(HOST) For months, controversy has swirled around a proposal that would open state lands to All Terrain Vehicles. Commentator Tom Slayton has some thoughts about how to resolve this confrontation.
(SLAYTON) On its face, the new state rule that allows a test of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) on state land makes sense. It’s based on the good principle that everyone is entitled to access to Vermont’s wild lands. But when you start poking into the rule, the common practices of ATV users, and the back-story surrounding both, you open the proverbial can of worms. The deeper you go, the messier it gets.
ATVs are wheeled vehicles that can go pretty much anywhere. If there’s a road, a path, a trace – even a swamp, a bumpy pasture, or an eroding hillside – ATV’s can drive there. They are becoming more and more popular and are essentially unregulated: there’s a modest registration fee, but many users never pay it. There are rules about where ATV’s should and shouldn’t go – but many ATV users ignore them. The result is a sort of chaos that no one now can control — and a lot of environmental and property damage by the ATVs.
I know this for a fact because I’ve seen the damage ATVs can cause and last spring, while out hiking on Irish Hill, above Berlin Pond, I personally witnessed ATVs illegally trespassing, despite signs banning motorized recreation until later in the year..
ATVs make it very easy to cross boundaries you shouldn’t, which is why rules and regulations are needed if they are allowed on state land. That conclusion, by the way, is part of a report entitled the ATV Collaborative Report and Recommendations. It proposes a good and workable approach that would allow ATVs wider use of state lands, in a controlled and responsible way. The report recommended increasing ATV fees to $55, which would raise nearly a million dollars, which could be used for law enforcement, liability insurance, and oversight – in other words, control over ATVs.
But the state Agency of Natural Resources did not institute any of that control mechanism. They simply opted to enact the one provision that allows a test of ATVs on state land. Also, agency secretary Jonathan Wood enacted the rule in defiance of the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Committee, which said he doesn’t have the authority to do it – and the preponderance of public comment – which went 4 to 1 against the new regulation.
The question is why? Why would a state agency act so arrogantly?
Some at the Vermont State House suggest it’s a political move to put opponents of the new rule in the spotlight in an election year. If that’s true, it’s shameful and wrong.
There will be legislative action on this. Rep. Tony Klein, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, has promised as much.
But the answer is already there – in the reasonable collaborative report, mostly ignored so far, which proposes a test use – with oversight and regulation. The report’s subtitle says it all: "The outdoors has room for all who love it responsibly." Take note of that word "responsibly." That’s what’s been left out of the equation so far.
(TAG) You can find more commentaries by Tom Slayton on-line at VPR-dot-net.