Hunting Using A Four Wheeler Or UTV - Responsibility Or Maybe Regulation?


Using utility vehicles or ATVs during elk hunting season has really increased in the past few years. Four wheelers and UTVs offer several advantages -- they are an alternative to walking, they cause less harm than the majority of other vehicles, they can access areas that would be inaccessible to various other vehicles, and bringing big game out on the back of an ATV is much easier than bringing it out on foot.

There are also disadvantages to the use of 4 wheelers. Since they are much easier than walking, lots more people are hunting from their UTV or ATV rather than on foot. The sounds and odor of an ATV can alert game animals from a good distance off so your chance of spotting an elk or deer from an All terrain vehicle is much smaller. And that same sound and smell that is running big game away from you is also chasing them away from any other hunters in the area as well -- this can create very hard feelings among hunters who used camouflage and stalking skills to get into good quality habitat only to have the deer run off by a four wheeler!

Because Four wheelers can go into terrain that various other vehicles cannot, some riders are making improper use of that benefit and creating a substantial network of completely new roads and trails in places that were once roadless. This causes higher impacts to plants and soils. It also creates a path to entice other recreationists to follow until those light tracks through the forest become a full-blown path. The elk in that certain area are then subject to year round disturbance. Big-game hunters should realize that a half dozen studies have definitely shown that big game keep away from vehicle activity associated with a road or 4 wheeler trail. Other note-worthy tidbits from these studies show that:

Elk use drops in areas right next to roads for distances ranging from a quarter of a mile to almost 2 miles, according to the volume of traffic, the grade of the road and the density of the ground cover and topographic cover next to the road. In general, significantly greater traffic flow on higher quality unpaved roads generates a more substantial area of big game avoidance.

Slow moving vehicles on rough roads and trails are more disturbing to elk than fast moving vehicles on a state highway.

As road and UTV trail density increases in a certain location, the quality and scale of the elk habitat is reduced considerably, which at some point affects the quality and size of the elk population.

When motorized vehicle use in hunting season reaches a certain threshold, Elk will turn away from that region completely and turn to out of the way areas such as privately owned land or wilderness areas. The result is that road and trail propagation and continual use of vehicles during hunting season is cutting down all hunters' likelihood of getting that elk and it is impacting the ecosystem of the very animal they are hunting.

So what will this mean for the frequent hunter with a four-wheeler? It's simple - it means responsibility versus regulation. If, as a specific group, ATV owners are reckless with the operation of their machines, then there will probably be ever-increasing pressure on land management agencies to control Four wheeler use during hunting season. Currently you can find groups, specifically other hunters, that are requesting a total ban on ATV & UTV use during hunting season. In other areas, regulations already are developed that confine ATV use to specific times of the day and then only to pick up a harvested animal.

Nobody likes restrictions, but when irresponsible ATV use continues to produce unsatisfactory effects then regulations will eventually become crucial to ensure the protection of the public lands. A more desirable option would be for ATV users to acknowledge the effects their activity causes and purposely take steps and measures to reduce those impacts. ATV users are not distinctive in this respect -- as increasingly more people use public lands for recreation, the prospective impacts of these activities are increasing quickly. Nearly all recreation users -- jeepers, horse owners, rafters, snowmobilers, rock climbers, campers, motorcyclists, fishermen, and mountain bikers -- are being asked to reduce the impact of their activities so that the lands for public use may be experienced by both today's citizens as well as by generations to come.

Bushnell
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