Access or excess

Spend a few days in the woods and you’ll see, hear, or smell traces of a species that is quickly rising to the top of the food chain in National Forests.

Whether you hike, bike, hunt or ride horses in the forests, plains or deserts of the Rocky Mountain West, you’re likely to discover recent evidence of vehicles.

Off-road vehicles – including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), dirt bikes, jeeps, dune buggies and snowmobiles -- are built and marketed to get deep into the backcountry. As a result, a form of recreation enjoyed by a minority of visitors to national forests has demanded an increasing share of the natural and financial resources of our public lands and become one of the most contentious management topics of the day....