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Bob,
Since you are an admitted bleeding-heart left-wing environmentalists. Do you find it hard to support Robby in his off-road racing, involvement in Polaris's UTV development and in his off-road wheel business? I am actually surprised you are even a Robby fan because everything Robby does or stands for is opposite of a left wing environmentalists.
A rational environmentalist can see responsible usage of our lands and environment by everyone. Pick up your mess, don't be intentionally destructive, learn to modify your behaviors when you recognize that you may be doing unnecessary damage, etc.

It's really not that hard to see the infinite shades of gray between any two extremes.
Alan, I call it Accountability! something I am teaching my Sons.IMO
Ah, but Robby is about as authentic a human being as one will ever hope to find, and I think anyone can appreciate that, no matter what their political leanings. I may be wrong, but I sense that he is a square-shooter as well.

And as Alan4s implied, I doubt he would support behaviors that mindfully trash up the environment in a permanent way. While there will always be dimwits out there, it's hard for me to believe that there are many educated or responsible recreationalists would support that sort of behavior these days, whether they be gear-heads, right-wingers, left-wingers or whatever.
There may be other reasons why BLM is enforcing the rules to a strict degree, especially when it comes to large gatherings of people in the dezert/dunes. While it's easy to point the finger at the guy doing his job, think of all the a***** the BLM gets to deal with over the course of a Thanksgiving weekend. I love it when people think the rules are for everyone else.

The BLM admitted that they have failed to enforce their own policies, perhaps they are now going by the book? Here's more details on the findings from a recent permitted event... http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/20/local/la-me-desert-crash-20...
I agree land conservation is important, but there's a difference between enforcing laws and being an ass. Just because you have on a badge doesn't mean you can abandon logical reasoning. I always show the utmost respect to all law enforcement personnel. I know these guys probably deal with S*** all weekend, but forcing us, and only us, to leave an event with 10's of thousands of spectators is ridiculous. Issuing pointless citations isn't the right way to make up for years of failing to be competent.
As you well know anything Gov. run is usually out of control. The IQ of most that are hired is something to be marveled at. Just look at the TSA, PO, MV most of these people couldn't hold a private sector job. So the BLM falls into this, some people just don't use common sence or have any.
Good points on just being an ass with a badge, I'm sure there are more than a few to go around. I would venture to guess most people don't show respect to law enforcement personnel especially if they are violating the law but that is a debate for another time.

I think if Budweiser or Marlboro or Viagra or Diet Coke showed up with a fleet of vehicles with their logo, they would have been asked to leave too. In this particular case, I agree that Glamis is not the place to allow commercial entities to advertise and furthermore distribute free product. IMO it's one thing for Robby to play in the sand in his Trophy Truck or RZR but another to show up and expect to market his product where others can't by law.

I wasn't at Glamis that weekend and happend to be an excellent Keyboard Quarterback. No hard feelings here or anything personal, just a difference of perspective.

I enjoyed your write up on your weekend, sounds like you had an opportunity many of us can only dream about.

Cheers!
The commercial marketing on US government lands w/o a permit is a no no. OTOH - if the Speed cans cannot be sold with the current labels it was worth the risk to get rid of some of the current inventory and I bet the folks there appreciated it, too.
Alot of folks have huge lettering of team names, sponsor logos, and all kinds of stuff on their trailers. Get three or four of them togeter, and it's no different than Robby's setup. There's a bunch of 'compound's set up on Thanksgiving weekend. You make new friends, try different turkey and BBQ, and have fun. The BLM guys have plenty of things they could be doing.
Red Bull had a huge tent with trailers all set up. They also had girls walking around the sand drags with backpacks full of thier product handing them out. They came up to me and asked if I wanted one and I kindly showed them my Speed Energy can and told them I would rather drink this. Everyone passes out their product at the drags, every year. As far as the blm, they have many better things to do other than mess with Robby, but they are trying to make a statement. Everyone notices when they have him or his vehicles pulled over, so everyone sees they are serious. That is all it is, nothing more, nothing less. And yes they do have many better things to do with their time than mess with someone that is following the dune laws.
One more heads-up. Out where we are, the Forest Service is going absolutely hog wild about liability and safety issues. And the extent of the things they have decided to label as dangerous would simply boggle your mind. On top of this "being concerned about safety" gives them a whole raft-load of new projects to rationalize, which in turn allows them to include demands for more money in their annual budget submissions. Keeping themselves in work : that's their main task these days in our area, now that all of the commercial-grade timber has been cut. So they have become much more creative about what they see their responsibilities to be, and the whole "safety" thing has become one of their major new darlings here in our district. And we don't even have any organized off-road racing here : we just got trees.

So given what they are up to here....when I see those videos of the obviously unsafe races on other Federal lands...it would be clear to our guys up here that their counterparts in the desert are missing out on some real opportunities.

This is not to say that they would send their own guys out to patrol race activities : here they are happy subcontracting things like that if they can. Much of their work has transitioned to paper-pushing, so doing various studies and dealing with all the paper-work involving permits or the hiring of contractors to do the work; that's just dandy for them. Generating more studies that rationalize more fees or more new permits for whatever they can think up next : that means more work for them too, and work is "all good" as far as they are concerned.

So what I am saying is that it would be awfully easy for the BLM to see the dangers of organized off-roading as a real gold mine, once they decide what angle to work it from. A district might first need a boat-load of funded studies to rationalize such actions, but that's good too.

At this point in time, these sorts of policies appear to be regional rather than national in nature, and various districts seem free to cook up their own plans. So if I lived in the areas where such races take place, I would be keeping my ear to the ground.

The Feds can make Helton and the France family look like pikers, as far as doing whatever the hell that they please, and at least on our forest, safety is the latest cash cow. And if they can make our trees seem dangerous, I cringe when I think about racing.

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