Mountain Home ATV club joins new state organization

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Mountain Home ATV Club, Inc., is one of the 16 such clubs that have organized to form the new Idaho State ATV Association, Inc.

The Mountain Home ATV Club, Inc., is recognized by the state of Idaho as a non-profit organization. The club was founded in August 2005 and its current membership is more than 200 members "and continually growing on a monthly basis," according to Rusty Faircloth, president of the local club.

The local club meets on the third Thursday of each month at Carlos' Restaurant at 7 p.m. and "everyone is welcome to attend," Faircloth said.

"We have planned rides every month, and during the summer months we also plan campouts in conjunction with our monthly rides." ATV riding is the fastest growing backcountry activity on public lands in Idaho. ATV enthusiasts throughout the state recently joined forces to form the statewide Idaho State ATV Association (ISATVA), to "address threats to ATV access to Idaho's public lands."

The president of the newly created ISATVA is Clark Collins, retired executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC). Collins built the organization from its founding in 1987 to its being considered the premier back-country recreation advocacy group in the nation.

During his time with the coalition, Collins was named one of the 20 people on Outside Magazine's "Counter-enviro Power list" in May of 2005. "If wilderness-advocacy groups would stop trying to kick us off backcountry areas and work with us to address the 1 percent of irresponsible ORV users," Collins said in that article, "they would find a very willing partner in the BRC."

"I think that Idaho's ATV users are the real environmentalists," says Collins about his new position. "We are the ones helping our land managers maintain the trails and supporting funding programs that address the environmental impacts of trail use."

For more information about the Idaho State ATV Association go to: www.idahostateatv.org.

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