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From the air, the desert around the Estrella Mountains is a tangle of dirt roads, looping around and crossing back on each other haphazardly. Trails carve up the foothills, scratching through the green flush of springtime growth to expose bare ground. From an airplane window, state Rep. Jerry Weiers sighed. "With the city of Buckeye expanding, this area is going to get hammered," said Weiers, a Glendale Republican.
From the air, the desert around the Estrella Mountains is a tangle of dirt roads, looping around and crossing back on each other haphazardly. Trails carve up the foothills, scratching through the green flush of springtime growth to expose bare ground. From an airplane window, state Rep. Jerry Weiers sighed. "With the city of Buckeye expanding, this area is going to get hammered," said Weiers, a Glendale Republican.
The hammer is coming from off-highway vehicle use, and it's coming down hard. OHV ownership has skyrocketed in Arizona, and with it has come increasing ridership on lands that weren't necessarily designed for motorized vehicles. "The problem is they don't have any idea where to go or not go," said Jeff Gursh, a volunteer with the Arizona Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition.
"Rogue trails" have been carved out by people heading out on their OHVs, only to be followed by others, and then others - and before you know it, there's a trail where none was intended.
Weiers looked at this expanding network of trails spun like spiderwebs across desert and mountain.
What he saw was disaster:
Destruction of plant life. Diversion of water flows. A complete closure of trails everywhere.
He has proposed legislation he believes would help reverse some of the negative effects of OHV use while giving these riders legal places for recreation. His House Bill 2573 would charge a license fee to OHV and all-terrain vehicle users and plow 70 percent of the proceeds toward programs that would maintain, build and close trails, as well as boost law enforcement and educate riders about proper trail use,
READ MORE AT THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
SPEED TAGS: Off-Road Vehicles Fight Land Use Environmental Environmentalism Environmentalist Eco-Nazi Representative Jerry Weiers Glendale Arizona Arizona State Representatives Trails Estrella Mountains Roads Dirt Roads Vegetation Buckeye Arizona Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition Robert Blendu Republican Litchfield Park House Bill 2573 Senator Jake Flake Senator Leah Landrum Taylor Sierra Club National Rifle Association NRA |
