Damn you Smokey the Bear

I was watching the news tonight when I saw a rather disturbing Smokey the Bear commercial. In this commercial a girl on a mountain bike rides up on two quad riders and warns them not to start their bikes do to them possibly starting a forest fire. The add basically implies that ATV's (all terrain vehicles) and forest fires are directly related. This is an absolutely ridiculous claim. For starters I would like to take some time to break down the facts of ATV's and forest fires. To be ridden on public land as in parks like in the commercial, ATV's must be equipped with a forestry service approved spark arrestor. Spark arrestors are designed to capture sparks from exiting the exhaust which could possibly ignite a fire and are proven to do just that. The first issue with the commercial is that unless the quads have after market or tampered exhaust that are not forestry approved, they are both equipped with proper spark arrestor systems from the factory, thus making them every bit as legal to be ridden in the park as the girls bike.

One thing this add did get me thinking about was how many fires have ever actually been caused by ATV's because I certainly have never hear of any. Through a brief Google News search I could find only two stories directly relating a forest fire to an ATV. One of these was about a farmer leaving his utility quad running next to a pile of brush on a hot and dry day(on private property). There is no saving stupid, nor is there any evidence that this quad had a properly maintained exhaust system with a forestry approved spark arrestor. This fire claimed 216 acres. The second case occurred in Manitoba Canada after an ATV rally and was much more devastating as 7400 acres were burnt. Officials say ATV's may have been the cause of the fire, though this cannot be proven. Statistically speaking it is more likely that a careless camper within the group of riders failed to properly maintain a safe campfire or did not properly dispose of a cigarette than the fire actually being caused by sparks from the exhaust of the vehicles.

The Fact of the matter is the promoters of this add are trying to categorize ATV's with the common fire starters like cigarettes, campfires and careless campers, hikers and picnickers. This is completely unfair to all ATV riders alike and is another example of bad P.R. towards the off road industry which is already hurting from every other environmental lie directed towards them. Its becoming more and more apparent that the anti-ATV population doesn't care whether or not they have lie. They will do whatever it takes to put an end to this highly misunderstood form of recreation and it's going to require all different kinds of off road riders coming together to fight back and save this incredible sport.

video link to the advertisement: http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-jul2308-smokey_bear_ads.834f8711.html