Off-road vehicles destroy 400 trees planted by the YMCA of the Pines
The teens were working with the Pinelands Preservation Alliance to try and restore an area of wetlands that had been damaged by off-road vehicles back to
I recently came across this article and was disgusted with what I read. The summary is that mere days after volunteers and teenagers with a local YMCA came to the forest to plant saplings and rebuild habitats for local endangered species, some trashy folks with OHVs came and destroyed all the work they put in. They didn't just mindlessly do it either, they targeted it. They did doughnuts on the saplings, left a giant pile of trash, even spray painted "F U" on an entrance piling. I'm new to this hobby and the forums so I can't create an event, but I know I'm not the only one who might be upset about this. This could be the first time these teenagers hear about off-roading, it could reinforce the negative views that other folks surely have. This is the kind of thing that really paints us in a bad light and will harm the hobby in the long term. The article mentions making the park off limits to OHVs completely. That's not what we want. This park is close to big cities on the east coast (pretty rare for us in the east) and I think we ought to show the community the other side of off-roaders, that we care just as much about the environment as any other visitor does, and want to be able enjoy it just the same.
I don't know what the process is yet to create an event (rally point?) but I'm curious, if I or someone else were to reach out to these volunteer groups and offer to help out and maybe replant saplings with them, maybe even figure out better management and have ways to prevent this from happening again, who would be interested in joining? It might seem like a small thing to do but for the local community it would make a difference and do a lot for the image of this hobby.
