LAT: Two Visions of the Countryside Clash (landowners v. off-roaders)

[DeepModem Mom]

Two Visions of the Countryside Clash
Across rural America, angry encounters between landowners and off-roaders get noisier in a fight over dwindling open space.
By Janet Wilson and Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writers


....Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space.

Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet.

As Bob Buster, a county supervisor in Riverside, Calif., put it, "You have these two clashing visions of the countryside."

Nationally, millions of acres have been developed in recent decades. At the same time, use of off-highway vehicles — a catch-all term for four-wheelers, dirt bikes and dune buggies — has exploded, up 700% to 36 million users since 1976. Off-road motorized sports are now a $4.8-billion industry. According to buyer surveys by manufacturers, 68% of owners of all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, ride on private land....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-offroad8may08,0,5044393.story?coll=la-home-nation

[cornermouse]

1. Well yeah.

Who wants off-road vehicles scaring their cattle and ruining planted crops.

[pinniped]

2. Some of these yahoos are destroying critical habitats for endangered...

species. One of them being the desert tortoise.

[AndyTiedye]

3. I Prefer the Pedal-Powered Kind of Off-Road Vehicle

[Lars39]

4. I truly detest four-wheelers.

From the ones I have met, they are an arrogant bunch of little boys who need to grow up.