I love the outdoors. I want to see God's great creation not man's mess. If I just wanted to off road, I'd go to an off road park. Mud is mud. I like to get out and walk. That's right, I said walk. You cannot experience the beauty of nature from behind a steering wheel. I always have and always will, tread lightly.
I too support Tread Lightly. However, Tread Lightly is not only about responsible and ethical use of our outdoor resource. The organization is also a champion of
shared and equal access. Your comments come across with a decidedly anti-OHV tone.
To insinuate that everyone offroading is destroying god's creation is disingenuous. I've seen public land trashed by irresponsible people from every single niche group you can imagine. The people that are heavily involved in an outdoor community or club, regardless of the type, are not often the ones destroying things. The fault more often lies with the uneducated casual public land user (both motorized and non).
Public land should be enjoyed by everyone, not just those that want to walk. That's right, you have to share with ATV riders, equestrian enthusiasts, 4x4 people, mountain bikers, shooters and hikers. Do I like riding through horse ********? No. But I'll defend their right to use the same land I enjoy hiking, ATVing and Jeeping on because that's the fair thing to do.
I will always support the environmental ethos within organizations like Patagonia. I may not always agree with their projects, but the alternatve of supporting organizations that want all protections of natural resources to be contested seems ridiculous. As is true with all things, moderation is the ideal goal. Campaigning to have all the gates opened is a silly as campaigning to have all the gates closed.
The undeniable fact is that environmental groups, including the radical ones, are more organized and more effective at lobbying than the entire OHV world. Therefore I'm not dying to spend money to support any environmental group except Tread Lightly. I'd much rather give money to the very few groups fighting for
equal access to public resources such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition.
As you said, moderation is the key. However since the current tilt seems to be towards "having all the gates closed", we need to do all we can to fight for balance.
I don't advocate running out and boycotting anyone based on a single action, nor without doing your own research (since there is so much misinformation). However, you can watch over time and see if a company exhibits a pattern of behavior and association that you don't want to support.
Not long ago I
posed the question on our forums of who is anti-OHV? I didn't get many responses since I asked for just the facts. It seems the answer, as with much of life, is "it's complicated".