Research paper, help me brainstorm

[Scuba]

Hey guy's, doing a research paper for my English class and wanted some brainstorming help.
I came to y'all cause the topic is : "Public lands and the fight to keep them open for vehicular recreation" Or something along those lines. I don't have my thesis yet.

I talked to my professor about the fact there most likely are not any scholarly resources / books on the matter and she said my topic is an exception.

So I'm trying to figure out exactly what I should write about. I have a few of the most recent land debates such as Tellico, the fight to save the hammers and JV, and I think there was a debate over the water quailty of the surrounding areas of The Rubicon about a year ago or so..
Other then those fights I have no idea exactly what to write about..

I just thought about it, like, Why is off roading good for public land ? I may be short sighted on this but right this second I can't see any real positives. An exception to that is some wheelers do practice treading lightly and will pick up others trash on trails...

Just asking for some ideas on arguments and whatnot, so any ideas help guys. Thanks.

[garrett]

That was the topic assigned or what you chose?

[fustercluck]

I would start with the history of govt land grabs and how it became a practice. Which president initiated legislation that allowed other lawmakers and ideological extremists a vehicle to pervert. What was the name of that early legislation, when was it passed? Was it an executive order? What was it's original purpose? How has it's definition been augmented/expanded? What are the negative ramifications to society consequential to this practice...liberty?, energy?, State's rights? Which kinds of liberty are lost and in which ways is that bad?

I could go on forever...

[Scuba]

LOL, Deff a topic I chose. The other ones were like "Legalization of marijuana, legalization of prostitution, abortion rights yada yada yada." All BS that's been covered tons of times. I chose this topic because for the most part I am passionate about wheeling and keeping public lands open..

[troyboy162]

you have to sopport the idea of public recreation as a heathy passtime and maybe pull in things like why they formed the big parks back int he old days and the spirit of setting aside land for the people to enjoy.

earlest recreational wheeling i think is the picnic fad of the ford model t days.

you cant really say its good for public land but youve got to say its the reason for public land.

[corax]

Yeah, not really good for the land itself. You could string in something about keeping alive, on a local level, the American spirit of exploration and self sufficiency (i.e. expo trucks).

[Robinhood4x4]

It's the same argument national parks like yosemite and yellowstone have. In the early days there was a struggle about whether to make access easy so lots of people can enjoy it. Lots of people mean lots of crowds, trash, , roads, buildings, habitat destruction. But the upside is it exposes more people to nature and thus instills a sense of protectionism for nature. If people don't go out and see nature, then they have no personal experience with it and will more likely OK land development.

4 wheeling does the same. It gets people out there. A perfect example is death valley. What kind of people go out there? A lot of 4wheelers and there the ones who would protest the most if DV were to be turned into a shopping mall.

Check out Ken Burns documentary on the national parks.

[Obi..]

*I can't remember how my thesis went (sad huh, I forget last semester already..LOL!), but if I were you I'd make friends with the nearest Social and Behavioral Studies Student. Same for your school's Econ Prof's. We have to look at this sort of thing all the time for our classwork.

IMHO it all boils down to Environmental Economics, the economics of small industry and towns versus the bigger private interest lobbyists. Relate it to something like how Oregon's economy was basically ruined by the efforts against logging and how the state has been in limbo ever since and your paper can possibly write itself by integrating all of the input above in the prior replies.

Here's a spot to visit: http://www.env-econ.net/outdoor_recreation/

Key heavily on the fact that some of the most stalwart protectionists are either recreationalists, people like us who go out, or it's the more affluent folks who have gone out when younger and are (IMHO) at a point where they're more interested in keeping things elitist, or worse, inaccessible b/c they've either seen the issues, or by means of regret are hoping to offset the impacts they've made achieving what they have in their lives.

Research the mountain bike access versus the Equestrian debate and all of the issues parallel this idea.

[Small_words]

NUTS. Blasted time out. Ok, here's the summary.

Poaching in Africa is bad. Governments making them off limits and arming rangers like soldiers didn't work in the 80s. The best results have been attained by educating the locals of the value that the land itself has, not just the price of pelts. National Geographic has plenty of info as does the UN's agriculture office, www.fao.org.

Compare the views of Gifford Pincot and John Muir. Both were conservationists but Muir wanted no commercial activity on public land. Pinchot believed that public land was best conserved by being useful to the public through recreation and commercial purposes.

Side note, military bases are among the best preserved ecosystems in the US. NY Times has some articles about them. They're public land with restricted access.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Think about the blue ribbon coalitions motto. Protecting land FOR the people, not FROM the people.