The accident in the California desert has done a great job of dividing two communities that I consider myself a (more or less active) part of. In the off-highway-vehicle and mountain bike communities the debate that has come out of this tragedy is, surprisingly not event safety, but one that revolves around access and / or closure of public lands.
Save the planet. Kill yourself.
Perhaps the above is a bit absurd, but it is the answer if we take these arguments to the extreme. Denying access of any group(s) to deserts, forests, coasts, etc. is an extreme measure and as such should only be used in extreme cases. There are some resources that we need to protect at this level. However, not all nature falls into this category.
Jumping directions for a moment, we need to consider the implications of successful of OHV bans. To enact initial legislation to get public lands closed to any group is a large investment of time and money. However, once the process has been initiated -the precedent set- it becomes much easier to ban access to other groups. This means that just because an area is deemed too sensitive to vehicular traffic, does not mean that in five years someone won't deem it too sensitive for bike traffic and finally foot traffic.
Do we really want to limit access of natural lands and waters only to their government appointed guardians? Not me!
What can we do? Educate ourselves. Realize that there are sensitive areas and there are stable areas. In much the same way that there are sensible OHV users (and mtb-ers) as well as morons who live for the loud-pedal (skidiots in the mtb world). We need to be able to distinguish between the opposite poles of these two very inhomogeneous groups and the many shades of gray in between. Then we need to react to each accordingly, be it the guy who wanders off track due to lack of understanding the implications or the flora that is disappearing from an area as a result of something completely unrelated to human influences.
I would like to be able to recreate in the desert, mtns, etc. I hope my kids and their kids can too. Closing access at random because of incidents that are not environmentally relevant is not the answer. Tearing hell-bent through the crypto-biotic soils of Moab is also not the answer.
For the record, I sure hope desert racing is not done for. I have never seen one and I sure hope to someday see the Cali 200 or the KOH finals...from a safe distance. I also like to enjoy the wilderness without vehicles, which is pretty easy if you take the time to plan accordingly and realize that you have to share the planet.
