Dave,
The only people I heard bitch when seasonal road closures started on FS land were those who felt entitled to drive ANYWHERE on public land. But most them quit complaining after ATV's became popular, because they could then drive around locked gates.
One of the interesting things was that the management of some National Forests immediately clamped down on ATV use when they first appeared and very few people owned them. Those forests didn't receive many complaints at all, because ATV's never became a hunting "tradition."
Most complaints came from people who hunted forests where off-road ATV use was banned AFTER a number of years. And there were plenty of good reasons to ban them, including severe erosion from illegal trails and, of course, big game not having any place to hide--except, of course, private land where hunting was either non-existent or severely restricted.
However, none of my many hunting friends complain about the closures because, like me, they've found big game does indeed learn to avoid constant vehicle traffic. Plus, the closed roads (whether seasonal or permanent closures) provide excellent paths for access and game retrieval, whether on foot, horseback or, sometimes, even mountain bikes.
It sounds like you firmly believe Forest Service lands are a total disaster for everybody, in every way imaginable. You're of course entitled to your opinion, but I know a pile of people in various western states that believe otherwise.
