Considered one way, it’s an option for non-hikers or disabled individuals to access areas in something other than a car or truck. Considered entirely another way, it’s the scourge of every backcountry trekker, solitude seeker, or species of wildlife that must deal with the noise and fragmented habitat these machines cause.

More than 25,000 ATVs and 8,000 dirt bikes are sold each year in Arizona; 30 percent are new buyers. The rapid and widespread increase in OHV ownership means that our public lands in Arizona are under more pressure than ever to accommodate motorized and non-motorized users, along with the wildlife that call Arizona home. In a study from Utah State University, researchers found that nearly half of riders prefer to ride "off established trails." Of the OHV riders surveyed, 49.4% prefer to ride off established trails, while 39% did so on their most recent excursion. Of the dirt bike riders surveyed, 38.1% prefer to ride off established trails, while 50% did so on their most recent excursion.

Many roads in Arizona forests are either carved out by logging companies or are illegally created by OHV users; the latter is especially true on forests in the southern part of the state where timber is not a commodity. Almost 29,000 miles of roads scar National Forests in Arizona – more than enough to reach around the circumference of the earth. In 2001 the Forest Service estimated that 60,000 miles of user-created “ghost roads,” many blazed by OHVs, crisscross National Forests.

The results of OHV use in even a small area of a forest can be devastating, causing a significant loss of biological diversity on both local and regional scales due to: 1) restricted movement of species between local populations; 2) increased death; 3) habitat fragmentation; 4) invasion by non-native species; and 5) increased human access to wildlife habitats, all of which biologists expect to increase local extinction rates or thwart local restoration efforts.

Roads and vehicular recreation in the backcountry negatively affect hunting and fishing as well. Many studies have shown that elk and other wildlife avoid habitats within a quarter mile of roadways that receive substantial vehicle traffic. While unmaintained roads do not necessarily impact elk and other wildlife, the levels of vehicle use on the roads during periods of high recreational activity can influence wildlife use of habitat adjacent to open forest roads. Moreover, in a recent survey by Arizona Department of Game and Fish, 54% of respondents indicated that off road vehicle disruption represented a barrier to their participation in hunting; 65% indicated that urbanization of hunting areas was affecting their ability to hunt. For fishermen, roads and illegal trails cause erosion, sedimentation, and disruption of water flows in streams where trout and other species like to spawn.

The good news is that under a new national rule released by the U.S. Forest Service, each forest now must designate a system of routes that is open to OHV use. This rule is intended to halt the proliferation of random, user-created routes and create enforceable and maintainable route networks. This new plan rightfully shifts the burden onto the Forest Service to designate routes that are appropriate for OHV use. The new policy cannot go into effect until each Forest completes an intensive transportation planning process that designates all of the routes that are to remain open to off-road vehicles. This will no doubt be an intense and hotly debated process for forest users in Arizona.

It’s clear that OHVs are here to stay. There will be tremendous pressure on the Forest Service to designate every single tire track made by these machines as an “open route.” It’s up to us - wildlife advocates, hunters/anglers, hikers, backpackers, star-gazers, photographers, and others who care about these special places - to come together to ensure that our public lands are not allowed to be even further degraded. While everyone has a right to enjoy public lands, no one has a right to abuse them and ruin the enjoyment of those lands by visitors seeking solitude, natural quiet, or a glimpse of wildlife.

(Katurah Mackay is the Communications Director for the Arizona Wilderness Coalition. You can reach her through the AWC website at http://www.azwild.org/. This column is excerpted with permission from an article that appeared in the AWC Fall/Winter newsletter.)