Schreiner’s Media Landscape

Every once in a while, someone, in this case, someone I won’t name but if you click the link below you can read the whole thread, crystallizes an issue so well there’s almost no way you can argue with it unless you’re not listening, don’t care or are just recklessly suicidal. So I’m stealing this comment from New West about the ORV/ATV controversy:

This issue is as polarizing as the debate around abortion or global warming. We have the ORV users on one side and the wilderness advocates on the other - each are rabidly passionate about their cause. The 95% of the population that lies in between, in my opinion, doesn’t care. The wilderness people will say that the majority of the country agrees with them. I find that unlikely. Of the millions that will visit Yellowstone this year how many are there to commune with nature or worship mother earth’s sacred ground? No they want full hook-ups, asphalt paths, latte’s, wi-fi, and an exciting river rafting ride. And these are normal everyday people.

Equating the creation of a rut on a forest trail to the beating of one’s wife or children is way way over-the-top and not an argument that the general public is going to buy into. You will certainly never convince me of that. Perhaps it is just my rural midwestern upbringing. I believe in conservation (my wife and I just bought a hybrid car). I believe in protecting natural places. I’m all for protecting riparian zones and wetlands as much as any environmentalist. Just ask the ducks in my back yard. I guess where I differ though is that I just don’t believe that every mud hole equates to some sort of horrible environmental catastrophe. I just don’t buy that.

I guess I’m in the distinct minority of people out there that loves to do it all. I love to hike, I love to fish, I love to camp, I love to canoe and kayak. I also love to waterski behind my personal watercraft. I love to ride my ATV. I love to ride my dual sport trail motorcycle. I’m lucky enough to live in a state where I can do all of the above on public lands and waters.

A place for everything when everything is in its place. In my state we have wilderness areas, wildlife management areas, state forests, and state parks where motorized recreation is not allowed and I hope is forever not allowed.

We absolutely need places like that (but for the wilderness advocates it is, of course, never enough). I also hope we can forever provide places for people to enjoy a motorized experience - backcountry and primitive areas where a person can enjoy a Jeep drive or ATV ride. I love exploring roads and trails on my ATV or dirtbike. Sometimes I just want to cover as many miles as possible and see where a road or trail leads to. It is a completely different experience than hiking. I like both.

I do agree that the ORV community has its problems. We have lots of ORV users with an entitlement mentality who believe they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and however they want. It is not just a “few bad-apples” issue. For those who want to “rip it up” with high-horsepower, loud exhausts, and deep knobbies we have places for that kind of activity - called race tracks. They’re all over the place. I know because I go there myself. So I do have a plea to certain ORV users, and that is, “Please, please don’t take your race-exhaust equipped motocross bike or your monster-mudder nitrous equipped ATV to public riding areas. That’s not the place for them.”

The solution is not to unilaterally ban all ORV users from public land. It is very hard to legislate attitudes. I’m committed to help solve the issues and believe we can solve them, so that my kids can take their kids and explore these same ATV trails.

First it was ORVs being kicked back where they belong out of Kane County red rock wilderness. Then the Sierra Club gave its environmental seal of approval to the LDS church’s plan to green-ovate downtown Salt Lake City. Now in an amazing trifecta of Schreiner causes, China is going to clean up the mess on the north side of Mount Everest (Qomolangma in Tibetan) and restrict the number of climbers starting 2009.

This will cost Tibetans jobs and income but it needs to be done- if not permanently, at least temporarily to try and help the mountain recover from the relentless abuse its suffered since becoming a theme park for human vanity, ignorance and extravagance. My guess is the capitalist side of Everest, the Nepalese side, will not do any such thing because of the loss of revenue for the tiny kingdom of Nepal and because it doesn’t jive with the philosophy of the American-influenced leadership: Everest as Wal-Mart.

I advocated closure and cleanup in 2006 after visiting Mount Everest’s Tibet side and seeing the pollution, overpopulation and defilement and making it part of my subsequent documentary “Kora: Tibet and the Trail of Truth.” It was actually my brother Wayne appearing in the documentary who is quoted as saying “they should shut down Qomolangma (Everest).” But I agree entirely.

As for my winning streak, it’s great to see progress being made on some of serious environmental issues of our time. It beats sitting around waiting for the Cubs to win anything.

The attack of the ORVs and ATVs on Utah’s public lands is finally being met with official, signficant congressional and even administration support. The U.S. House’s appropriations committee recognized the Bush Regime’s race to allow the destruction of PUBLIC lands in Utah by stating in a new funding bill:

“The Committee is concerned that the BLM is rushing to finalize the six Utah Resource Management Plans and off-road vehicle travel plans so it is not adequately assessing the vast cultural resources which may be damaged along designated off-road vehicle routes, not assessing air quality impacts using scientific methods, and has ignored potential effects of climate change.  The Committee encourages the BLM to provide adequate public participation and not continue rushing to finalize these management and travel plans that will govern 11 million acres of reknowned landscape for the next 15-20 years.”

Is there any doubt that the final, reckless months of the tragic Bush Era will be the most challenging?

Utah Republican representative and grandstanding blowhard Mike Noel seems to represent a constituency of one: himself. If it’s not defending breaking the law by allowing ATVs and ORVs to drive through protected public lands, it’s trying to shove nuclear power down Utahns’ throats. It would be different if his groundless campaigns were not costly and dangerous to the “consumer” whom he argues he’s trying to help.

Utah is a terrible place for nuclear power because of our lack of reliable water supplies needed for cooling reactors and because we are in a high earthquake risk zone. And don’t forget it’s the most expensive and regulated energy source in America. Utah’s public lands are being eaten up by oil, gas, ranchers and other private interests and Noel’s defense of increased ORV/ATV access makes the erosion and destruction even worse. And he calls human-induced climate change “bunk” even though the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF UTAHNS BELIEVE IT. 

It’s clear Mike Noel uses his power to get things done. But for whom? Sure isn’t Utah.

Kane County, Utah’s ridiculous, ill-advised and costly crusade to open up public lands for destruction by a few has been knocked down by a federal judge. The criminal element of Utah’s off-road vehicle “community” (more like a gang) will not like this ruling and it could force a showdown with law enforcement. My guess is that a few ORV operators will have to be imprisoned or die in a firefight before they give up their right to drive anywhere they damn please whenever they please. Such is the price of progress.

Hey, speaking of that- are ORV/ATVs allowed to drive through the state capitol building? That’s public property too.

There’s hope Utahns may be coming to their senses about mixing ORVs, ATVs and all the other **Vs and sensitive PUBLIC habitat. New rules are proposed that wold require these Nature-destroying abominations to actually OBEY the law in Dixie National Forest in southern Utah where the problem is worst next to around Moab.

Of course, the problem up to this point has been that ATV/ORV operators think the laws don’t apply to them and that they can drive anywhere they damn please because they said so. The gutless BLM and other supervising authorities are loathe to arrest and imprison these criminals because they’re lazy, overworked, are being threatened or their effectiveness is otherwise compromised. This is a start- but only if the new rules will be ENFORCED. And that’s the real problem.

It’s not the least-polluting vehicle fuel out there but there’s a lot of it, it works, and it’s a lot cheaper than gasoline. Utah has more natural gas-running vehicles than any state per capita, mostly because we have a lot of it here and the state legislature and corporate superstructure are all invested heavily in fossil fuels. Most environmentalists, including me, are for it but are stronger advocates of electric cars, biodiesel and sustainable fuels. Natural gas is plentiful and cheap- but it has a finite supply. Not a bad stop-gap though. It’d be especially great if people would convert their stupid ATVs and ORVs to run on it. Then drive out to the California desert to play in that sand box instead of ripping up what’s left of Utah’s pristine wilderness.

Ironically riotous and the epitome of arrogance how some people think America’s system of laws only means obeying only the ones you want to while everyone else must respect your right to break them. But that’s what Utah’s infamous ATV/OHV/ORV blowhard-criminal Dan Jessop believes. While claiming that the law preventing him from driving his kiddie-toy truck through closed federal property is unjust, he uses the same argument to demand that everyone else respect his “right”- meaning freedom protected by the rule of law- to violate the law.

Interesting logic- not.

So Utah legislators want to know if the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has a problem with people stealing their money? So what? The issue is bigger than SUWA. It’s about encouraging the destruction of 9 million acres of Utah wilderness so that a bunch of drunk, testosterone-drive knuckleheads can drive their Jeeps over rocks. Like using the Bush Recession as an excuse to not do anything about air pollution, the Utah legislature is using embezzlement as an excuse to allow protected public land to be usurped by ATVs, ORVs, dirt bikes, driving out wildlife and destroying the land for everyone else forever.

That’s the issue. Don’t be distracted.

I get a chuckle when ATV/ORV enthusiasts comment that they’re not trying to destroy more and more wilderness and sensitive natural areas. They’re just engaging in good, old American freedom. Well, here’s the reality, folks: They’re just distorting the truth and their constitutional rights to drive whatever they want wherever they want without any regard of the consequences. And this little development in Arizona, as well as their continued backroom manipulation and deception in Utah, is more evidence that they’re just lying about caring for the environment and it’s really just all about them violating laws, thumbing their nose at law enforcement and the majority of Americans, and generally getting away with murder.