Big Game Hunting

How some areas are ruined by ATV's

I decided to hunt some BLM land in NW Colorado this last year during the 2nd rifle season for deer and elk with my wife. She had the tag, I was the spotter. I have not been to this BLM land in 30 years. The last time I was there, I was 16. It's a very narrow strip of BLM about 1/4 mile wide and miles long. You can access it from a county road and from there it's all down hill...big time down hill. My wife and I hit this area a couple hours from dusk and I noticed when I got there that a 4WD road had been cut all the way to the bottom. From the top, I could see a hunter on an ATV about every 1/4 mile. From the time we accessed the BLM land 13 ATV's roared up and down that road. This area was completely worthless now. There was no way any elk or deer would come within a mile of this stip of BLM. 30 years ago when I hunted it, we got three elk, two cows and a bull and we saw huge mule deer. The quality of the hunting was amazing, but it was because most would not want to walk the strip down to the bottom. We saw nothing that night...not a bugle...not a deer. It was a shame to see such a good area go to crap!