[Guest]

Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

I just wanted to share some recent bad press that the offroad community has taken. Please read the article from the Sunday, June 10,2001 Spokesman-Review, titled "Off-raders tear through the Colville". http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=061001&ID=s973807

Thanks, Rick

'98 TJ Sport, 31" BFG's (for now), Tera 3", No-Slip in the Dana 44, HS 9500i, SYE.

 

[kerryp]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

That sucks, its people like that that make us all look bad. The clubs in that area should jump on that right away with some damage control and volunteer to police the area or something before they lose a good wheeling place. I hate when people have no respect for things and just tear them up, they should be beaten severely about the head....

82 Scrambler/360/T5/D300/4" SUA/AMC20/Rear Discs/Somers Bros Axles/D30/3:73's/Lockrite Lockers.
2001 Bare Stock Trendy Jeep Sport (everyday driver)
Smithville, Texas
Member TX4X4 Cyber Club

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

The problem is that there are no clubs in the Colville area (where I was born and raised). The closest clubs are in Spokane and they already have enough problems with the bad PR there. To add to the problem is that most of the holiday traffic is not from locals, but from people from out of the area that flock in, tear it up, and leave knowing "oh well, its not my problem I dont live here". This is not the first time stuff like this has happened, it is just that the incidents are recieving more press from the spokesman rag(which by the way is owned by the same people that own inland paper, who have a political agenda of showing offhighway users in a bad light even when they are doing good for the community).

Dan
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing. "
-- AlbertEinstein

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

So some people are making tire tracks on a part of 1.1 MILLION ACRES of PUBLIC forest...I don't like the littering, but these people need to look at the bigger picture, I'm sure those logging trucks and skidders do their share of damage, this sounds like BS to me.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

AArgh! Just what we need, more bad press. Unfortunately, as in any population, there are a small number that destroy it for everybody.

Brad
ORC Land Use Section Editor
http://www.off-road.com/land
Vice-Pres. Rock Garden 4 Wheelers, Farmington, NM
http://rockgarden.rockcrawler.com

 

[JEEPN]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

Still, it sounds like it was written by a tree-hugger, definite bias there.

My gripe is if they knew it was a problem in past years, why wasn't anyone there this year to ensure it didn't get out of hand? Seems like they wanted it to happen to slam OHV's again.

Apathy is just a guilty as pulling the trigger yourself.

JEEPN
Winter Harbor, Maine
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled, It's a Jeep, Chevy, IHC kinda thing!
'88.5 Zuki, 5" Calmini, Locked, Swamped, Rolled, and just generally broken in right!

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

It is bad news when the paper and logging companies close land to ORV use. These companies are usually pretty easy going about land use, but when the abuse gets to the point that it threatens their access to managed public lands, they have to do something. It is unfortunate that there are so many who are so uneducated and uncaring about the the plight of our future public land use. We can only hope that those involved in the abuse will either eliminate themselves through the process of natural selection or be involved in horrible industrial accidents/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif. There is some great off-roading to be had the inland northwest, and it would be a real shame to lose more of it due to the thoughtlessness of a few throttle happy neanderthals/wwwthreads_images/icons/frown.gif. If there is no club in Colville, someone should start one. If the area managers see that there are conservation minded four-wheelers in the area, they will be less likely to push for the closure of the area. Especially if the locals are willing to get involved in trail maintenance and helping promote the tread-lightly policies. The greenies are increasing in number every day, and it is going to be an uphill battle, but we have to fight to keep our public land truly public.

Cage Up, Wheels Down
Jeepfiend
All my Jeeps are in pieces!

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

Agreed - and with all the people that monitor this board, why don't we all go ahead and send in some pro-RESPONSIBLE 4x4 comments? The paper had a link to submit "reader" comments at the bottom of the article.
I sent one in.

94 YJ 4.0L Jeep Score - 53 Soon to be lifted!!!

 

[JEEPN]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

I sent one as well.

JEEPN
Winter Harbor, Maine
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled, It's a Jeep, Chevy, IHC kinda thing!
'88.5 Zuki, 5" Calmini, Locked, Swamped, Rolled, and just generally broken in right!

 

[728]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

i sent one as well

76 CJ7, 258,Jeep T18, D20 TC, D30 & AMC20.
4" Superlift, 33" SSR's

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

I have been waiting for this to start happenong since Klinton is gone and Bush is in and the eco freeks are losing ground they will start whining in the liberal news,notice that there were no pictures of the supposed terrible damage.Thats because you can't exagerate your claims if there is pictures and people can see for them selves and make up thier own minds.

 

[ExtinctJeep]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

Its simple. The commercials on TV show an SUV TEARING up a muddy field throwing debris everywhere! Then some little pipsqueak kid gets his daddy's big pickup and goes to do what he saw on TV thinking that he's on some x-sport show and then we all loose our rights. This isn't about greenies or sending messeges to the land owners, we need to send a messege to the manufacturers to get them to show reponsible use of their products. Its as if Luger had a commercial where a guy goes into a school and starts shooting kids!!!! What does that tell the public?

Jeep (DC) seems to be doing it right showing their products ON trails and enjoying nature. I think that its Nissan that has the truck bouncing across a rock strewn field in the darkness ripping it up. Which one do you think the average non-offroader will be against?

From a nickel, my change would be 3 cents!

Fritz

Jeep...need I say more?

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

The paper actually shows some pictures of some torn up meadows. It looks pretty bad. My club has a good dialog with the ranger from the Kettle Falls ranger district concerning the designated 4x4 trails. I hope that the trails are not jepordized, but they probably will be. We had hoped to do some trail maintenance there. Rick

'98 TJ Sport, 31" BFG's, Tera 4", No-Slip in the Dana 44, HS 9500i, SYE.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

The bad press sucks and I don't like the part about littering. But come on, damage to soil! What the hell is that. There is no such thing. These guys were just tearing up grass, not cutting down 300 year old trees.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

"But come on, damage to soil! What the hell is that. There is no such thing. These guys were just tearing up grass, not cutting down 300 year old trees." Nenofury it is this very attitude that gets us kicked off of public lands. Yes they probably only tore up the grass and made a few ruts. But, if these areas were in drainage areas or on slopes, it can cause major erosion. There is such a thing as damage to soil, especially if it is thin soil, as is the case in many mountainous areas. It can take thousands of years for the necessary components to break down to form this topsoil. The physical damage is not the most important aspect of what occurred here. It is the image off-roaders are given. It appears to many, that the people involved displayed a flagrant disregard for the designated trail areas. Also these people demonstrated how little they respect the other public land users. If we are going to keep our access to public lands, we have to respect all the other users of this land. Sure, a lot of the other users are nothing but a bunch of two-bit granola eating, fuzzy lovin, tree huggin, bed wetting liberals. But, these people often have money and influence. I don't know about you, but I would like to keep the trails we have open. I enjoy the trails in our forests. If you are of the opinion that "tearing up grass" is okay, then stay off of public lands, so the rest of us can continue to enjoy them. We all need to work together to maintain our relationships with the managers and the other land users.

Cage Up, Wheels Down
Jeepfiend
All my Jeeps are in pieces!

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

Well said, Jeepfiend. Dittos.

Rick

'98 TJ Sport, 31" BFG's, Tera 4", No-Slip in the Dana 44, HS 9500i, SYE.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

Well, maybe a volcano will erupt and wipe-out the whole Million acre forest in 15 minutes, then we can stop worrying about this meadow, and go rock climbing there. : )

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

That would be nice, but then the greenies would just come up with some agenda to protect the fragile post-volcanic eco-system. Any way we slice it, we are bad people in their eyes. All we can do is try to get along as best we can. I have tried to understand the greenies, but I usually just get a headache trying to think like they do. They are irrational and base almost all their efforts on emotion and not fact. Nenofury is really not "wrong", but the attitude he conveys is destructive to our cause.

Cage Up, Wheels Down
Jeepfiend
All my Jeeps are in pieces!

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

How many people care what the greenies do or say ?...not many that I know...The press is the enemy, there are just too few greenies to be concerned about, it's the press trying to to control the world, They do it with greenies, antigunners,gays/aids,the UN, and a few other special groups of *hitheads that live in some academic dreamworld.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bad Press for 4x4\'s in the Northwest

I agree, the press stirs the emotions of everyone. By doing this they more often than not fuel these group's fires. There are more greenies than you think. Because of the agenda of political parties every single Democrap in this country is a greenie whether they choose to be or not! By voting the way they do, they put people into government positions who will push the green agenda. My father-in-law is a perfect example. He is a railroad worker, an engineer to be precise. He is as conservative as anyone I know, but he votes democrap to protect his union/government retirement. He complains about road closures and all the other things that come with the green agenda, yet he votes for the people who close the roads. The liberals have a double edge sword. I worked construction management for a while, and I had to laugh at the union guys always pushing the democraps. All the management understood that if the democraps got their way, the union guys don't have jobs. The libs want to shut down a lot of the industries that support the unions. It is difficult to see past the psycho-babble and the emotions that the liberals use. If they were to state their agenda clearly they would be exposed for what they are, socialists! Their ultimate goal is to lower everyone to the lowest common demoninator and take away all of our liberties. Then the only rich and priveledged will be the political rulers. Sounds very similar to something that just failed across the ocean a few years ago.

Cage Up, Wheels Down
Jeepfiend
All my Jeeps are in pieces!