Intense & expensive lobbying by manufacturers led to changed legal definitions for these obnoxious machines such that a jet-ski is now classed as a motor boat, & an ATV is classed as a car [one of 2 big reasons there are no more 3-wheelers on the market]. This means that if you attempt to draw up restrictions to control these pestiferous menaces, you have to restrict everybody: the old guy with a small fishing outboard, the road-based jeeper, mountain bikers. Enviros didn’t do this–motorheads did by supporting companies that would rather spend their R&D money on lawsuits than solutions.

It sucks & the whole thing acts as a feedback loop with those who will not or cannot accept the wholesale motorized trashing of public lands & waterways forced to support widespread Wilderness designation since there is no other choice that will set aside ANY land at all for non-motorized use or wildlife preservation. “Multiple-use”, my ***. Maybe we should just let industry mow the western forests & strip-mine the deserts to see how much the motorjockies like the multiple-use concept when it stamps on their sacred cows for a change.

Of course, the current utter & complete lack of anything resembling enforcement of existing regs in the west puts the lie even to this extreme action–our “wilderness” is crawling with snowmobiles & ATVs…especially in the accessible areas that can be reached under human-power in a day. Not all Wilderness is remote, & that Wilderness that is…I agree isn’t the issue.