Save our wilderness

Many years ago I was traveling along the West Coast in Oregon. I arrived at my campground late at night and pitched my tent. In the morning, I woke up to a horrendous noise. I poked my head out of the tent and saw myself surrounded by ATVs, their engines revving. Coming from Europe, I had never seen anything like that. I got up and walked over to the beach to get away from it all, only to find that the same vehicles were noisily driving along the beach and destroying the dunes. Disgusted, I packed my tent and moved on.

Having lived in the U.S. for almost two decades now, the same thing has happened to me again and again. I wanted to explore a pristine (as I hoped) wilderness area and was chased out by ATVs. Their noise carries for miles! As someone who grew up in a region of our planet where pristine wilderness is all but non-existent, it will always be incomprehensible to me why we allow off-roaders to spoil our precious wilderness areas and take away the experience of others who simply want to take in the sounds and smells of nature.

A recent article in the Northwest edition of this newspaper gives a voice to those who propose an expansion of the off-road network in the Ozark National Forest. I know that I am not the only one who strongly opposes such an expansion. Those voices should be heard and given a forum as well. MICHAEL LEHMANN

Fayetteville