POCATELLO — A longtime motorcycle enthusiast from Pocatello has been nominated for an impact award from the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame under the advocate category for helping ensure everyone can responsibly use trails on public lands.
Martin Hackworth, 61, the executive director of Sharetrails.Org/BlueRibbon Coalition, is one of five nominees for advocate recognition during the Oct. 30 event in Las Vegas. The other nominees for that award are Robert Blanton, Jim Bramham, Dan Thomas and Ed Stovin.
“It’s a great honor,” Hackworth said. “I’m sure I don’t deserve it, but I’m happy anyway.”
Hackworth says it’s nice to even be listed with the other nominees for recognition at the event. For instance a friend of his, Jimmy Lewis, is a nominee in the Industry category.
“The fact that somebody’s going to read my name and his name in the same document (of nominees) makes me feel pretty good,” Hackworth said.
He says a lot of luminaries in off-road sports are going to be there. So just being able to rub shoulders with those folks is part of the draw for many, though Hackworth likely can’t attend in person due to family responsibilities.
Hackworth said the award really speaks to the impact of the 7,000-member Sharetrails.Org/BlueRibbon Coalition.
“It makes getting fussed at every day on the phone a whole lot easier,” Hackworth said.
The group, which has members in all 50 states, has had quite a few key victories to its credit over the years, he said. For instance, it’s argued and won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. But it’s a challenge.
“It’s always David versus Goliath because we’re always up against organizations that are 10 times our size,” he says.
The group focuses on off-highway vehicles, but represents all trail users. He says even mountain bikers have gotten flak for using public trails in some areas.
“These are public lands. They belong to everybody as long as you’re using them responsibly,” Hackworth said. “You should not be excluding people from the lands that they pay to maintain.”
So Sharetrails.Org picks and chooses its battles. It focuses on national cases that will have a broad impact.
“We typically take on fights where we feel the law is on our side and we have a pretty good track record of prevailing in those fights,” Hackworth said.
For instance, the group - which is still doing business as the BlueRibbon Coalition but will eventually change its name to just Sharetrails.Org - helped fight an extended battle to preserve snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park. And won.
“The law really is on our side,” he said. “Those are public lands.”
But if the group had not been formed three decades ago by Clark Collins, Hackworth believes that snowmobilers would not now be able to ride in Yellowstone National Park.
“The environment and preservation groups would have mowed us down if we did not have this organization,” said Hackworth, who leads a staff of full-time and part-time employees and contractors.
Hackworth, who’s retired from teaching physics at Idaho State University in Pocatello, decided to work for the trails group in April 2015 because he believes in what it does. But the challenges never end.
“I thought being a physicist was hard,” he said. “This is harder.”
But he says the group has definitely had an impact in preserving trail access from those who would close it.
“Just the threat that we might get involved is enough to slow people down a bit,” Hackworth said. “Then we can negotiate.”
The thing that originally got him involved in trail advocacy was the 1,600-mile Tour of Idaho, which he founded. The ride, which starts in South Idaho and ends near the Canadian border is considered one of the most difficult dirt bike rides in the U.S.
That project had him spending a lot of time keeping trails open. And he encountered some push to close trails.
“At some point it occurred to me this is becoming a full-time job so I might as well make it a full-time job,” Hackworth said.
He said there are a huge number of people who don’t acknowledge that public lands belong to everyone. The coalition serves as a counterweight.
“Its not your way or my way,” Hackworth said. “It’s got to be something that’s good for everybody.”
