Enough is enough!

At the top of the Tumalo grade, there is a couple of old quarries left over from the Jim Curl sand and gravel dynasty. Someone - probably the landowners - attempted to keep off road vehicles (ORVs) out of the quarries and placed "No Trespassing" signs and tape across the old haul road.

Like more and more places in Central Oregon, the signs and tape were taken down and ORVers went on in as though the place was their own personal sandbox.

Several years ago, my nestbox-partner and I placed an American kestrel nesting box on the north side of a juniper tree between the road and the old quarry. That box, from the first year it was put up, yielded from three to five nestling every spring. Not this year. The nestlings died when the parents were chased off by ORVs rampaging on an old haul road that runs close to the nesting box.

Enough is enough, people! Why can't you riders be satisfied with the whole east end of the Deschutes National Forest to run around in? There are hundreds of miles of approved trails out there that you can legally ride around on all you want.

I'll say right up front that there are some mighty fine people, families in fact, that enjoy riding their machines. They act responsibly; they stay on designated trails and understand what their actions can cause if they step over the line. I have friends who are in that group, and they know I have no quarrel with them. But you hooligans need to understand what you're doing.

The BLM has all but given you everything from Cline Butte to Fossil Lake; you should be satisfied beyond your wildest demands. But even at that, you people ran a trail right under the largest golden eagle nest in Central Oregon out at West Butte. I doubt if the eagles will ever return although the BLM has (finally) closed the trail (but only during nesting season).

An ancient golden eagle nest out near Tumalo Reservoir was also ruined by ORVers who ran a trail right under the tree. That was the first golden eagle nest I banded way back in 1963.

The ORV trail out in Teepee Draw, west of Horse Ridge, is too close to an old golden eagle nest, and they too have deserted. I could go on and on about wildlife areas that ORVs have encroached upon.

You guys go where you want to go, no matter the rules, laws or common sense. Why do you have to make enemies by breaking the rules? Why can't you use a better sense of responsibility and think before you go roaring through someone's front yard? I see your tracks at sensitive wild and scenic places near Sisters all the way to closed areas on the BLM south of Cabin Lake.

Yeah, I've heard it before: "All we're doing is enjoying nature." Baloney, what you're really doing is enjoying a machine at the cost of destroying the very nature you claim to enjoy.

There are not enough law enforcement personnel in all of Central Oregon to keep you from destroying every wild place on the flat lands; you have to do your own policing. That means you have to accept some responsibility for your actions.

It is time for the entire ORV community to take stock of what thousands of machines are doing to the land. It's time for the owners and operators of these neat, "tear-'em-up" gadgets to look each other in the eye and say, "enough is enough. Let's act more responsibly."