Hikers versus ATVs in Vermont

On one side are organized ATV enthusiasts who want to create a statewide network of trails to operate their machinery. This means opening trails through state forests to motorized vehicles where now there is only access by foot. The ATV riders insist they are good stewards of the forests and should have the same right to enjoy them as other people.

On the other side are environmentalists, hikers, birders, mountain bikers, horsemen and paddlers, who appreciate the woods at a different speed than the ATV users. They point out that the noise and pollution of the machines are the antitheses of what they go into the forest to experience in the first place, which is to say, peace, quiet and unspoiled nature.

The rule proposes creating ATV-friendly corridors through the forests connecting private lands where the owners permit ATV use already. It seems innocuous enough, and the group pushing for the change in law, the Vermont ATV Sportman’s Association, represents the majority of ATV users.

They go out of their way to note they are not, as one VASA member put it, “in the group of hotrodder ATV riders you see breaking rules all over the state.”

And there’s the point of friction, the sand in the suntan lotion. A substantial percentage of ATV users are in fact hotrodders who simply won’t abide the rules of the road, trail or underbrush.

A few years ago, Maine passed a law forcing anyone who granted right of way to snowmobilers to also allow right of way to ATV use. The four-wheelers were ecstatic over their victory, which granted them access to Maine’s vast network of snowmobile trails.

The law was sharply amended within a year or so, however, as what instead happened was that many landowners who were happy to have snowmobiles passing over their land unmarked were unhappy to then find irresponsible ATV users ripping up their property, and big chunks of Maine’s famous snow trails started getting posted as off-limits. Maine snowmobilers fought too long and too hard to let anybody else’s misconduct cripple their sport.

In a way, the complaint by the ATV community that it’s being discriminated against is much like the chronic complaint of some hunters that they are the only ones who have to pay for their version of outdoor recreation.

The fact that everybody else who sees the moose leaves it there for others to see is lost on them, while they take it home and eat it.

ATVs leave marks on the forest. Irresponsible users can and do rip up great swaths of wetlands in an afternoon and leave the proof behind them. They pack in trash and leave if for everybody else to walk or ride past.

Those reminders of the irresponsible riders last a long time, and harm everybody else’s enjoyment of the forest, including that of responsible riders.

Until the Agency of Natural Resources shows that its proposed trails do not simply open up great chunks of the forest to easier access for the irresponsible ATV users, the state shouldn’t act on the proposed rule.

Once the agency has done its due diligence, it should open up selected trails in areas where it can minimize and mitigate the potential damage to allow responsible ATV users to enjoy their sport without ruining Vermont’s forests for the rest of the users.

Source: http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2009/06/20/opinion/columnists/free/id_360607.txt

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