<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: JohnO

Let me chime in as another person who has had problems with ATVs on my farm. Frustrating, as I'm an avid rider, too.



ATV's aren't the only thing that damages land, but they do cause a high amount of damage when misused or ridden destructively. So there is a reason that ATV's tend to draw a lot of flack - they can do a lot of damage.



What's especially troublesome are the city people who seem to think that if something isn't surrounded with razor wire, it's fair game. The fact is - it's your responsibility to know where you are. If you don't know where you are, you probably shouldn't be riding there, and it's almost guaranteed that you'll be getting someone mad. This is why trails get closed, and why new trails have trouble getting opened - many of us have seen what a few ignorant yahoos can do. Look at it this way: If I came tearing through your back yard, you probably wouldn't like it.



I don't like being mean, but I don't like ruts being ripped on my hills, either. Once erosion starts, it's very hard to stop. Every ticked off landowner is another vote for an ATV hating politician. We have enough of them as it is.</end quote></div>


You pretty much summed up everything I was going to post. I'll add that when dealing with trespassing issues on my farm filing charges and then having the offenders served with restraining orders tends to get the message across. They get the message when the sheriff hands them a fine and they get another message when they are served with a restraining order. If they get caught on your property again in violation of the order the charges are enhanced greatly. Don't mess around with these trespassing scumbags. Nail them to wall. Hard.

 

I understand where you coming from people who live around me its kinda the same way theres people who ride go carts and lil gas powered scooters daily and they fly down the road but i pull out my atc and cops instantly come to my house threatining to arrest me for just riding not doin wheellies or nuthinn just over someone complaning but the head association of our neighbor hood his kids have go carts and gas scooters and they ride them all the time but nutttin ever happens i guess its just the fact so many people on atvs has just abused the authority of them and not many people put up wit them

 

As an ATV owner and a land owner, I can tell you it can be very frustrating when you have illegal riders on your property. Not only do they cause damage to MY trails, but they make their own trails - and not only thru the woods but also thru the CRP, which can reduce my income. I have also had people hunt on my land without permission, my deer stands and feeders intentionally damaged, and firewood removed. All of this adds up to reduced income, reduced wildlife, and higher insurance premiums.

 

One more reason why EVERYBODY ,regardless of age, should be FORCED into taking a ORV safety Education course by a PROFESSIONAL ORV safety Instructor at least once in their lifetime. If this kid had taken MY safety class, I can GAUREENTEE you that this post would not exsist.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: DeeDawg

As an ATV owner and a land owner, I can tell you it can be very frustrating when you have illegal riders on your property. Not only do they cause damage to MY trails, but they make their own trails - and not only thru the woods but also thru the CRP, which can reduce my income. I have also had people hunt on my land without permission, my deer stands and feeders intentionally damaged, and firewood removed. All of this adds up to reduced income, reduced wildlife, and higher insurance premiums. </end quote></div>

I recently had someone trash my CRP and wreck a road. It will end up costing me money to fix the damage.

By the way, in many states if you catch someone on your property and they're armed such as a hunter trespassing not only can they be charged with regular misdemeanor trespassing but they can also be charged with a felony.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: CaptainQuint

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: DeeDawg

As an ATV owner and a land owner, I can tell you it can be very frustrating when you have illegal riders on your property. Not only do they cause damage to MY trails, but they make their own trails - and not only thru the woods but also thru the CRP, which can reduce my income. I have also had people hunt on my land without permission, my deer stands and feeders intentionally damaged, and firewood removed. All of this adds up to reduced income, reduced wildlife, and higher insurance premiums. </end quote></div>

I recently had someone trash my CRP and wreck a road. It will end up costing me money to fix the damage.



By the way, in many states if you catch someone on your property and they're armed such as a hunter trespassing not only can they be charged with regular misdemeanor trespassing but they can also be charged with a felony.</end quote></div>



You are right. I forgot to add the aditional cost of repairing the CRP, deer stands, feeders, and the cost to install fences and gates to keep out people that ignore the NO TRESSPASSING signs.

 

Lets look at a point that is often missed.

If there were uniform fair rules, regulations, and laws involving proper offroad use of any vehicle that protected the land owner, the land and the user or rider there would be a significant drop in most all problems relating to offroad vehicles.

Consider that except for the biggest idiots who just couldnt understand the rules everyone else would not have a problem because they would know exactly what was expected of them, which areas they were free to use without discrimination, and which areas were to be avoided.

Our problem seems to be that the motivations of our law makers are not at solving anyones problems, or making our sport safer for those who enjoy it and those land owners who really dont etc, or even the other sportsman who share the same rural areas, but rather their attention is spent at pandering to those groups who either support their political party or offer a show of potential votes.

Maybe one day things will change in a way that is fair for all concerned parties that will actually work, but until then we all will be forced with making many decisions including when to wait and talk, and when to run. Remember in different areas of the country the price for hanging around (what used to be 100% the right thing to do) can be severe as we are being used as source of income (fines and penalties surpassing $1000 or even $2000 are not unusual in some areas), and as we are further discriminated against and laws are written to take away our rights the reasoning to run only increases.

We can easilly just blame the young rider, but I think it would benefit us all if we look at this from a "big picture" perspective and try to help him understand things better, but not try and preach too much beyond the right and wrong so that we dont lose him (I mean the younger riders in general etc) and we gain some good people to help lead the march for our sport in the future.

 

Teach people to use the resources they have at hand on where and when to ride.

When your out there riding It's just this simple. "If you don't know if its legal to ride there, then don't!!!"

 

Good point trailbound. There is simply no way we can get the folks out here on the left coast to agree to the same rules and regs as say, Idaho or Kansas. Nor would we want to. That simple takes the decision making away from the local people and puts it in the hands of the federal government.

 

DeeDawg, your form Minnesota, what do you think of our OHV rules/programs compared to California, etc. I got out of the Army in 2002 from Colorado and moved back home to MN. It seems since 02 MN has put alot of resources, money, etc. into OHV trails.

My wheeler was registered in CO for about 6 months and I rode around mostly in state forest, here its the same, but in WI its county forest.