DesertBlog

Tell Interior Secretary Salazar to shut down ORV abuse

As Ken Salazar settles into his role as the nation’s 50th Secretary of the Interior, we have a chance to make our voices heard regarding one of the most crucial threats to our public lands: abuse by Off-Road Vehicles.

Our colleagues at Community ORV Watch have designed and printed a postcard — the image and text contents of which you see below — urging Secretary Salazar to move to address trespass into wilderness and private lands, law-breaking, unsafe and unsound rider behavior, and other abuses associated with off-roading on public lands.

The DPC is working to get these cards out to interested members of the environmental community, and we need your help to do so.

Can you distribute a few of these cards to people in your community? Environmental organizations, church and other social groups, friends and family? If so, emailDPC Conservation Coordinator Terry Weiner and she can get some postcards to you.

Text of the postcard:

Dear Secretary Salazar –

I am writing because we have suffered from trespass, property destruction, and excessive noise and dust from off-road vehicles (ORV)s.

Uncontrolled and unmanaged ORV activity is destroying America’s natural and cultural heritage with widespread, sometimes irreversible, impacts to our public lands, wilderness areas and American Indian cultural resources. Illegal ORV abuse is unraveling decades of environmental protection and conservation. The Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies have been unable to protect lands held in trust for future generations.

Serious and at times violent conflicts between ORV riders and rural communities, farmers, ranchers, businesses and recreationists are reported from all across the country. In addition, those who have sought assistance from law enforcement or the courts or who have spoken out against ORV abuse have endured harassment, intimidation and retaliation.

We need your leadership and direction now to deal with this growing threat!