I see a situation developing in my local area that concerns me, and I've got an idea there are others on this site that have ran into the same thing. Over the last two or three years ATV/side-by-side owners have increased quite a bit locally. Up until recently, most of the local landowners were pretty good about letting us ride on their property as long as we don't tear things up, stay out of their crops, etc., and we could make a pretty good day of riding right out of my front yard. But in the last few months some of the trails we were riding regularly have been blocked off due to riders abusing things - blasting past the landowners home, running through crops, leaving trash on the trails, etc.

Having been through this same situation many years ago with snowmobiles, there are a lot of similarities. We started a local snowmobile club, which I was the president of for ten years. At first I had to eat a lot of crow to patch things up with the landowners, but we eventually got things smoothed over and were able to develop a trail system in the area.

Because if this, a year or so ago I tried to get an ATV club started in the area to hopefully solve this developing problem. While I could get some riders interested in joining a club, when I went to talk to the landowners almost none were willing to let us lay out and mark trails on there land. There reasoning was they didn't want a lot of ATV traffic on their property. The answer I was usually given was: I don't care if YOU ride on my land, but I don't want just anybody riding on me. I completely understand why the landowners don't want to be overrun with ATV's and I can't blame them for their position. The problem is they're now being over run with ATV's anyhow, and are blocking off the trails to stop the traffic.

Now, after writing the novel above, I'm looking for ways to bridge the gap here, and somehow convince the landowners that allowing ATV trails to ride on their property can work out, and at the same time get the local ATV riders to realize that if we get some ATV trails we have to stay on them and get this situation under control. What are some of the tactics your club has used? I welcome any and all opinions. Thanks!

 

I'm a member of Sullivan County ATV in Claremont, NH. We had trails closed due to some of the same problems you recounted. Not sure there is any tried and true way to solve this problem. We lost a trail connector that connected two large loops with trails off the loops. For a few years we had to trailer to either area. It was just this year that the town let us use a public road to get up to the loop in the north that had got cut off.

Thought occurred to me to build up the sides of the trails with large rocks to keep people on the trails. Provide gates for the landowners to cross the trails without idiots running all over there fields. Create gates for the trails that only people approved of by the landowners could get the key for. Just a few thoughts.

Landowners' rights are big in my book. I hate to see them close trails but after watching some riders I can't say I blame them. As you've said, you end up bearing the brunt of the problems caused by the troublemakers. It's either that or trailerring like we have to here in New England.

 

Kinda the same thing down here. We had a good corp of engineers large tract of land that people rode for over 30 years that was shut down because of a few bad apples.No over site as to what was allowed and hours open to the public. All it took was a couple complaints of noise and late night rowdy activity and the land access was closed to everyone.

 

I couldn't agree with you more! The sad part is most of the landowners around here are quite generous about letting us ride on their land, yet it only takes one fool to ruin it for everybody. And what gets me the most - it never fails - the one that gets the trail shut off gets all PO'ed about it, says the landowner is just being an a$$hole for blocking the trail - it amazes me!

One of the main trails leading into town just got blocked off because of ONE GUY in his side-by-side that went blasting right through this particular landowner's kids while they were riding four wheelers. Unbelievable!

I don't know - I'm thinking about trying the club thing again, but I'm not sure that I'm thick-skinned enough to take the gruff from the landowners (Not that I blame them, I would feel exactly the same way!) that I know I'm going to hear about the few idiots that have brought this whole situation on in the first place.

Anybody got any other ideas?

 

I've often stopped and talked to guys on the trails systems here about trail etiquette. They looked at me like I had stuck a knife in them. I tried to explain that the behavior displayed by saw some of their group is what causes the trails to get closed. You could tell that it went in one ear and out the other without too much to slow it down. The new trail connector has a 10 mph speed limit and the quads have to stay to the side of the road so cars can get past. There are about a dozen houses up along this road. Part of me wonders how long it will take the town to say they've gotten too many complaints and we can't ride up to the loop anymore....