Stay on the trails, stay out of trouble
Off‑road enthusiasts post 700 signs near Granite Mountain
by Michael Murphy

SCOTTSDALE – As more and more homes push out into the Sonoran Desert, off‑road enthusiasts like Jeff Gursh know complaints about dirt bikes and all‑terrain vehicles will grow.

“The OHV (off highway vehicle) community is always blamed for trash and garbage,” he said. “But I’ve never seen a dirt bike with a refrigerator on it going out on the trails. It’s not the OHV people having the raves (parties), cutting fences and knocking gates down.”

In fact, Gursh spent much of Saturday cleaning up trash and posting signs in the 16,000‑acre Granite Mountain multi‑use area in north Scottsdale, one of the most popular local areas for off‑road enthusiasts.

Gursh and other volunteers with the Arizona Off Highway Vehicle Coalition and the Arizona Trail Riders have posted 700 signs in the vast stretches of desert that surround Granite Mountain in an effort to ensure dirt bikes and ATVs stay on the trails–and out of trouble.

They’ve also posted hundreds of signs north of Cave Creek in the Tonto National Forest directing off‑roaders to authorized trails.

Their goal is to limit proliferation of illegal trails–and to avoid restrictions that would permanently close public lands to off‑road enthusiasts.

Off‑road use has grown dramatically in Arizona. The number of registered or titled all‑terrain vehicles in the state went from 51,000 in December 1998 to more than 230,000 in July 2006, according to the Arizona Game & Fish Department.

The rise in off‑road use has led to complaints not only by homeowners upset by the noise, but by environmental groups who say the increased numbers of dirt bikes and ATVs damage sensitive desert areas.

“There are more and more of them, and there are more and more of them where they don’t belong,” said Sandy Bahr of the Arizona chapter of the Sierra Club. “They cause enormous damage to the vegetation, they disrupt wildlife, and there’s a lot of dust and noise that people don’t appreciate, either.”

Other complaints from rural residents stem from unlicensed dirt bikes and ATVs operated

on public roadways–often by underage, unlicensed riders, fostering safety concerns.

Both groups agree more public education and law enforcement is needed, but consensus seems difficult to achieve.

For years, a group of off‑road enthusiasts and Game & Fish have asked the Arizona legislature to require owners of off‑road vehicles to pay for a new sticker annually. The funds generated would pay for improved access to off‑road areas, bolstered education efforts and beefed up law enforcement.

But the bill has repeatedly run into trouble, and backers concede the “Copper Sticker” proposal is all but dead for 2007.

Instead, they’ll push for tougher rules and regulations to “allow law enforcement to write a ticket for someone doing something wrong,” Gursh said. They’re also seeking another funding source.

Arizona now raises $2.7 million annually for off‑highway programs from a tiny share of gasoline tax revenue, with the money split between the Game & Fish Department and the state parks system. However, the funding isn’t adequate to pay for trail development, law enforcement and other programs needed to keep up with the astronomic rise in off‑road vehicle use.

“Much more education is needed,” agreed the Sierra Club’s Bahr. “And that will work with the people that are willing to be responsible. But we need a lot more law enforcement because there are clearly a lot of people that aren’t responsible.”