‘Silence at Anza-Borrego’ and Off-Road Vehicles

In response to your editorial “Silence at Anza-Borrego” (April 25):

Your extreme position against off-road recreationists blinds you to the facts as well as simple logic.

Off-road vehicles are not necessarily unlicensed, noisy, and uninsured. The California Vehicle Code takes care of all three of these and the permit system will give rangers the opportunity to check conformance if they so desire.

Nor does it follow that a vehicle with a license plate is quiet and insured and will stay on the road.

The 600,000 acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has no significant hiking trails and its primitive state requires a motor vehicle for any visitation at all. I submit that the unidentified but oft-quoted “general user,” who thinks he owns the park (“Thanks for letting us have our park back”) does not exist. Ownership like that can usually be attributed to a possessive ranger force who usually would prefer to have no one trespass in “their” park.

The statement that roads are for access, not play, made by officials of the Bureau of Land Management, could not pertain to Anza-Borrego, where roads are all for recreation, not mining or ranching like the East Mojave National Scenic Area.

RICHARD J. FISHER

Chatsworth