'Renegade Wheelers'

This weekend, Karl Forsgaard made an interesting statement regarding the temporary opening of the rock garden this summer at Reiter. There is talk of opening it, but DNR will not provide a trailhead for parking. This means that 50-100 people would have to park in a place for 8 vehicles. His quote:

"ORV Users should look into doing a reservation system, much like the backcountry hikers do." -Karl Forsgaard

Theres a few issues with this, first it just wouldn't work. the administrative work to make this happen just isn't possible. Also, people wouldn't respect it. Why? Lets say that ALL hiking in Western washington was illegal, except for a 5000 acre park in Skagit county. No snoqualmie, no north bend, no Wallace falls. Now lets say you open up 'little si' to reservation only, for 10 hikers. Do you REALLY think people would adhere to this? And better, do you think hikers would be LEGAL and not hike ANYWHERE from King to Whatcom co? Of course not. They'd hike where they want. Would they be labeled 'renegade hikers'?

Unfortunately, the above scenario is exactly what is happening in Western Washington. You've pushed a group of 5000-9000 ORV users into a 5000 acre plot, which is walker valley. The environmental community wants to see ORV use go away. What they don't understand is that it won't. So now you have these 'renegade wheelers' going wherever they want.

In the past, there were many undesignated ORV areas, which were all 'legal'. DNR clamped down on this in the past 5 years, with Reiter being the last major area to be closed, to be reopened as an ORV park. However, signs are having less and less effect in many counties. There were 20 rigs on HWY 2, going east of Reiter to wheel. We're seeing 30-60 people up in Whatcom county at one landscape, another group of 10-15 on another.

Are these people renegades? from a purely legal sense, yes. Are they doing something 'morally wrong'? Not for those ORV users that respect the environment: avoiding creeks/streams, wetlands, and other areas that can cause long term damage to fish and other habitat. These people who wheel illegally I don't consider renegades. They're taking control of their sport, and taking an active role to make sustainable trails until they're approved by DNR. Until designated parks are created that can meet capacity, I hope these users continue to wheel illegally, but sustainably, so that DNR can't easily sweep our user base under the rug as a small group of 'renegade wheelers'.