For gods sake guys. *I'm not a tree hugger by any means, but i am 16, and i want a world left when i get older. *The tree huggers have their place, if it wasn't for them than this world would be a garbage dump. *

It would be nice if everyone could just do the best thing, but it isnt that way, so we have extremests on bolth sides. *There is people dont give a rats behind about the enviroment, and than there is the tree huggers. *They ballance out in the end. *

just my $.02

- Jason

Very well put Mr. Siv but i think we all are for the trying to preserve the enviroment but we also need to defend our sport. With all the things the manufactures are doing to clean up emissions we *have to show their efforts. Also like you said there are extremists on both sides that balance it out, take one away and that one loses.

but think of it this way, its frustrating that year to year people have to worry if trails are going to stay open because just one person thinks its wrong and accuses every one that is snowmobiling that it is wrong, without them knowing any facts about snowmobiling.

I don't think anybody is out to get the environmentalists. People just dont like extremists who try to ban the use of snowmobiles and other motor sports alltogether. I agree that they pollute alot and that the companies should do more to reduce emissions but not ban everything with a motor inside. I consider myself an environmentalist and I don't think that anything was written on this forum that insults me. Anyway, how many so called environmentalist have never taken a car or bus or anything else using gas in their lives.

What's the problem with environmentalist, you ask? *They are Communist's, plain and simple.

They want to tell me and you how to live, what we can and can't do. *In their mind we aren't smart enough to take care of ourselves, much less the environment.

That said, it is up to all of us to do our part to take care of nature. *Litterbugs are my biggest pet peeve!

It bothers me when people have so much time on ther hands that they sit and criticize my lifestyle. Just because I eat meat, use a leather football and shoes and drink milk, somehow I am a monster. Throw in the snow rocket and I am the devil incarnate aparently..That is my beef with that type of activist (can I use the word "beef" -- they may not like that..) *http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

These people are going after more and more every year.If someone don't put a stop to it you will beable to do nothing but sit at home in a chair stairing at the blank walls and they would find away to say that that is not good for the enviroment either.Yes we need people to help control littering and hazzerdus wast but they are tring to take our rights away.they want to close all parks to everything to preserve our beutiful back country but what good is it if you cannot even get there to see it.I agree with somethings no1 is aftermarket race pipes on the trails,this fould be strongly enforced but do not bann al of us because of a couple of bad apples.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mr Siv @ Jan. 16 2002, 3:00pm)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">For gods sake guys. *I&#39;m not a tree hugger by any means, but i am 16, and i want a world left when i get older. *The tree huggers have their place, if it wasn&#39;t for them than this world would be a garbage dump. *

It would be nice if everyone could just do the best thing, but it isnt that way, so we have extremests on bolth sides. *There is people dont give a rats behind about the enviroment, and than there is the tree huggers. *They ballance out in the end. *

just my $.02

- Jason[/b][/quote]
Do you honestly think that environmentalist help preserve nature? *In my area they banned snowmobiles on a route used for 80 years. *In it&#39;s place they laid down miles of blacktop w/ tables and port-a-potties on it. * This goes right by 3 lakes, the same lakes that motor boats are supposidly polluting. * This route was constructed so that people could enjoy nature. *I don&#39;t know about you but walking/running/biking/blading down a tar strip is not my idea of preserving or enjoying nature.

Like said earlier, we all need to do our part. *We DO NOT need wacko&#39;s voicing there extremest style ideas. * For every finger they point there&#39;s 3 pointing right back because you can almost guarentee they violate there own rules in one way or another.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mr Siv @ Jan. 15 2002, 4:00pm)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The tree huggers have their place, if it wasn&#39;t for them than this world would be a garbage dump. *


- Jason[/b][/quote]
This is one of the problems. They tell everyone that they are singlehandedly saving the world. Don&#39;t buy into it just because they say it!! In the big picture what have they actually done other than take away things that people enjoy doing for recreation? Or even worse they have caused the loss of thousands of jobs with their political agendas. Oddly enough they live in houses made of wood and drive vehicles that use oil and gas and fly in planes etc.

There is a difference between an Environmentalist (person concerned about the environment who bases his/her opinions on FACT) and an EXTREMIST.......problem is many Environmental Extremists call themselves environmentalist and hide behind that shield. The TRUE environmentalists have their place, we must go to bat against the extremists. http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

Ya, *there&#39;s nothing them tree-huggers hate worse than a fresh cow-pie on their blacktopped bicycle path http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif *http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

It leaves a nice yellow streak down their back&#39;s. http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif *http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

That&#39;s why cattle have to be banned, as well. *In their opinion. http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

Well I guess I&#39;m an environmentalists, I believe in keeping the land free of garbage and negative human influence. What I&#39;m not is and extremist. I love to hunt, snowmobile, and ATV. But I do hate dumb asses that feel that they can throw their beer cans, candy wrappers, and overall gabage all over the trail because they&#39;re to dam lazy to throw it in the garbage can!!! All it takes is a few stupid people to give the extremist a reason to hate us all. (same gaos for all you nit wits with loud exhaust&#39;s)

Hate the damn fools always have always will.Just as bad as liberal democrats,want to take away every right,every freedom that made America what it is today.Sorry made it quick and to the point. http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

I think that the reason snowmobiles get singled out is because they are a kind of minority in the world of pollution and there is no way that the environmentalists are going to get the use of cars or jets banned so they go after the smallest pray. And on the noise issue it&#39;s the same thing.

enviro&#39;s are not that bad although some of them shouldn&#39;t predict weather and how it is affecting polar bears. last year the enviro group were saying how pollution caused the severe winter now they are saying pollution is causing the warm winter.
most of the extremists with no real job are the problem and if they work i pity the employer. the extremist is very selfish as they say it is okay to be gay and second class to smoke, but you see the same jerks at a cigar party. if i smoke {i don&#39;t} who am i killing ? but if i am gay i am spreading std&#39;s around society maybe they should look at that.
anyways since they are selfish and they point their fingers at others eventually they paint themselves into the corner so we don&#39;t have to worry because when you do something for selfish reasons it always come back and bites you.

I&#39;ll admit it that some tree huggers are doing some things that are good for our enviroment and our little animal friends.
However the extremists are unyeilding in their effort to destroy our sport and are giving us a bad reputation.

I have a friend who is a die-hard tree hugger that ironically owns and operates a sawmill!! He tells me that he only takes a few trees that are too close to others or are going to be cut down anyway on a house lot. Then he saws them up and sells the wood to craftsmen who make fine furniture from it.
Now to me he seems to be okay with this as long as there is a profit in it.

I wonder if the extremists who got the snowmobile trails closed and paved over also owned the asphalt plant? http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif
Even the extremist will agree that a healthy enviroment is a profitable one.

Save a tree , Eat a beaver

EAT MOOSE AND SHOOT WOLVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on, the true environmentalists is us, and the hunters and off-roaders. Thats the true conservationists, it&#39;s just a few bad apples in the past have caused us all of these problems........

You guys are absolutely right. *It’s not the "environmentalists" it’s the damn extremists. *They take credit for everything, when in reality, its us every day people who enjoy the environment that are making the day to day improvements for everyone in the world.

Like I said before, we learn from our mistakes, and make things better. *Sometimes it just takes time to learn that what were doing is a mistake. *But overall, were learning and moving in the right direction. *Extremists or not.

FishHog

The problem with most average Americans is they are selfish. They consider what is best for themselves regardless on the impact on anyone else. Isn&#39;t that obvious with how rude most people are when they drive? Most people don&#39;t give 2 shi#s about someone they don&#39;t know. Sure, shey may take care of their family, and maybe occasionally show an interest in a co-worker, but for the most part, people are a rude, nasty group.
* * Now, maybe you don&#39;t care about the bla-bla-bla owl and it&#39;s habitat. All you want to do is cut a few trees and build a house. Let that owl find a new tree. well, some people take offense with that. Take a bunch of drunken, rowdy, got no respect for anyone else, trailer trash loosers on snowmobiles. They throw their garbage in your backyard, blast through your town like a speed limit was just for cars, ride drunk at 3 oclock in the morning and wake up your kids, and have virtually no cares in the world. The second one of those owl lovers speaks up, they are wrong. A lot of you make the bed you have to lie in and then ##### about it. You can&#39;t do that. If you want your freedoms, rights, and privileges (last I knew, riding a snowmobile was a privilege, not a right), you have to respect the freedoms, rights, and privileges of others, whether you agree with them or not. A lot of you know that private land owners grant access to their land for snowmobile trails. Many of these land owners never have and never will ride a snowmobile. They are trying to be kind and accomodate the lifestyles of others. Then everyone abuses the privilege and rides off the trails, dump garbage, and ride late at night. The next year the land owner says "no thanks, not this year". How many times have you seen or heard of that?
* * It is correct that the extremists ruin things, but there are extremists on all sides, not just the environmentalists or the do-gooders. There are far more damaging extremists out there. Some of you are probably riding with them. Some of you are them. Man is his own worst enemy.

To an extent, I *AM* an environmentalist. *I homebrew alternative fuels to use in my diesel powered vehicles. *I am thrilled to see four stroke technology being introduced by the namufacturers. *It is the extremist that I have a beef with. *I had one of these idiots stammering and looking like a fool in less than a minute last summer during my last trip to Yellowstone. *I had to laugh at the final outcome. *She wanted to cross country ski - BY HERSELF - in YNP and not have even the slightest hint of another living human being anywhere near her. *Subsequently, she was there panning for signitures, and outright lying to others in the name of her "cause", protecting the park from those evil nasty machines called snowmobiles.

Her tripe is a load of bull. *I do NOT have the right, nor does anybody else for that matter, to prevent a group of people from enjoying a national park, or trail just because I, or they don&#39;t like it. *I like sledding, offroading, and hiking. *I don&#39;t much care for PWC or boating. *These are my personal likes and dislikes. *Others have the rights to enjoy them.

Somebody else stated that sleds are a privledge. *Sure, they are. *Snowmobiles ARE a tool that is used to seek a right, the right to enjoy our natural resources in a matter that suits them best.

Somehow I doubt that anybody in this forum would spend a thousand dollars or more on a winter vacation only to be herded around in a glorified bus on somebody elses schedule.

Sorry for the rambling, but this strikes a nerve with me.

I agree that the EXTREMISTS need to be hushed, but another major player in the war against us is the MEDIA. Television, Radio, and Newspapers all have an undeniable ignorance towards snowmobiles and our community. Whens the last time you heard or read anything positive about our sport. Any of the charity rides or trail clean-ups. I haven,t. All i hear are how many people are dying from drinking and riding or unsupervised riding. You hear of how much pollution is being "belched" out into our environment but you don&#39;t hear of the steps the manufactures are taking to &#39;clean up&#39; our sport. Even some of the manufactures advertising comes back to bite us in the a**. Arctics four stroke commercial for example.Goes something like "cleaner, quieter and enviromentally friendly". What about the rest of thier products? Are they not clean and quiet and environmentally friendly. The EXTREMISTS get a hold of this stuff and run. It just adds fuel to an already large fire. The industry today is on "pins and needles" and they really need to watch how they portray their product. You can&#39;t please everybody but atleast most of us are trying. The problem is that they are still not happy. Take for example the article in the Ottawa and Toronto Sun(If you haven&#39;t read it you must). The so called journalist ranted and raved about how bad the sport of snowmobiling was, but was so ignorant to the sport due to the fact he did absolutly no research on the topic. This column was printed and who knows how many thousands of people read the column and formed an opinion of our sport based on false info. He was man enough to offer an apoligy to us due to an untold amount of e-mails he recieved. The media is quilty of ignorance and everybody is affected. They are trying to take our freedom away from us but we must stand firm. Let your voice be heard and things will change. Let people know the truth of our sport and we might hear something positive about our sport in the media

i agree we all need to be conscious but they push things way to far.when was the last time you saw a sledder chain himself to a tree so they wouldnt close his favorite trail?how about going out and deliberately desroying landscape or such.not very often.how about enviro&#39;s?almost every day cause they know that it takes many, many Good apples to make a pie and only one bad one to ruin it.im from the state of Me. and our big industry in northern me is logging, a few yrs back they would chain themselves to equipment,etc,etc,also spiking trees to make them worthless and that is private property of the paper companys,who pay huge taxes every year.how would you like someone interfering with your legitimate lively hood?just a thought.

the tree huggers do have a place in todays world and play a good role for the most part. but there are the ones that take things way to far and it seems as though most of the time they really have nothing better to do.

Originally posted by Andy Dragon@Jun 2 2004, 11:29 PM
The problem with so-called environmentalists is they care NOTHING about the environment, only pushing their values and beliefs on everyone else while trying to destroy our sports.

It&#39;s important to understand that most of these do-gooders don&#39;t give a rat&#39;s ### about what they CLAIM to care about, they only care about their agenda. It&#39;s mostly band-wagon hyprocrites who are bored and need something to ##### about.

As many have pointed out, those of us who ride snowmobiles, hunt, fish and ride other off-road vehicles who are really interested in conserving the areas we ride in. After all, who wants to ride where it&#39;s dirty or where there are no trees and trails?!?

It is easy to see which type of "environmentalist" a person is once they start to spout "facts". There are those with honest and studied facts and there are those who rely on junk science and pure BS warped into "facts" to push their point. The problem is, there are those on BOTH sides of the fence with junk science and BS.

And remember, you can&#39;t be an environmentalist with being mental.
bravo, beautifully said, hit the nail right on the head!!!its really time for us(outdoorsmen and women)to stop lettin them jerko__s poke us in the eye.

Its the extremists that really pi$$ me off! Its a bad thing to get me started on!

How stupid is E.L.F really?? They hate SUV&#39;s because they pollute too much and burn too much gas, they hate new housing devolments and apartment building. How do they solve this? They burn everything they can get their hands on! How the hell can that do any good when they are polluting more by burning everything then it would be polluted if they would just let it be!

PETA is really bad too! I don&#39;t care if someone doesn&#39;t believe in eating animals or whatever they don&#39;t want to believe in. But keep your beliefs to yourself! If you come in front of a KFC near me and start protesting there will be black marks left over the top of every one of you!

Sorry about the rant, its just these people really really make me mad.

I was born and raised in a family that respects nature. We also hunt, fish, boat and snowmobile. My folks own a place in the Adirondacks-the enviros up there want to &#39;eminent domain&#39; all the privately held property and turn everything back to nature-but if everything is turned back to nature, how do we get in to enjoy it? If we can&#39;t enjoy it, why have it?

I try not to add to environmental woes-we p/u trash when we are putting up/taking down trails, etc. We also send in letters to the editor whenever we see an article disparaging snowmobiles-Ladies and Gentleman, bad news sells-if WE don&#39;t tell the true story it will NEVER be told. No one sees the normal day-to-day folks (I mean you and I) doing all the things we do, in support of our environment and property and trail system and community. So, it&#39;s up to us to get the word out, correct the misconceptions and shed the good light that represents 99+ percent of us-don&#39;t let the less than 1% dictate our image. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.........