Utah's Republican governor calls ORV abuse an "abomination"

Created by Laurel Hagen on October 7, 2008

Utah's governor, Republican John Huntsman, told the Salt Lake Tribune in a recent interview that he had witnessed extensive ORV abuse in Utah, and that "a crackdown is coming." The Trib's editorial cartoonist, Pat Bagley, responded with this excellent illustration (the little dude in the corner is supposed to be the governor):

The article:

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Guv: ORV off-trail damage an 'abomination,' crackdown is coming

By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 10/02/2008 10:52:51 AM MDT

Off-road vehicles that stray from trails are doing immense damage to the state, said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has directed state officers to begin cracking down.

"It's an abomination, it's an embarrassment," the governor said Wednesday during a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board.

Huntsman said that he recently visited the area around Moab with David Bonderman, a prominent venture capitalist and major financier for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to see the damage done by illegal off-road travel.

"I wanted to get a sense of what the concern was, and it became a concern to me," he said...
For the rest of the article, go here. 

The article concludes with a few words from Michael Swenson, the head of USA-All, an off-roading advocacy group:

"There are many cases where there is not a travel plan in place or there is one that was put together in such a fashion that the recreation community just cannot support it," he said. "We understand why there is this perception of abuse and I guess really it depends on your point of view."

"The word 'abomination' is a pretty harsh word," said Swenson. "I don't know that most of the folks that put the governor in office would consider people using the public lands and using ATVs on public lands an abomination."
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No, Mr. Swenson, the governor was not referring to "people using the public lands" in this sense:
I think he had a problem with this sort of thing:

The Provo Daily Herald ran an editorial congratulating the Governor for stepping up on the ORV problem, and the Salt Lake Tribune wrote and editorial saying that it was a good beginning but needed to go further.