Have not verified the authenticity of this letter. But it makes some very good, strong points and I think we should all read it:

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After visiting EJS 2005 - my thoughts!!

I am displeased, disgusted, angry and afraid!! Why? I just returned from the Moab area after two weeks 'wheeling around and spending time with new and old friends and my family. I spent some time on the hard as well as the easy routes and what I saw (witnessed actually is the term) incited me to come up with the adjectives I started this diatribe with and believe me I toned the adjectives down!

I have been guiding/training in and around Moab for about 18 years and have attended as many Easter Jeep Safari events. I have attended many national and international events and have been lucky to 'wheel in some of the most pristine world class areas as well as some garbage dumps! What I saw this last week really sickened me and makes me wonder why I continue to be aligned with this sport and the people that purport to really care where and how they drive on designated 4-wheel drive routes in public access areas. I am not talking about the OHV parks or the Rock Crawling events on private lands, I am expressing this disdain about the "guests" that are invited to 'wheel in my back yard where I work, live and play. They basically left the toilet full of effluence, no toilet paper, the sink full of dirty dishes and soiled my finest linen - that is how I see it. Here is how I actually saw it!

Displeased! Following "rock crawling" type built rigs along Pritchett Canyon, these overly built rigs couldn't make the rock pile so they drove into the wash and the illegal by-pass made by other weak-kneed wannabees that can build a rig but not drive on a difficult obstacle. HEY! You made the choice and selected the VDL hard core route, deal with the obstacles. Take a strap or use the winch, but stay true to the route. If you can't do the original route don't drive up Pritchett! Better yet stay home on the porch 'cause you may have a "big dog" rig but you are certainly not up to the "big dog" task!

Disgusted! Driving along the route called Metal Masher, my son and I observed where there used to be an obstacle that was (still is) quite challenging -- a large slick rock face steep and tall. It was obviously not enough for the "rock rig wannabees" since they had to move over foot by foot to assault the entire ledge for the next 25 yards sideways. The big moment of disgust was when I saw that the Juniper trees (maybe as old as 125 years) that happened to be in the way were crushed and broken in pure indolence and with complete disregard to the natural habitat of the revered old flora. Just wasted the two trees 'cause they couldn't hurt the tube frame and already dented body panels. Ammunition for the SUWA folks!

Angry! To put it mildly! I was with clients along the routes of Gold Bar Rim, Bull and Little canyons and we stopped repeatedly to pick up trash along the miles of routes we ran that day. We picked up 53 beer cans, 14 plastic drink bottles, cardboard beer cases, a cooler top, and 2 tee-shirts, among other items. We buried 4 piles of human effluence and exposed toilet paper and tried to smooth over 5 different impact areas where vehicles had driven over prime Crytobiotic forests leaving tire prints and destruction for really no reason at all other than to "rip it up!" This was only on one of the many days that followed. There is no excuse for that type of wanton destruction, especially since there is so much information in the public arena about the fragile Crytobiotic soil: DON'T BUST THE CRUST! It is everywhere, just like the plentiful information about HYDRATE OR DIE! Do these people drain the oil on their living room rugs? Do these people even care about ethics?

Afraid! Yes, I am afraid that these people have reinforced the already bad image the general public has about 4-wheelers. So now I have to hang my head down in shame when I visit the local business people in Moab because of the stigma attached to what a few (not as few as one would think) bad apples have done to the desert roads. It just gives groups like SUWA, Sierra Club, the BLM and USFS more ammunition for road closure and to establish more Wilderness Study areas. Because, if those that use it don't care enough and continue to abuse it, the privilege to recreate on primitive roads in pristine back-country regions will be easier to close and certainly easier to legislate Fee areas and restrictive access. We might as well as start building private OHV parks like the East Coast regions have to do. Or do we restrict the buggy types to only OHV parks and enforce lift, bumper height and tire diameter laws. Or do we close "it" all and just stand against the fence and sigh away the hours?

So, yes, I am afraid! Because these uncaring individuals that actually make up a large group are threatening my livelihood, recreation and environment. We should all be afraid what these people represent. I am sure SUWA loves it.

All the insightful diatribes from the vociferous 'wheelers about boycotting this establishment or that business amounts to NOTHING and falls on deaf ears when ones backyard is so scurrilously vandalized by what Edward Abbey once coined as "SLOBIVIUS AMERICANUS" are doing to our sport and our land.

Everyone that operates a motorized vehicle should be required to read "Desert Solitaire" by Abbey, in order to get a license. There needs to be a resurgence of a new ethic for the way 'wheelers should treat this fragile land we are loving to death and closure.

If you build a "rock buggy" type rig so you can attack and conquer, then by all means use it to that end in the area or park made for that. But when'wheeling on established 4wd routes, stay on the road and enjoy the journey not the thrill of conquering big rocks off the route and smashing trees and rolling over Cryptobiotic soil. Back country travel and 4-wheeling is about the journey, not fighting nature with machine. If you are one of those that needs to fight nature then go SWIM WITH THE SHARKS! I am sure they will have fun with your body. And we that share an environmental ethic will not even remotely miss. Can you say: "Gene pool selection" and Darwin awards?

Displeased because these "slobivius americanus" exist and recreate with impunity.

Disgusted these people can actually hold a driver's license and call themselves 4-wheelers.

Angry there are so many of these "bad apples" that the numbers are getting larger and those that care about ethics seem to be getting smaller.

Afraid that the actions of these uncaring, indolent, boorish imbeciles will drive the general public and land managing agencies to start really pushing for road closure, vehicle build restrictions and more government interference.

We should all be afraid. We should all care about environmental ethics and appropriate behavior when operating motorized vehicles on public access lands especially in fragile remote regions.

We need to WAKE UP and start working on the tarnished image that seems to be getting more tarnished as we drive along.

Bill Burke

We have letters like this every year. I've not met the author and I question his motives. If you are looking for problems, I assure you they can be found. Blaming the Jeep Safari and its registered participants doesn't follow from that.

Anyone that subscribes to the local hometown rag of a newspaper, the "Times Independent", commonly called the Times Ignorante, can find many examples of the above type of letter.

If anything the situation has gotten signifiantly better over the years, not worse. Its easy to write a letter and blame people that may or may not have been in the places named and doing the things suggested. I could probably write a letter claiming to have seen all types of hikers and eco freakes distributing trash around. Doesn't make it true.

I'm a relative newcomer to the Jeep Safari/Moab, this only being my 21st year. In all that time I've never seen any registered participants doing any of the mentioned dirty deeds. Part of the problem we have is that anyone coming to Moab during our time period is automatically associated with us and our event and we are very convenient to blame.

I do look back at the 'old days'. That was before the influx of people from the coast that had so ruined their own homes with regulations that they decided to export the insanity to a nicer place. One year, probably 1986, my oldest son picked up 5 full bags of trash on Hells Revenge trail. Doesn't sound like a lot for a trail that is maybe 10 miles long, except that we preran it the Sunday before and took out a similar volume.

What really stood out in my mind was the large number of locals that piled their family into the old pickup trucks and drove out to the river over look to watch the city fellers bang their jeeps around. What they basically did was just pitch all their garbage out on the desert floor. When we suggested that what they were doing was littering, they pointed out that this was their home and they'd do as they pleased. At that time my best guess was that they were doing it on purpose and any more input from me would just cause them to do more of the same. Doesn't matter, we got blamed for the littering then, too.

The micro-crypto-bionic soil thing has been a joke for years. They've changed the name at least a half dozen times. The black crust is variously claimed to take hundreds of years to regenerate, or no time at all with ideal conditions. Once, maybe in the late 80s we went down to Elephant Hill and were 'treated' to a guided tour by a park rangerette. She became semi-hysterical when someone stepped on a bit of black crust. At that time there were still some range cows wandering around inside the park. My buddy asked her politely how the poor offender was causing any more harm than the cow tracks all over the place. Her answer was that our tracks were preventable.

We've also seen the black crust growing over earlier vehicle tracks. I tend to think its a made up issue, one being used against us but without any real substance. Kind of like global warming causing cool summers.

Does anyone know who Bill Burke is? What are his ulterior motives? Is he one of the signatories of the SLT's full page ad?

I didn't read as much into it as you did.. but I know who Bill is so that may be why. I don't think he was blaming EJS - I think he was simply stating incidents he has seen that frustrate him.

Bill Burke is a fairly well known 4WD advocate and driver trainer.

Here's is a link to his website. http://www.bb4wa.com/

I agree Shawn. I see Mr. Burkes as angered and disgusted with the total lack of respect for the trails and land. Only way I can see placing blame on EJS, is that the number of participants simply amplify the existing problems. And as with many trail systems, it's locals doing a serious prtion of the litering and damage to both public and private property. I also see the same problems in privately owned OHV parks. AND...mountain bikes, dirt bikers, hikers, and ATV'ers are equally to blame. As I have seem tracks from ALL these groups crossing into areas clearly posted indicating for them to stay out.

And Dick, in my three trips to Moab in the early fall, I have also made the same observations in regards to cryptobiotic crust. I see it growing an flourishing in all sorts of tracks in desert areas. (See the above list of offenders) So is the any true and factual studies on this most interesting, and seemingly adaptivelife form? In all honesty, I'd like to read it.

Short of declaring open season on all the morons out there, just how do we put a stop to the problems facing so many outdoor resreational sports?

Why do eco-nazis go after the outdoorsman, yet never lift a finger toward land developers and those who contribute to urban sprawl. Which in itself, destroys more natural resources, displaces wildlife, wildlife habitat, destroys the natural run off and tpographical features of the land at a daily rate FAR AND ABOVE that of which any sigle 4x4 enthusiast could do in a life time?

Oh....read my sig line if you haven't already. I live in a once pleasant rural lake community that has now become yuppie hell. And those same people have now generated traffic at proportionate volumes two to four times what they claim to be escaping in that wonderful DFW metro mess to my south! I cetainly hope they enjoy the stye they have created!