Forest Service Rules to Address ATV Disputes
June 23, 2004 -- Gerald Winer knows how he'd like to handle the all-terrain riders who transform his grated road and woods into a quagmire of muddy ruts and ridges.
He'd take a sledgehammer to their machines.
That's what he did when he got a call from a neighbor eight years ago letting him know that his teenage son had done donuts on the neighbor's field and ruined some crops.
Winer says his punishment taught his son a lesson. But now he feels powerless against the groups of ATV riders who roar through his 53 acres in Dunbarton, N.H.
"They've run my dog off the road, my wife off the road. They're cutting trees, starting fires, leaving trash," he said. "I have 53 acres that was once pristine, now it's ruined."
Dealing with trespassing and damage on private lands is up to landowners and local governments to handle. But when it comes to public lands, the U.S. Forest Service is now devising rules to manage the impact that off-road vehicles are having on the some 190 million acres of public forest in the country.
Some time this summer, the Service is expected to release a new set of regulations for off-road vehicles that they hope will offer a truce between those who like their nature quiet and those who enjoy experiencing the outdoors on four wheels.
"This is not an easy issue to tackle, but if we wait a day, a week or even a year, the impact on the lands and the issues surrounding the problem will become even harder to deal with," U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said last year. Forest Service official Joe Walsh said the new rules "are still in the making" but are expected soon.
The regulations, which may designate some areas of forest trail for off-road vehicles, while banning the vehicles from other regions and cross country travel, are in the works at a time of heightened tension between environmentalists, landowners and off-road vehicle riders.
A Growing Fleet
ATV use, along with snowmobile and jet ski use grew nationwide from 28 million people in 1995 to 36 million in 2000 — an increase of 29 percent. Go back to 1972, when President Nixon issued the first presidential order to land management agencies to regulate the vehicles, and the difference is even more dramatic. Only an estimated 5 million Americans used ATVs at the time.
As more people take to the woods on wheels, more are taking issue with the way the vehicles leave the land. There are now about 400,000 miles of roads and trails in national forests and the Wilderness Society estimates another 60,000 miles of "ghost roads" have been blazed by ATV users.
"Dirt bikes and ATVs are causing erosion, clogging streams with sediment and damaging critical wetlands and riparian areas," says a Sierra Club report on the vehicles.
ATV groups argue most riders follow the rules and limit their damage by riding only on designated trails, so they shouldn't lose rights because of a minority of "criminal" riders.
"If the occasional person veers off the trail, that's not cause to throw everybody out," said Bill Dart, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an advocacy group for trail motorists. "That's like closing the highway because some people speed."
In fact, enforcement has become a key issue when it comes to ATV regulation.
Rogue Riders
Linda Dix, national forest program director of the American Lands Alliance, says whatever new rules the Forest Service devises, she's mainly interested in how the agency plans to ensure that ATV riders follow them.
"They need to make a commitment to enforce designated routes and put their money and muscle where their mouths are," said Dix.
Last week, environmental groups lost a Supreme Court case that would have forced the Bureau of Land Management to take more aggressive action against off-road vehicle riders. The justices ruled that groups can't use the courts to force the agency to act when it is in the process of trying to deal with the issue on a location by location basis.
Some say the outcome means it may be difficult for environmentalists to sue federal agencies to make sure they enforce ATV restrictions on public lands.
Orange T-Shirt Enforcement
Carla Boucher, legal counsel for the United Four Wheel Drive Association, argues most off-road vehicle riders are just as eager as environmentalists that other riders stick to appropriate trails.
"The more everyone rides by the rules, the less chance we lose places to ride," she said.
She points out that many off-road motorists are lending a hand when it comes to enforcement.
Two years ago Boucher helped set up the Volunteer Trail Patrol, a fleet of some 6,000 volunteers who help keep an eye out for renegade riders. The volunteers wear bright orange shirts and report any violators they see to local enforcement by radio.
"We have seen that people who might have been apt to go into a wildlife area and mess around, tend to not do it in front of the patrol group," she said.
In the meantime, Boucher and Dart argue the best way to keep off-road riders off fragile land is by making sure there are enough areas where it's OK for them to ride.
"We're under constant attack from groups that want to eliminate our activity," Dart said. "It comes down to philosophical issues. But you know, sometimes it's hard to get kids out in the outdoors. But, if they're like my son, they love to go riding."