ORV use vs a Ski area

As I start working on various proposals to setup an ORV park in my hometown, I'm met with some environmental concerns and people wanting to limit or prevent such a place from being setup. But just how devastating are ORV parks? Looking at posts with photos like these make people think that our sport is worse than building cities.
I don't want to compare city or even housing development. I want to look at other recreation activities, specifically one that a lot of conversationalists like: Skiing and snowboarding.

Now what I see here is this: a large clearcut with noisy ski lifts and people going up and down the hill scaring away wildelife. From Onthesnow.com:

# Most downhill skiing takes place on prepared slopes. This involves removing trees and grading the land into suitable runs. In addition, pylons and structures for ski lifts must be installed.

# Due to global warming, snow has become less reliable at lower altitudes and the use of artificial snowmaking has increased. Snowmaking is a water- and energy-intensive process. In some cases, chemicals are added to ensure the formation of snow crystals.

# Similarly, global warming is forcing ski areas to use higher altitudes that are more ecologically sensitive, even glacier areas which are receding due to warming.

# Litter carelessly tossed from lifts or dropped on ski runs does not readily degrade. It takes five years for a cigarette butt to disintegrate.

# Wildlife is disturbed by the initial construction and nightly maintenance of ski trails, and by the daytime skier population.


Now take a look at Reiter foothills. Above IS our impact. We WANT tight trails, we WANT to ruff up bark on trees, and we WANT to make up for that impact. And many of us are willing to pay for the corridors that get impacted by our use. But to claim that Reiter foothills is creating more ecological damage than say, Stevens pass, is just ridiculous. What you call devastation I call 'fun'. On the flip side, what I call clear cut and wildlife impact you call snowboarding.

If you take a look at North Fork, a place once used by 4x4s, dirtbikes, buggies, you can barely recognize its past use. Its been 5 years since the closure, and its amazing what has grown back. Sure you still see bark missing from sides of trees, but they're still alive and thriving. You can't tell me that if a ski area shutdown, that 5 years later it'd look nearly as it did before any ORV use.

Take a look at Mtn bike use. This was an old 4x4 trail, now being used by mtn bikes and hikers:
This is in the same area, taken the same day on an old 4x4 trail not being used by mtn bikes or hikers:

I find it very hypocritical for the environmentalists to be trying to claim ecological damage as a legitimate reason to shut down ORV areas. Our impact is much lower than that of some of their favorite sports.

"The State’s surveys have always shown that non-motorized trail recreationists are the majority, and greatly outnumber ORV recreationists."

For some reason hikers believe they are better than everyone else. Reiter already has an abundance of hiking trails nearby. Wallace falls state park is right there, along with hundreds if not thousands of miles of trails in and around Snohomish and king county. But instead of helping the ORV community make sure runoff doesn't go into the streams, they rally to get our zone of use reduced from ~4000 acres to 1100. Then they take the other bit and use it for their sport.

"DNR should not allow 4x4 “tube buggies” that have killed many trees at Reiter by stripping the bark off the trunks as they squeeze through the forest."

These actions by WTA and the Sierra club will, and already is backfiring. 4x4 users are becoming fed up with both hikers and the process. Many don't care if there are legal areas to wheel, they just find some secret spot and make it their own. This is bad for us and them. no one wins except the rouge wheeler, until they get caught.. then we all loose.
This is already happening, on Nov 27th, 2009 the Everett Herald wrote an article about illegal orv use occurring further east. This is what happens when you don't manage your land properly.

Don't get me wrong, we have impact. But we need the help and understanding from the environmental community to get them to understand what we want to do. We also need their help to make our 'sandbox' not cause external impact. But as long as they fight us, legal places will close, and people will cause more impact in harder to reach, more sensitive areas.

Its time for us to all come together and work for a common goal: provide environmentally sustainable recreation options for ALL recreationalists built on sound scientific and business data.