Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126000
-; III • ~ t 'Opinion ) on rCl ...... Cl C'J - ;>. :::l ~ All of a sudden my critics have broken loose and written In their complaints. Maybe they're all In a hurry to have their say before p ostage rates go up again, bu t wh atever th e reason, enviro nmen talists gro up s are n o t th e on ly ones wh o disagree with th e opi nion s exp ressed in this co lumn . • 36 On e letter chas t ise d m e severely for poin tin g o u t th at extinction is a natural phenomenon - that 50 species beco me ex tinct every ce n tury. This read er claims e x tinc t ion is n ot a na tu ra l phenomenon wh en aid ed by no n-natural fac t ors, a nd tha t dirt bikes are a non-natu ral factor. All well and good , an d I might even agre e if I could limi t the defin it ion of " natu re" to in clude all spe cies of life ex cept man. I can 't. But for the momen t, le t's . accep t this lim ited de finition. Le t's sec - at the ra te of 50 pe r cen tury so me 500,000 species have become ex tinc t over the past million years. Can y o u im agin e the p ressure on the environment if those 500,000 species hadn't become extinct? It's easy to lose sight of the fact that m an has lived in harmony with nature's othe r c reatures fo r over a mi llion years. Gr anted , the re have been isolated in ci den ts w hen man has used his s u p erior b rai n to co mmit abuses (wi tness the Ame rican Bison). But they arc jus t th at - iso lat ed ab uses . Ra re en o ugh , in fact, to have ra ted a place in h ist ory textboo ks d ecades before J o hn Q. Public knew wh at t he word "ecology" mean t. By the way, I'd venture to guess th at the avera ge person who calls himself an "eco logist " still doesn 't know wh at th e word me ans. Webster 's un abridge defines ecology as: " I. (bi ology ) the study of the relationships o f livin g organi sm s t o their en vironment ; 2 . (socio logy) the study o f the rel ationship between distribution o f h urn a n gro ups with reference to m aterial re sources an d the conse quen t social an d cultu ra l p atterns " Ecology , then, is a study of relationships. Bu t th e wo rd is us ed m or e often today as an excuse to interfere with those relat ionship s. Just o ne example. Bounties are placed on predatory animal s. Short te rm effect: increase in p opulations of the pre da tor 's s o -c a lled victi m. Not-so-lo ng term effect : m ass sta rvation among the p rotected species as their n um be rs in cre ase beyond th at whi ch their environ men t will su pport . If the p seudo-ecologist s would stick to stu dy ing th e rel ati on ships an d stop in terfering with th ose re la tions hips, m an kind mi ght we ll be able to survive ano ther m illion years in harm ony with the res t of nat ure. But "ecologists ' ar e n' t co n te n t to study. Whatever the re ason , in ste ad of learning abo ut th e relat ionships, th ey have set o ut to re design the en tire gre at o u td o o rs, transplanting so me species, erec t ing fen ces to in ter fere wit h the natural ran ges o f. o th er specie s, an d wor st o f all, fen cing th e o u t door user in to smaller and smaller con fin es. Take a good loo k at so me of th e spe cies preferred for protection - d ese rt tortoise, vagrant shrew, lizards and sn akes. Now look at the list o f species regarded as enemies o f th os e noble rodents an d reptiles - sheep, cattle , miners and recreation alists. I most strenuously object to the conc ep t of repressing m an and those an im als he finds useful in order to protect rep tiles and rode n ts. The sa me re a d e r s ug g ests "en viro n me ntal goon s" is a bad term to use in referring to advo ca te s of th e anti-humanity philosophy . Web st er defines " go on " as "a pe rson w!}o is aw kwar d, grotesq ue , stu pi d, e tc." While th e definition m ay fi t , t he cri tic is right ; it is p ro bab ly not the bes t choice o f words. Foll ow up : Th ose vandalism cre ws see m to h a ve miss ed the lo ng In dependence Day wee ken d. But keep you r eyes o pe n an d came ras (o r a t le ast pe nc il and p ap er) ready. The Pine Tree Vandals co uld strike any wee kend. Wa lch o u t also, in the gene ral Randsb urg area . for low-fly ing airp lanes. Take the n u m be r of th e airp lane , and lice nse nu mbers of any car wh ich see ms to be waiting in the vicinity, and cal l t he lo cal police. Major narco tics drops arc bei ng m ad e in the are a, ac cording to Weste rn :-'Iining Associat io n in Randsburg. The mine rs warned th at these men are ar med and dangerous, so if y ou happen to spo t o ne , jus t write do wn th e numbe rs an d get out of the re, pl ease . Spe aking o f miner s, th e newly formed Randsburg ch ap te r o f West ern Min in g Council in vite d rep rese n ta tives of o th e r dese rt user groups to jo in for ces in upholding public rights to the desert. If y ou think outdoo r en thusiasts arc getting a little t ouch y , you o ugh t t o talk to the miners! Can 't say I blame them . Man y h ave spe n t most of their adult lives in the desert with their dream of, if not rich es, at least . making a better life for themse lves an d their families through hard work. "American Dream" comes to mind, b ut th e miners feci they've been rudely aw akened from th at dr eam b y the growing govern me n t by mini-di ctato r. The Department of Interior is trying again (they 've failed more than once in th e p ast ) to push through legislation preventin g miners from sta king claims on public lands. They want a le asin g program which allo wed the BL\I to pl ace a value on the individual cla im and lease it to wh omever it choo ses. No wonder the m iners are m ad . They a re circu la tin g a p etition a d dressed t o the President o f the Un ited State s, as king fo r the d isban ding of the Bureau of Land Man age me n t. It was m y impressio n they are m are in tere st ed in fo rcing some m aj or changes. sinc e eradicating the BL\I is co m p ar able to getting rid o f crabgrass. 'They ' re aimi ng at half a million signatu res . Final n o te : The BL:\I has p ro posed a " bu ffe r zone" around Ra ndsb urg to protec t the to wn from m o torcycle noise. Lee Meri c k, Ran dsburg Secre tary , believes the b uffe r zo ne is being est ablished to give BLM th e righ t n o t to all ow m in in g clai ms. Hadn't th ou ght o f th at angle, but h e m ay well be righ t. N ex t t i m e : B L:\I dr af t of m an agement pl an for Red Mountain an d EI Paso Peaks pl annin g units (i f th e dr aft co mes ou t on sch edule ). Leslie Richards about riding with Smoky Late last ye ar I wrote an article in Cycl e News ex to lling the nearerotic pl easures of tr ail ridin g in the Sequ oia Nati on al Forest. Well, as th e 01 philosophe r once said, ' "tain"t necessarily so, bunky!" I have ju st learned th at a stro ng p otential exis ts for st ill m ore restric ti ons to be heaped up on the head of the veh icu lar recreati onist , As usu al, only th e collective y ou can halt or reve rse th e trend. In the fa ll of 19 i4 , th e Un ite d States Fo res t Service (US FS) held a se ries o f public in p u t m eetin gs t o de te rm in e the publ ic 's d esire fo r recre ation o r th e lack o f it in th e Sequoi a National Forest . I d on't kn ow wh at prompted this p rocess sinc e the US FS has, of all go ve rn m en t ag e nc ies d e al in g with re creation re source s, . th e be st rep u tation for fairn es s in ap p lyi ng th e multiple-use con cep t. However, I th in kit is safe to assu me tha t eve n th ey are subjec t t o th e ESTIMATED RESULTS OF IMPL EMENTAT ION Activity o r Com modity Units Mil es Pre sent St atus "A U "e" "0" 195 Wilderness classif icat ion requires Con gressional actio n. Wilderne ss p roposals o rig in ating f rom the Land Use Planning pr ocess will be recommended fo r fu rther . m or e in ten sive study and pu bl ic in volvement. 2 T rail mileages sh ow n ref lect th e results of i mp lem entation on .th e p resen t tr ail system and d o not rep resent th e total m il eage wh ich co u ld be p rovi ded under the various al ternatives. T his will be dete rm ined after detai led transport at ion p lan nin g is com pleted for the Un it .