An off-road motorcycling enthusiast for more than a quarter-century, Chicagoan Jim Viverito remembers when he could ride dirt trails in nearby Cook County Forest Preserves, farm fields and along the Illinois & Michigan Canal.
Because of a national movement to limit off-roading, however, those days are gone. Now if Viverito wants to ride a dirt trail on his 1999 TTR 250 Yamaha, he must travel to Southern Illinois or north into Wisconsin.
“Motorcyclists have always gotten a bad rap. And after 50 years of conditioning people to believe that people involved with motorcycles are rebellious, we’re being pushed out even more,” says Viverito, the former president of the Chicago chapter of American Bikers for Awareness, Training and Education Illinois.
“Limiting off-roading is becoming more and more of an issue because we believe there is an effort to eliminate motorcycling,” says Laszlo Nagy, legislative director for the Chicago Chapter of ABATE Illinois.
What’s limiting off-roading is a number of federal directives that ban motorized vehicles from U.S. National Forests, where many off-road riding trails are found.
“After the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, that was the start of some notion of preserving areas of America’s public lands and essentially severely limiting recreational opportunities on those lands,” says Bill Wood, managing editor of American Motorcyclist magazine, a publication of the American Motorcyclist Association.
In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon issued an executive order that restricted off-road motorcycling on public lands, he adds.
“Responsible motorcyclists support that there are some parts of our public lands that are sensitive and have tremendous scenic and historic value that should be preserved. And we do not think off-road motorcycling should take place everywhere on our public land,” Wood said.
“But what has happened since then is that Congress has designated approximately 100 million acres of Wilderness Land across the country, and that’s a lot of land,” says Wood.
What concerns Wood, Viverito, Nagy and other motorcyclists is that the federal government is considering making millions more acres motor vehicle-free.
For example, the Clinton Administration has announced plans to “shut down” as much as 62 million acres of “inventoried roadless areas” across the U.S. That would include 17,000 acres in Southern Illinois.
“The U.S. Forest Service has not banned off-road motorcycles or ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), which we also represent, from these areas,” explains Wood. “What they have done is put a ban on construction or reconstruction of roads in those areas. But if you don’t allow road reconstruction in those areas, the roads that do exist are going to deteriorate and close themselves with downed trees or erosion over time.
“This is not going to happen overnight, but the recreational opportunities will disappear–and not just for the off-road motorcyclist or ATV rider,” he adds. “Fishermen and hunters who get into the back country by motorized vehicles such as trucks will not have access. You’ll also limit access to campers and even hikers because not all trails start at paved road.”
The motorcyclists say the bans are being propelled mostly by environmental groups.
“Our biggest enemy is the environmentalist as we’ve gone from conservation to preservation of these lands,” says Nagy. “You’re now not allowed to walk on this property, let alone ride a dirt bike on it.”
“Are we preserving this land for the people or from the people?” asks Viverito. “The environmentalists are so militant and they’re not willing to compromise.”
Those who support the limits on off-road riding say they are not as harsh as motorcycle enthusiasts portray them to be.
“We’re advocating that the last wild places in America are protected–but there are miles and miles of roads where motorcyclists can ride freely,” says Tanya Tolchim, an associate representative with the Sierra Club, which has fought to regulate motorized vehicles in National Forests.
“The areas we’re trying to protect are truly pristine and have some of the best wildlife habitats of the country,” she adds.
Tolchim says that motorized vehicles–and the roads–hurt the ecosystems of the forests.
“The roads are damaging because they cause soil erosion and fragment wildlife habitats,” she says. “The roads can also contribute to water pollution when they crumble and break down into the streams.”
Then there’s the noise from motorcycles and other motorized vehicles, says Tolchim.
“We feel it’s important in our modern society that we can go somewhere where there is natural quiet and solitude,” she says.
Motorcyclists also have been banned from other outdoor spaces.
“Twenty-five years ago, you could off-road in the Cook County Forest Preserves,” says Viverito. “Legally, you weren’t supposed to be there, but then no one cared. Then, for a while, motorcyclists were banned from the forest preserves but snowmobilers weren’t.”
According to the Cook County Forest Preserve District, snowmobiles are restricted to specific trails. Motorcycles have never been allowed on the property.
Off-roaders “were not permitted on forest preserve property. We wrote a lot of tickets for that violation over the years,” said Terry Lavenhagen, deputy chief of the Cook County Forest Preserve police. “Motorcyclists are incompatible with our mission to preserve the Cook County Forest Preserve properties.”
Lavengen, who has been with the forest preserve police for 32 years, says there used to be a problem with cyclists riding on Cal-Sag Channel property, which led into forest preserves in southwestern Cook County. But the district now has jurisdiction over that land and can control the cycling problem better.
As motorcyclists have been squeezed out of public spaces, many have opted to off-road on private land.
“There are several private parks in Illinois such as the Buffalo Range in Ottawa,” says Viverito. “You can ride there for a fee. But it’s not open land. You go out so far and come back on a loop.”
“You can hike 50 miles by doing laps around your backyard, and the situation is sort of the same for off-road motorcyclists,” says Wood. “I can put up on private land a two-mile loop of trail and I can do lap after lap but the experience is different from going out and going through woods on a trail that takes me someplace for 50 miles.”
So, motorcyclist groups such as the AMA and ABATE have become more politically active with the off-road limitation issue.
The groups also have lobbying against efforts such as the Roadless Initiative.
“We encouraged our members and all motorcyclists to get involved and tell the government that we don’t want them to close off access to public lands,” says Wood. “We’re also telling those who are involved with outdoor recreation to get involved.
“We think hikers and cyclists can peacefully coexist,” he adds. “We have lots of public land in this country. Enough to designate trails for motorized and non-motorized recreation.
“ABATE has 13,000 members in Illinois alone,” says Nagy. “We agree to conservation but think this preservation is baloney.”
“This is being implemented without public vote, so I suspect a lot of off-roading opportunities will simply disappear,” says Wood. “The consequences will be recreation will be confined to smaller spaces.
“We’re being out-lobbied and outspent by people who are supporting this because frankly they have more money then we do, and we realize that,” he adds. “If this thing is decided upon on basis on money, we’re going to lose. If it’s decided upon the basis of a reasonable approach to how were going to manage our public lands, we’re in good position to win.”
