I recently read that the illegal use of ATVs has supplanted garbage dumping as the No. 1 law-enforcement problem on our national forest lands and other public areas. I knew it was going on, I just didn’t realize the magnitude of the problem. Apparently, fools are flying up and down roads on their bikes behind locked Forest Service gates, cutting illegal trails around the gates, racing though the timber, and doing doughnuts in meadows and fields. They are littering trash, shooting up signs and basically raising all kinds of hell. They are ruining it for law-abiding people like us who hike, hunt and use ATVs responsibly. The U.S. Forest Service welcomes responsible ATV use in designated areas. I’m pro-ATV and [...]

One of the only good things to come out of the pandemic was an increase in outdoors sports and hunting in particular. Studies documented a 4.9% increase in hunting license sales from 2019 to 2020 in what was known as the “COVID Bump.” Unfortunately, that bump that I and other bloggers cheered seems to be over. A study last year by the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports showed a 1.9% decrease in hunting license sales from 2020 to 2021. The latest study just released by the Council indicates license sales decreased by approximately 3.1% in 2022 compared to 2021. “Our results indicate that the impacts of COVID on getting people outdoors may be waning,” said the Council’s [...]