Photo by Pat Hendrick

Richard Earle, at far right in photo, leads his friends on a ride in the northern Adirondacks. Earle, president of a local ATV club, argues that owners of off-road vehicles should be given more access to the Forest Preserve.

Do ATVs belong in Preserve?

Riders seek access, but foes cite abuses

By Phil Brown

Meet Richard Earle: Ph.D., retired McGill University professor, Bluebird Society volunteer, fan of the novelist Wallace Stegner and avid rider of all-terrain vehicles.

If the last item surprises you, Earle says, you may be stereotyping ATV riders. “A lot of people think we’re drunken yahoos, but that’s simply not so,” remarked Earle, a resident of Mountain View on the northern edge of the Adirondack Park. “This is a family sport.”

As president of Franklin All-Terrain Riders, Earle has emerged as an articulate defender of ATVs at a time when environmental groups are seeking to curtail or even ban four-wheelers in the public Forest Preserve.

Like other enthusiasts, Earle argues that more, not less, of the state land in the Adirondacks should be open to ATVs. “There are [nearly] 3 million acres in the Forest Preserve and a significant number of people who own and ride ATVs—nearly 100,000 in New York state,” he said. “It seems as though some reasonable access would make sense.”

The future of ATVs in the Park could be decided over the next few years as the state Department of Environmental Conservation prepares unit management plans (UMPs) for the various tracts of state land. The plans will determine where, if anywhere, ATVs will be allowed in the Preserve.

At UMP meetings in the Park, four-wheelers have turned out in force to demand greater access to state land. The New York State Off-Highway Recreational Vehicle Association (NYSORVA) tracks the progress of individual plans on its Web site and informs its members how to get involved: “We can stop the opposition from winning again and again by participating in the UMP process, advising our politicians that [off-road vehicle] enthusiasts have been shut out of state lands for too long, and standing up for our rights as residents and taxpayers.”

Preservationists, however, are adamant in their opposition to opening more of the Preserve to ATVs, citing the damage to plants and soils caused by the machines and the frequent instances of trespass. Two citizen groups—the Adirondack Council and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks—contend that ATV abuse has gotten so out of hand that four-wheelers should be banned entirely from the Forest Preserve.

Photo courtesy of Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks

Muddy ruts on a trail in Black River Wild Forest.

“In just about every place where legal access [to state land] is provided there is illegal incursion into the adjacent Forest Preserve,” said John Sheehan, a spokesman for the council.

Peter Bauer, head of the Residents’ Committee, pointed to ATV ads with slogans such as “Addicted to mud” and “The road to heaven is paved with mud” as evidence that four-wheelers have no place in the “forever wild” Preserve. “These are vehicles that destroy the ground on which they ride,” he said. “That’s part of the fun; that’s part of the excitement.”

People on both sides of the debate say DEC has yet to come to grips with the ATV boom. Over the past decade, the number of ATVs registered in the state more than tripled. In just one year, from 2000 to 2001, registrations shot up from 69,500 to 98,655. In addition, there are 200,000 unregistered ATVs in the state, according to one estimate. More than 22,000 ATVs are registered in the counties lying wholly or partially within the Park.

Currently, ATV riders have little legal access to the Forest Preserve. No motor vehicles of any kind are allowed in Wilderness Areas, which account for 1.1 million of the Park’s 6 million acres. In Wild Forest Areas, which encompass 1.3 million acres, four-wheelers can travel only on existing public roads (usually unpaved) that are designated as open to ATVs. They are not allowed on any trails. Nearly all the Park’s private land is also off-limits to ATVs.

DEC’s policy toward ATVs borders on the schizophrenic. The agency’s Region 5, which oversees the eastern two-thirds of the Park, has not opened a single road to ATV riders (except for disabled individuals). Region 6, which has jurisdiction over the rest of the Park, allows ATVs on about 50 roads, but many four-wheelers are unaware of which roads they can ride on, and DEC does not go out of its way to inform them. While researching this story, the Explorer filed a Freedom of Information request for a list of the ATV roads. The agency refused to comply, but an administrative law judge turned over the list on appeal. The whole process took seven months.

With so many riders and so few places to ride legally, ATV trespass has become commonplace. The Residents’ Committee and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks have taken numerous photographs of trails around the Park that have been ravaged by ATVs, with the worst sections churned into muddy swales.

CONFLICTED AND CONFUSED
Bauer argues that DEC’s failure to articulate a “clear and coherent” policy on ATVs has fostered trespass. He said many four-wheelers who visit the Adirondacks either don’t know it’s illegal to ride on most of the Preserve or can’t find legal trails—and so they break the law. “We should not have conflicting policies for the Forest Preserve,” he said.

Sheehan, the Adirondack Council spokesman, suspects that the policies reflect the attitudes of the two regional directors, Stuart Buchanan of Region 5 and Sandra LeBarron of Region 6. “Stu Buchanan has been very responsive to complaints and seems genuinely interested in preventing ATV abuse,” he said. “Sandy LeBarron has not.” He added that “the very lax law enforcement in Region 6 has allowed illegal abuse to proliferate.”

But Rob Davies, director of DEC’s Division of Lands and Forests, said the policy split developed long before LeBarron took over as regional director in 1999. He ascribes it to a motorized tradition in the Park’s western region, where the gentle terrain allowed people to build roads deep into the woods. Historically, hunters, trappers and fishermen drove cars and trucks on these roads to approach their favorite hunting grounds or ponds. ATV use is seen as an outgrowth of this reliance on motor vehicles.

Davies concedes that DEC officials, like most people, failed to foresee the swift rise in the popularity of ATVs. He said the agency now recognizes the need to develop a consistent ATV policy for the Park and expects to issue such a policy in early 2004. Although DEC is not advocating a ban, he said, it plans to develop stricter criteria for determining when it is appropriate to open a road to ATVs.

Critics question whether Region 6 followed the law in opening roads to ATVs—which they allege was often done without public input or a thorough environmental review. In addition, they contend that some of the “roads” are really trails and so should be off-limits to ATVs. The Park’s State Land Master Plan defines a road as “an improved or partially improved way designed for travel by automobiles.” The argument is that ordinary automobiles could not travel over many of the dirt roads open to ATVs.

“What’s a road? What’s a trail? That’s what we’re trying to get DEC to differentiate,” said David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks.

Davies said nearly all the ATV roads were so designated in UMPs. Therefore, the public had a chance to speak out both at DEC hearings and at APA meetings. Furthermore, the APA commissioners reviewed and approved all the UMPs. “It isn’t as though this was being done in secret,” he remarked.

Nevertheless, Davies said DEC plans to take another look at the roads to see if any should be closed to ATVs. In fact, the agency already has closed some roads that sustained heavy damage from the vehicles.

Not all environmentalists are calling for an all-out ATV ban. Gibson and Neil Woodworth, lawyer for the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), said some Forest Preserve roads may be suitable for four-wheelers, but both want to see a curtailment of legal access and a crackdown on trespassers. Woodworth advocates immediate closure of any road that shows signs of environmental degradation or trespass into adjacent lands.

ATVers argue that until riders have more trails where they can go legally, trespass is inevitable. “If they created a trail network, there’d be no reason to go out and tear up other places,” said Herb Robinson, 73, president of the Black River Valley 4-Wheelers, who lives just inside the Park near its western border.

Courtesy of Isaak Walton League

Critics complain that ads encourage ATV riders to run roughshod over the environment. According to Yamaha, “The Road to heaven is paved in mud.”

Ideally, the network would enable them to travel in loops at least 25 miles long—not just on roads, but also on forest trails. “Woods are pretty,” Robinson said. “If I want to ride the roads, I can do it in my truck.”

Although such a network probably would utilize private and municipal lands as well, riders would like to see trails cut through the Preserve where necessary. They also argue that if the state Legislature revives an ATV trail fund, using a portion of their registration fees, the trails could be designed and maintained to minimize environmental damage.

Yet the construction of ATV trails in the Preserve would necessitate amending the State Land Master Plan in the face of fierce opposition from environmentalists. It’s a battle that Alex Ernst, spokesman for NYSORVA, the off-road lobby, concedes cannot be won. “We advocate access where it is appropriate and possible under the rules and laws of the state,” he said.

In fact, Ernst thinks it’s just a matter of time before the state closes more and perhaps all roads in the Preserve to ATVs. Although he will continue to fight for use of the roads, he intends to shift his focus to easement properties—private timberlands where the state owns recreational rights. Such properties are not governed by the State Land Master Plan.

The state now holds easements on 162,000 acres in the Adirondacks, including 129,000 acres protected in the Champion International deal of 1998. Ernst wants to see an ATV network on the former Champion lands that would utilize existing gravel roads but also include hardened trails built for ATVs.

WHERE CAN THEY GO?
The Forestland Group, which manages these lands, is negotiating with DEC over ATV access, according to Matt Sampson, the company’s Northeast regional manager. The property has more than 160 miles of roads, he said, but not all of them will be open to ATVs.

“We own property all over the country, and ATVs are a problem on every piece of property we own,” Sampson said. The problems include trespass, environmental damage and liability risks. Nevertheless, he stressed that the company welcomes ATVs “as long as there is proper oversight.”

Environmentalists are divided over the use of ATVs on easement lands. Sheehan said the Adirondack Council would not oppose the creation of ATV trails. “There is some room on easement property for that sort of recreation,” he said, “and it might take pressure off the Forest Preserve.” Bauer said he would not object to four-wheelers riding on existing roads, but he opposes building ATV trails, which he says would harm the environment.

Woodworth, the ADK lawyer, does not want ATVs on easement lands at all. Noting the state owns several rivers that flow through the former Champion properties, he said ATVers would be tempted to cross Forest Preserve to reach the water. “The track record of ATV owners is terrible,” he said. “I don’t trust them to stay on the easement lands.”

Ernst points to the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania as a model for the easement lands. There, the Forest Service has opened 108 miles of trails to off-road vehicles. Because the trails are hardened and well-maintained, Ernst said, environmental damage is kept to a minimum. And because the network is so extensive, he added, riders do not go off the trails.

The Forest Service, which spends $300,000 a year to manage the trails, estimates that riders contribute $17 million to the local economy. Ernst said an ATV trail network would provide a similar financial boost to the Adirondacks. “When people pursue this pastime,” he said, “they spend money on gas, food and lodging in the area they go to.” If promoted, he said, ATVing could become a bigger boon than snowmobiling, which is limited to winter.

George Canon, president of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, believes most municipal officials in the Park favor more opportunities for ATV riding in the Forest Preserve and on private land—and not just because of the tourist dollars. “There’s also an issue of fairness,” he said. “This is a recreational use that people are enjoying, so why not?”

SPITZER SUES TO STOP ATVS
Many towns in the Park have opened municipal roads to ATVs—a practice that environmentalists say contributes to trespassing since the roads often border Forest Preserve lands. In Horicon, the Town Board even passed a law this year opening old dirt roads within the Preserve to ATVs, arguing that they were historically town roads. One is in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness; seven are in the Lake George Wild Forest. “People have been using them as ATV trails since there were ATVs,” said Horicon Supervisor Ralph Bentley. He contends that a 1909 state law gives the town perpetual jurisdiction over the roads.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued the town on DEC’s behalf, arguing that Horicon’s new law violates the forever-wild clause of the state constitution, which protects the Forest Preserve, and the Park’s State Land Master Plan. The suit is pending.

DEC has tried to rein in ATV abuse in recent years. Besides closing some roads, the agency has stepped up enforcement. On one Sunday last summer, DEC officials ticketed 25 people who drove ATVs onto the Forest Preserve east of Lake George. But with millions of acres of Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks, DEC would be hard-pressed to eradicate ATV trespass. Environmental activists say it would help if the state Legislature adopted tougher penalties for violators, including the confiscation of vehicles after a second or third offense.

Ernst, however, warns that a crackdown will not put an end to trespassing, not when there are 100,000 to 300,000 ATV owners in the state desperate for places to ride.

“People aren’t interested in giving us access if we’re breaking the rules,” he said, “but we can’t stop people from doing the wrong thing if it’s impossible for them to do the right thing. I’m very sorry to say the problems will continue to get worse as ATV use increases.”

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