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Off-road vehicles that stray from trails are doing immense damage to the state, said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has directed state officers to begin cracking down.

Forest rangers say the last couple of months the unauthorized use of ATVs is showing up all over the forest, which includes the Rocky Mountain Front, the Highwoods, the Little Belts, the Castles and Crazy mountain ranges and the Musselshell ranger district.

Lewis and Clark National Forest staff have blocked to ATV use the Bison Lakes trail on the north side of the Badger-Two Medicine roadless area just west of East Glacier.

An existing trail into the area had been vandalized by All Terrain Vehicle riders, who took out barriers that were intended to discourage them from using the trail.

A road or trail not on the map is not open to public use, she explained.

"If someone has [used a motorized vehicle on an undesignated trail] and we have an individual patrolling the area, they can be given a ticket," Pollock said. "That map will uphold our regulations and our laws."

The laws apply to cars, trucks, motorcycles, all terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and other off highway machines, she said.

National forests are required to identify and designate roads, Ferebee said

Rural Utah has been waking up to the drawbacks of promoting ORV tourism.
The small, remote town of Escalante in south-central Utah recently refused state funds to build an ORV staging area in a city park in their town. Citing concerns from highway safety to long-term ecological impacts, local residents asked the state not to grant the funds, which were requested by ORV boosters in the county seat to increase off-road tourism in scenic east side of the county.

With a Foreword by Annie Proulx (The Shipping News, Brokeback Mountain), this passionate collection of essays features writing by Peter Matthiessen (currently nominated for a National Book Award), Barry Lopez, Janisse Ray, Edward Abbey and dozens of others. Together, they explore how roads and off-road vehicles have impacted wildlands, while also offering a restoration vision for these lands.