EDITOR'S PAGE

EDITOR'S

The basic mission that the Arizona Legislature has given to Arizona Highways to encourage travel to and within the state-carries with it an implied responsibility: to monitor our citizens' stewardship of our most priceless resource, the natural environment.

This technological age has brought numerous threats to that environment. One type of assault that has become promi nent comparatively recently is addressed in the following open letter from Arizona Highways' managing editor.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON AMERICANS OUTDOORS

New Ideas Working Group President's Commission on Americans Outdoors Washington, DC 20036-8547 Gentlemen: This letter contains proposals for controlling the operation of off-road vehicles (ORVs), a category that includes so-called allterrain vehicles (ATVs) and trail motorcycles. I write in response to your recent call for short treatises suggesting better ways to provide and enhance outdoor recreation opportunities.

First, some background. The information underlying these proposals was derived from interviews with key Arizona personnel of the U. S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, State Land Department, State Game and Fish Department, the Sierra Club, and numerous knowledgeable individuals interested in outdoor recreation. The purpose of the interviews was to discover exactly what impact off-road vehicles are having on the land today and what can be done to reduce that impact.

Almost everyone interviewed spoke angrily about the severe damage being caused by the unrestricted and thoughtless use of these vehicles on public and private lands throughout Arizona, pointing out the numerous areas where serious environmental damage already has occurred-places where, said one arid land specialist, it could take a thousand years for the land to recover.

Unrestricted use of such vehicles by children and adults alike has caused severe impacts on wildlife habitat, too. Thoughtless operators have imposed upon other users of the outdoors through careless and noisy intrusion in campgrounds and along trails and back roads normally restricted to hikers and horsemen. They have even managed to wreak havoc in supposedly protected wild areas.

The following is a tabulation of what my interviewees believe should be done to deal with a fast-approaching ORV crisis in Arizona.

My interviewees' final recommendation is intended for ORV manufacturers and dealers and their advertising and public relations agencies. It is a plea that such firms consciously and conscientiously promote safety and environmental protection in their newspaper and magazine advertisements, promotional books and pamphlets, and (most important of all) television commercials-which at present often blatantly encourage environmental destruction through dramatic appeals exploiting the StarTrek-like theme, "Go where no man has gone before."