lovethe mud is right.

Here in Maine, a few riders are going wherever they want. They tear up protected wetlands, turn clear streams into mud holes and rut up private groomed walking trails. Major landowners are being forced by state environmental agencies to spend thousands to clean up the messes. My friend grades logging roads. He came to a corner last summer and had 4 riders come flying around that corner, side by side. He stopped them and warned them. They did it again later in the day. Landowners are putting up No ATV signs and people are tearing them down within days and riding there anyways.

A few can hurt the riding for all of us.

The State of Maine has an excellent program to help. They are organizing clubs all over the State to educate ATV owners, put up signs and build and maintain trails.

We all need to help.

 

Hey KINGSCLEAR.

Last night, several of us were talking about going to Woodstock, NB to ride this summer. I could not find any information on the Internet, but I emailed a Tourism department there.

How many miles of trails are there in that area - enough to ride for a couple of days? What are the trails like (flat, hilly, rocky, muddy)?

Is there a better area not too far away - Woodstaock is already a 3 hour drive for us?

Thanks,
Tom

 

Maine is second only to Alaska in natural beauty and unspoiled land. Gods Country. Since leaving Limestone in 1977 I have feared that some day there would come another wave of ignorance that would destroy that land just as the white men slaughtered the buffalo and Native Americans netted the lakes empty. This time its hoodlums on machines.

The difference I see is that the first two failures in ignorance were perpetuated by get rich selfish ambition and today’s vandals on ATV’s are not gaining any wealth or becoming rich – they are doing it out of complete disregard for others, and the law and they are doing it knowing full well what damage they are creating. And they just frankly don’t give a dam.

EVERYONE has a cute “but I didn’t know” story when they are tagged. Everyone is innocent because of ignorance. The problem is – the court systems have undermined the enforcement officers by being duped into believing these hoodlums should not get what they deserve.

That is what I believe is the core problem with the whole world now. We fear getting what we don’t deserve from man – but ignore the risk of getting what we do deserve from God. Go figure….

 

One thing has to start happening, we need to start turning in guys we run into that are breaking the law. There should not be a "code of silence" when you come across a group of atv's blatantly ignoring the law or destroying the land. I beleive the Blue ribbon colition will prosecute riders if they are turned in with enough evidence to convict them of breaking the law. The truth is ... the group of riders that will bend the rules may be larger then we think. Some would say it's a 5% or less mark... but now days I venture to say it's closer to 25% of ATV riders (sport quads included) are breaking the rules.
We set up a 2.5 square mile area in MT that is open for all travel, 2.5 mile sthat you can drive on every hill, every feild, every creek, every pond. But that is not enough for some.... It is surrounded by many miles of BLM land with trails. The trails leave the area...but there are warrning signs that let you know when you are leaving the open area and heading into a designated trail area. Every month there is a new trail up a side of a hill or through the feilds...not a trail that one atv can make. A group goes through, then the rest follow..even though it was clearly not a designated trail. The forest service is getting overwhelmed, the blm is getting overwhelmed by riders that ignore the rules to have fun...
I keep my group in line, they know how I feel about it, but so many just think it's worth it to have some fun to go tear up some new area.
We will continue to loose areas or have to pay to ride in areas as time goes on, we need to do some of the policeing if things are going to change ....

The blm paid to put in a concrete dock and a new concrete style outhouse on the parking lot of the riding area. Two weeks after being set up someone put dynamite in it ...blew it up! 13,000 bucks! Clubs came out and did the repairs out of their own pocket, two weeks later it was destroyed again! I would like to find that guy and drop him in it with a little balast ..if you know what I mean!

 

I carry a disposable camera for those special kodak moments....
Pictures say a thousand words ...
Theres little wiggle room when your transgression is documented on film.
But yes - I've had all 4 tires slashed when I've got back to the truck so you do learn to be descreet with what your taking pictures of.

 

well one thing i gotta say is be careful to where you contribute your money for environmental purposes. alot of the environmental causes will hurt atving and just block all access to alot of land all together. so make sure that you research and see where it is going before donating. i love the envionment just as much as the next guy but lets donate to the right ones.

 

MonZooki

[The blm paid to put in a concrete dock and a new concrete style outhouse on the parking lot of the riding area. Two weeks after being set up someone put dynamite in it ...blew it up! 13,000 bucks!]

Where at did this happen?

Shonk

 

Weeze - Do you have any experience with which groups not to contribute to? We cant abandon all environmental groups as I believe some must be balanced and sensible in their agendas for public land use. Did you contribute to a group and discover they are an opponent of ATV's?


And again - its the ATV riders who are doing the most damage to our public riding opportunities. Not the MRR or others like them. If there wasn't a trail of destruction behind the quads they wouldn't have a footing in the legislature.

 

I agree completely. My family owns about 1000 acres in northern WV. We ride the trails and take care of the place. We have had lots of guys come out on weekends and tear the crap out of the woods then they flip you off when you ask them to leave.

If all riders would ride with respect more landowners would allow us on their land.

This wont affect the government land but there is a lot of private land too.

 

i wasn't naming any organization who but i did contribute to one that i am ashamed that i did. you know those pretty little license plates with the loones and stuff on them the ones where you spend a minimum of 30 dollars over your regular license fee on you vehicle to go for environmental upkeeping i guess you could say. well i found out what they do with that money since 1997 when they started they have raised 13 million in minnesota and the dnr has matched that so they basically made 26million and they are using alot of that money to buy up land and i have seen alot of it bought up around here where you can't drive any kind of motorized vehicle on the land ever again. you can hunt deer on it but there is so many restrictions that it isn't even worth it. all i was saying to people is to research where you donate your money first.