upstate rider
01-21-2003, 03:00 AM
Forever wild and forever beleaguered
By Fred LeBrun
First published: Sunday, January 12, 2003
Last year, the five-member Town Board of Horicon in Warren County voted
unanimously to open eight backcountry routes to all-terrain vehicle use
under the premise that because the trails once were town roads, it still
has jurisdiction over them.
At least a couple of these trails pass through the "forever wild"
Adirondack forest preserve, where motorized access of any sort is
forbidden by state law.
So, predictably and appropriately, the attorney general's office is
suing to close the roads. The issue is in the courts. Watching with
eagle eyes are a number of Adirondack town supervisors who support what
Horicon is attempting. They make it clear in the latest issue of
Adirondack Explorer magazine that if Horicon gets its way, we are apt to
see an instant explosion of trails opened to ATVs throughout the
Adirondack Park, making what already is a difficult task of law
enforcement an impossible nightmare.
Overnight, the man-made wilderness and solitude of the Adirondack Park
will be shattered by the roar of gasoline engines. On Friday, along with
denying the Lake George Park Commission's application for a test use of
Sonar to rid the lake of Eurasian milfoil -- which got the headlines --
the Adirondack Park Agency ruled that the state Department of
Environmental Conservation's unit management plan for the Bog
River-Low's Lake Canoe Area meets the requirements of the Adirondack
Park State Land Master Plan.
What all this bureaucratic gobbledegook translates to is that motorboats
will be banned right away from a 12-mile route they heavily use in
summer, and that floatplane access to the same route -- that's been
allowed forever -- will be phased out over five years. Motorboaters and
floatplaners lobbied hard to keep their current status.
In other words, the Adirondack Park Agency and the DEC are affirming
"forever wild" at the same time that many localities are trying to bust
out of it.
Not that this contradiction and confrontation over motorized use is
anything new. It's been there ever since the APA was founded more than
30 years ago.
But the latest grass-roots thrust in favor of ATVs is potentially the
most dangerous yet, both in terms of actual physical conflict and in the
erosion of the charms of a very special Adirondack Park.
Battle lines are forming once again. The unmistakable impression I'm
getting is that within the Adirondack Park some potent owners of ATVs
lately have become increasingly emboldened in challenging an
understaffed DEC enforcement wing. It's becoming an in-your-face issue,
and that's never helpful.
ATVers want a trail system they believe they deserve, that they've
already paid toward with their annual registration fee. Only they don't
necessarily want one on private leased property to accommodate a serene
Adirondack Park. They are insisting on trails where trails cannot be, by
law. Meanwhile, the greater alarm is that ATV abuse, and to a lesser
degree snowmobile abuse, is rampant well beyond the Adirondack and
Catskill parks and getting worse. Battle lines are also forming all
around us, with the sides flip-flopped.
Up in the Adirondack Park, there is great grass-roots local sympathy for
ATVs, and that poses much of the problem in terms of enforcement. Down
in our world, homeowners, property owners, farmers and town officials
are reacting more and more with outrage to increasingly belligerent
trespass.
Too often in the past, local law enforcement hasn't taken the violations
of property rights committed by ATVs and snowmobiles seriously enough.
That's got to change, and fast.
No way should we be blackmailed into providing an ATV trail system for a
crowd that wants to beat us up to do it. Contact Fred LeBrun at
454-5453.
By Fred LeBrun
First published: Sunday, January 12, 2003
Last year, the five-member Town Board of Horicon in Warren County voted
unanimously to open eight backcountry routes to all-terrain vehicle use
under the premise that because the trails once were town roads, it still
has jurisdiction over them.
At least a couple of these trails pass through the "forever wild"
Adirondack forest preserve, where motorized access of any sort is
forbidden by state law.
So, predictably and appropriately, the attorney general's office is
suing to close the roads. The issue is in the courts. Watching with
eagle eyes are a number of Adirondack town supervisors who support what
Horicon is attempting. They make it clear in the latest issue of
Adirondack Explorer magazine that if Horicon gets its way, we are apt to
see an instant explosion of trails opened to ATVs throughout the
Adirondack Park, making what already is a difficult task of law
enforcement an impossible nightmare.
Overnight, the man-made wilderness and solitude of the Adirondack Park
will be shattered by the roar of gasoline engines. On Friday, along with
denying the Lake George Park Commission's application for a test use of
Sonar to rid the lake of Eurasian milfoil -- which got the headlines --
the Adirondack Park Agency ruled that the state Department of
Environmental Conservation's unit management plan for the Bog
River-Low's Lake Canoe Area meets the requirements of the Adirondack
Park State Land Master Plan.
What all this bureaucratic gobbledegook translates to is that motorboats
will be banned right away from a 12-mile route they heavily use in
summer, and that floatplane access to the same route -- that's been
allowed forever -- will be phased out over five years. Motorboaters and
floatplaners lobbied hard to keep their current status.
In other words, the Adirondack Park Agency and the DEC are affirming
"forever wild" at the same time that many localities are trying to bust
out of it.
Not that this contradiction and confrontation over motorized use is
anything new. It's been there ever since the APA was founded more than
30 years ago.
But the latest grass-roots thrust in favor of ATVs is potentially the
most dangerous yet, both in terms of actual physical conflict and in the
erosion of the charms of a very special Adirondack Park.
Battle lines are forming once again. The unmistakable impression I'm
getting is that within the Adirondack Park some potent owners of ATVs
lately have become increasingly emboldened in challenging an
understaffed DEC enforcement wing. It's becoming an in-your-face issue,
and that's never helpful.
ATVers want a trail system they believe they deserve, that they've
already paid toward with their annual registration fee. Only they don't
necessarily want one on private leased property to accommodate a serene
Adirondack Park. They are insisting on trails where trails cannot be, by
law. Meanwhile, the greater alarm is that ATV abuse, and to a lesser
degree snowmobile abuse, is rampant well beyond the Adirondack and
Catskill parks and getting worse. Battle lines are also forming all
around us, with the sides flip-flopped.
Up in the Adirondack Park, there is great grass-roots local sympathy for
ATVs, and that poses much of the problem in terms of enforcement. Down
in our world, homeowners, property owners, farmers and town officials
are reacting more and more with outrage to increasingly belligerent
trespass.
Too often in the past, local law enforcement hasn't taken the violations
of property rights committed by ATVs and snowmobiles seriously enough.
That's got to change, and fast.
No way should we be blackmailed into providing an ATV trail system for a
crowd that wants to beat us up to do it. Contact Fred LeBrun at
454-5453.