Re: [Paddlewise] Jet Ski Ban

Looze, John & Donna wrote:

      Banning snowmobiles and jet skis because they offend our sensibilities
  seems to be reaching a correct result, but for the wrong reason.  In the
  process it continues to perpetuate the attitude the environmentalists are
  elitist snobs.

snip



      Safety and health standards (instead of machine and people) also have the
  benefit of not automatically favoring one group over another.  That, in turns
  is a little more conducive to good relationships.


              JKL



   I have to agree here.  If we advocate banning Jet Ski's because they
offend us we are opening ourselves to the same kind of ban from those who
don't like kayakers.  If a valid reason for the ban can be proved,
environmental or safety, then I would agree with the ban.  But to single
out Jet Ski's is wrong.  Any time you start singling out equipment rather
than educating the operator you set the wrong standard, and a poor
precedent.  It is the operators that need to be controlled.
   If there is a sensitive area that needs to be protected then ban all
motors, not just Jet Ski's.  If  the area is noise sensitive then set a
maximum noise limit (New Hampshire has on several lakes).  If it is a
pollution problem then set a standard across the board.
   On a side note, I do ride snowmobiles.  The modern two stroke motor is
far less polluting than the press would have you believe.  My machine
burns about one pint of oil per hundred miles of travel, and gets 18
MPG.  Also, the vast majority of the people I see riding stay on the
marked trails.  Again, it is a matter of educating the operator.  Find
the violators and fine them accordingly, but don't punish all for the
actions of a few.

Mike

-- 
    Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are 
visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a great
blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a 
mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your
passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space.
Mark H Hunt

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