New trail map aims to reduce illegal traffic in Pinelands

In another attempt to broker peace between environmentalists and drivers of off-road vehicles, the state Department of Environmental Protection is moving forward with a new 63-mile trail map of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest indicating where authorized motorbikes can drive. There is a long history of motorbike riders using state land in the Pinelands for certain competitions and events.
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[@e5m956]

But its ok to plow it down to make developments though lol. Bikes aren't hurting anything.

[@cuz2284]

Fellow riders, like everyone else I’m looking for places to ride enduro or track in North Jersey, I live in Essex County. Going back to the dirt after 30 years. Older guy + new bike = I told you so (wife) Can’t wait!

[@hodaka175]

Jason Howell makes up these stories of damage to the forest

[@davidaponte7521]

With all due respect, but you would have to be an idiot to seriously think that those things don’t cause damage to the forest, it’s not rocket science.

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

@@davidaponte7521with all due respect, have you ever been to Wharton? I know the answer is no because if you had, you would see the forest is perfectly clean and fine except for tire marks that wash away in the next rain storm. I can’t stand low IQ sheep

[@ezbeemer]

By far the biggest impact to the forest and it's inhabitants are the fires that occur numerous times every year. While thousands of fire breaks exist all through the pinelands to help mitigate the spread, these quickly become overgrown and less effective in a short period of time. The seemingly good intentions of those who wish to 'preserve' the forest by advocating the closing of roads and travel on the fire cuts has the opposite effect by allowing the forest to quickly reclaim fire management efforts. Opening fire cuts and keeping roads open to motorized travel are in fact the best way to maintain the effectiveness of fire management efforts in the forest, and at no cost to the taxpayer.

[@moonzy11]

100pcnt

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

There you go using common sense. Something lunatic leftist Andrea Katz has none of

[@TRYSTAN_4]

Jason howell is a moe

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

Oh no not tire marks in the dirt

[@arnoldpalmer9897]

How about providing a place for people to ride and off road instead of just banning it everywhere... It's like they would rather have people doing illegal rideouts on public roads like in NY and CA, because that's what happens when there's nowhere to go. Shut down race tracks, you get more illegal street racing. Shut down all off roading, you get more illegal off roading spread out through all your preserves. NJ sucks

[@Winterascent]

Sounds like a good business opportunity. Research it, and see how much the liability insurance would cost. The amount of money to buy 20 acres, put in a route or circuit for use, and to insure it isn't going to be cheap, and probably not profitable, but serious jeep and atv clubs could easily pull money and create something if they truly thought it was worth while. Otherwise, the current situation is beyond what was once acceptable use and closing roads in places like Wharton SF to limit use to 200 miles of publicly accessible forest roads is not some great injustice.

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

@@WinterascentWhy the F would someone need to buy land for others to ride. We have Wharton and have had it for decades and the FACTS are nothing trucks or bikes do out there affects anything except your feeling.

[@michaelsovey1622]

You can mark out all the "approved" single track roads for motocross use, and the dirt trails for all vehicle use, but the people that do things illegally with side by sides, quads and dirt bikes are going to break the law anyway. Alot of the blame is on the State for letting this illegal behavior to go unchecked for years. Put the Rangers in the woods conducting surveillances and coordinating enforcement with other law agencies and they'll catch the offenders. Then as part of the fines impose the cost of their arrests with their fines. Alot of the offenders are not from the area. If you set up a dedicated single track course for legally registered enduros, and "permit" them like a beach badge it will be do both sides good.

[@Winterascent]

I can see from the comments the people who view state forests as their private domain to trash as they see fit, are about the only ones to voice an opinion. They also have no clue about the road closure plan. Anyone who looks at the current maps as are publicly available on the DEP website, will see 200 miles of roads will remain open to motorized travel in Wharton, alone. Wharton isn't even that large of an area. The closures are designed to protect the wetlands which are being destroyed by unethical operators and those who are intentionally destroying the forest roads through "mudding" in wet areas, creating large ruts and holes which prevent others from accessing public lands as they can and do become stuck in these ruts. The fire break argument is a strawman, as the roads which will remain open would continue to allow for their use as existing fire lines. Further, forest management through thinning operations to open the canopy, and the use of fire under prescription, and increased growing season prescribed fire is the best way to reduce the probability of a wildfire which can damage property.

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

STFU. I’ve been riding the forest for decades and never seen anyone trash anything. There’s literally zero litter or problems there. The only problem is lunatic leftist like you that can’t stand people having fun because your life revolves around hate and anger

[@PLATOON-609]

@winterascent: STATE OWNED FOREST??? HOW DID THEY BECOME OWNERS OF SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN HERE LONG BEFORE AMERICA AS A COUNTRY EVEN EXISTED? WHO DID THEY PURCHASE THE FOREST FROM?? HOW MUCH DOES AN ENTIRE FOREST COST TO OWN?? OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH IS JUST AN ILLUSION!!! YOU SOUND VERY UNEDUCATED AND BORDERLINE RETARDED!!!

[@butterytoast4836]

State is taking money out of our checks to pay for an off road park that they never delivered on for the past 20 years. Anyone thinking that closing 300 miles of roads is gonna help Wharton is brain dead.

[@AshleyOnYT]

the issue is you can't ride a true dirt bike or quad. It needs to be street legal.

[@davidaponte7521]

The whole idea of the Pinelands Reserve is to preserve it. How is running one of those things through it an act of preservation?

[@Winterascent]

It isn't, but it is multi-use so their being their alone is not in conflict with preservation. However, the situation of recreational destruction in the Pines is beyond a competition's scope.

[@AmazonFirestick-qn9bu]

@@Winterascent I bet you think climate change is a thing and we can fix it with higher taxes