a “wildcat” trail would be stopped. Hunters shooting firearms while on the vehicles could be cited.

But, Gursh added, many of the problems seen at Lower Sycamore cannot be solved through regulations.

Due to the Valley’s sprawl, once-remote forest land is now a short drive away.

A second clean-up event in the Tonto National forest is taking place at the same time Saturday. Anyone desiring to pick up rubbish on the Lower Salt River should meet at the Blue Point Bridge at 7 a.m.

Meanwhile, the Arizona OHV Coalition is holding its own event that day, at the Desert Wells Multiuse Area, near Gold Canyon.

Volunteers should come to Milepost 207 on U.S. Highway 60, three miles southeast of Apace Junction, before 7 a.m. People are needed to pick up litter, and assist in maintaining signs and fences.

Also, there will be training for the new OHV Ambassador Program. This a partnership involving state and federal agencies, organized by OHV officials, to enhance and preserve motorized recreation opportunities in Arizona.

Volunteers are asked to bring their own tools (shovels, rakes, fencing pliers) and gloves. Drinking water and food will be provided.