Hunting Using A Four Wheeler Or UTV - Accountability Or Perhaps Regulation?
The use of four wheelers and utility vehicles during hunting season has skyrocketed in recent years. ATVs offer numerous advantages -- they are much easier than walking, they cause less harm than virtually all other vehicles, they can enter areas that would not be accessible to other vehicles, and carrying an elk out on the back of a four wheeler or UTV is much easier than bringing it out on foot.
You will also find downsides to the use of 4 wheelers. Considering they are quicker than walking, more people are hunting from their ATV rather than walking. The sound and odor of a UTV can get the attention of game animals from a good distance off so your chance of seeing a deer from an ATV is very small. And that same noise and odor that is running big game away from you is also chasing them away from any other hunters in the surrounding area as well -- this can bring about very hard feelings among hunters who used camouflage and stalking skills to get into high-quality habitat only to have the deer and elk scared off by ATVs!
Due to the fact Four wheelers can go into terrain that various other vehicles cannot, some drivers are making inappropriate use of that benefit and creating a widespread network of new roads and trails in areas that were previously roadless. This leads to higher impacts to plants and soils. It also results in a pathway to entice other riders to follow until those faint tracks through the meadow become a full-blown road. The elk or deer in that certain area are then subject to year round interference. Elk and deer hunters should realize that 6 studies have clearly shown that elk avoid vehicle activity connected with a road or 4 wheeler trail. Other note-worthy tidbits from these studies illustrate that:
Big game use drops in areas close to roads for distances ranging from a quarter of a mile to almost 2 miles, depending on the amount of traffic, the quality of the road and the strength of the plants and topographic cover beside the road. Overall, significantly greater traffic flow on higher quality unpaved roads results in a larger area of elk avoidance.
Slow moving vehicles on primitive roads and trails are more upsetting to elk than fast moving vehicles on a state highway.
As road and UTV trail denseness grows in a certain location, the quality and quantity of the elk habitat declines significantly, which eventually influences the quality and size of the elk population.
When motor vehicle use in hunting season attains a particular threshold, Elk will turn away from that spot completely and head for inaccessible areas such as private land or wilderness areas. The end result is that road and trail increases and continual use of ATV & UTVs during hunting season is lessening all hunters' likelihood of harvesting that elk and it is degrading the habitat of the very animal they are hunting.
So what does this suggest for the frequent hunter with a four-wheeler? It's very simple - it means be accountable while using your ATV. If, as a specific group, All terrain vehicle users are irresponsible with the use of their vehicles, then there will probably be ever-increasing pressures on land control agencies to control 4 wheeler use during hunting season. Already there are groups, most notably other hunters, which have been requesting a total ban on ATV & UTV use during hunting season. In other locations, restrictions already are instituted that limit ATV use to certain times of the day and then only to retrieve a harvested animal.
None of us likes stipulations, but when heavy and irresponsible ATV use persists to produce undesirable impacts then regulations will become necessary to ensure the protection of the land. A more desirable option should be for All terrain vehicle users to acknowledge the consequences their activity can cause and voluntarily take steps to lessen those impacts. ATV users are not distinctive in this respect -- as increasingly more individuals use public lands for pleasure, the prospective impacts of these activities are escalating fast. Virtually all recreation users -- jeepers, horse enthusiasts, those who raft, snowmobilers, climbers, campers, motorcyclists, fishermen, and mountain bikers -- could be asked to minimize the impact of their activities so that the lands for public use might be enjoyed by both today's citizens as well as by future generations.
Bushnell
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