ATV riders still losing battle for open space

Matt Manochino

From the sandy soil of the Pine Barrens to wooded ridges along the Delaware, all-terrain vehicle riders once could legally navigate state parks and forests, even if, at times, they left knobby-tire ruts on farms and backyards in their off-road explorations.

By 1985, under pressure from environmentalists and private property owners, New Jersey banned ATVs from parks, forests, utility power line routes and roads. After the ban was largely ignored, a state enforcement crackdown in 2002 led to summonses as well as confrontations between property owners, park police and ATV riders.

Since then, little has changed in the standoff between conservation and recreation in New Jersey, one of the few states that does not provide land for off-road recreation.

Conservationists and county officials argue that ATVs are highly toxic to the environment.

"The activity is very destructive to most of the open spaces that we have," said Ralph Albanir, the director of Middlesex County's Parks and Recreation Department. "It's destructive to the plants. It causes a lot of erosion. It has a very negative impact on land, especially the land that we focus on protecting."

Albanir said he sees illegal ATV riding in Old Bridge, East Brunswick and Monroe — places with thousands of acres of recently purchased open space.

"Paths are forged and ground is laid bare," the Sierra Club says on its website. "Ruts form easily, which in turn causes erosion. This further widens illegal trails, and sediments wash into wetlands. Water temperatures can easily change, which in turn can threaten water habitat."

Yet to frustrated ATV owners, their vehicles are a way to explore the environment. But unless they own lots of property, they have to flout New Jersey law or haul the vehicles to designated riding places in Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere.

"There's nowhere to go — everything you're doing is illegal," said Brian Chaplin, 45, a Mount Arlington father who wants a place for his 13-year-old son, Corey, to ride.

"I hate to teach my son the wrong things in life, but let's be serious. I want the kid to get outside," said Chaplin.

A day before leaving office, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a law that, at least on paper, contained something for everyone: New Jersey would develop three ATV parks, in the northern, central and southern parts of the state, then cash in on registration and license fees and sales tax revenue from a presumed ATV growth spurt.

The only problem? "Everyone agrees there needs to be a facility for off-road vehicles. Nobody wants to host it," said John Flynn of the DEP's Green Acres program, which has been tackling the issue since 2002.

About five years ago, the state tried to establish land for riding in Monroe in Gloucester County but ran into local opposition and backed off, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman with the Department of Environmental Protection.

Last summer, the state tried again to create a park in Little Egg Harbor but again was met by residential opposition and the plans were scrapped, Ragonese said.

"Currently the best efforts of the DEP to find sites have been thwarted because off-road sites are just not welcome in many places," Ragonese said. "We are pursuing four or five properties that seem to offer some potential, but nothing is imminent. ...Frankly we're open to suggestions from people who might have legitimate sites."

Even if New Jersey cracks the not-in-my-backyard syndrome, it's still not out of the woods, so to speak.

Gov. Chris Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, said financing such sites, should they ever be designated for use, "would not be a funding priority during a fiscal crisis."

ATV violators risk minimum fines of $250, $500 and $1,000 for first, second and third offenses. Riders causing physical damage to state property also can be fined up to five times the amount of the loss. And the state can impound the vehicles of three-time offenders and sell them at auction.

Still, not all ATV riders are dissuaded. Jerry Harrsch, a 22-year-old Parsippany ATV owner, said, "We go riding in the Pine Barrens. There's not a soul for miles."

That's not entirely true, said Police Sgt. Glenn Murphy of Manchester, an Ocean County community that lies within the Barrens:

"We don't have the time sometimes to go out and enforce that, but when we do catch the vehicles we do enforcement, there's no question about that," Murphy said.

"There is no place in our town to ride legally, either," Murphy said. The only exception is when a rider obtains permission from a landowner to ride on his or her property and can present it to a police officer if asked.

Capt. Eric Wilsusen of the Jefferson Police Department in Morris County said it's common to see vehicles with ATV trailers parked along Route 15 north, mostly on weekends.

"Once they get into the woods, it is hard for us to do much," Wilsusen said. "They are generally on private property, and unless the property owner makes a complaint, there is not much for us to do."

Some ATV owners are simply doing their riding — and spending their money — out of state.

Tory Carvalho, 38, of Wayne, keeps his ATVs in a garage in Pennsylvania, where he leases an acre of land to keep a camper and garage for his family's vehicles. There he has access to 14,000 acres of legal riding trails.

"We're pretty hard-core riders," he said of his wife and two teenage children. "And unfortunately we live in Jersey, which offers not one place to ride. It's a shame because you buy an ATV in the state . . . you pay your sales tax for an ATV, but you can't use them in this state."

Carvalho said he refuses to buy ATVs in New Jersey just for that reason.

"Why should my tax dollars go to New Jersey when they don't provide a place for riders to enjoy (ATVs) recreationally with their families?" he said.

And there are tax dollars to be realized.

John Wehrle, owner of Neptune-based Stumpy's Yamaha in Monmouth County, said adult-sized ATVs typically range in price from $3,500 to $9,000. He said some are built for speed, while other four-wheel-drive models specialize at traversing bumpy terrain.

Youth-sized ATVs, starting at $1,500, can be adjusted so they don't exceed 20 mph, Wehrke said. People don't just use the four-wheelers for recreation, he said, but also for hauling, transporting and other property chores.

"They could reverse this whole negative situation and turn it into a positive by charging people to ride" at state-approved parks, said Wehrle, who is an ATV rider. "People have no problem paying a fee."

Wehrle said money could be generated not just by riding and registration fees, but by food and merchandise sold by vendors.

"It's huge, it's a lot of fun and it can be very lucrative if they just allow it," he said.

That argument is lost on James R. McKay of Parsippany, who also enjoys the great outdoors — as a hiker.

"I'm against them . . . because they hack up the trails," said McKay. "They come down and ruin the trails. It's pretty hard to find a place for (ATVs) to exist. They've pretty much been wiped out in New Jersey and I'm in favor of that.

"I can hear them coming a mile away half the time," McKay said. "They're doing it illegally most of the time. They shouldn't be on these trails at all. And I think there should be more enforcement of the laws against them."

Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club of New Jersey, said his organization might accept an ATV park if it were not located on public parkland or land considered environmentally sensitive.

"We don't really like it because ATV parks actually encourage more illegal ridership, but we could live with it," Tittel said.

Tittel's objection stems from concerns that ATVs eat up the trails, causing a "tremendous amount of erosion. It's (also) the noise pollution, the air pollution," he said. "You kind of have a triple threat that way with ATVs."

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Source: http://www.app.com/article/20100523/NEWS03/5230322/ATV-riders-still-losing-battle-for-open-space&template=artsemantics&server=MOC-WN0295

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