People can offer comments on ATVs during a session Oct. 28 in Auburn.
When it comes to ATVs, those little four-wheeled contraptions that scamper through woods and fields with the ease of a squirrel, people seem to either love ’em or hate ’em.
One camp sees all-terrain vehicles as a means of recreation, and say riding them isn’t unlike spending a winter day on a snowmobile trail. They’re also handy when it comes to getting to a particular favored fishing hole, advocates add, or to hunting grounds.
Others see the machines and those riding them to be loud intruders bent on damaging farms and woodlands through erosion and fouling waterways by crossing streams, leaving oil and fuel in their wake.
For months, Gov. John Baldacci has been trying to find some middle ground.
His 15-member ATV Task Force released its initial recommendations Monday and announced it will hold four public forums, including one in Auburn this month, to air them.
The task force wants to achieve four goals:
• To protect landowners and their property from disturbances or damage caused by ATVs.
• To improve law enforcement response to complaints about ATVs.
• To develop a high-quality trail system that protects the environment and the rights of landowners, while offering ATV riders a chance to enjoy multi-day trips, sport-riding areas, and access to popular destinations.
• To ensure ATV riders are aware of ATV laws, ethics and safety issues.
To meet the goals, the task force calls for:
• Requiring landowners’ permission to operate an ATV. Permission is presumed only on authorized trails or riding areas.
• Mandatory liability insurance for all ATVs.
• Higher fines for ATV violations, including a mandatory $1,000 fine for failing to stop for a law enforcement officer.
• Establishing a damage mitigation fund to repair environmental damage or to reimburse landowners for damage to crops, trees or orchards caused by ATV riders, when those riders cannot be identified or prosecuted.
• Making ATV violations count as points against a driver’s license and an ATV OUI part of a driver’s motor vehicle record.
• Making any violation of a criminal ATV law result in automatic impoundment of the ATV.
• Authorize a mud season closure for ATV trails similar to the road posting process, so it can be done at the local level.
• Encouraging increased ATV enforcement by creating a three-tier grant program, available by application to all law enforcement agencies in the state.
• Encouraging membership in ATV clubs by offering a discount registration for ATV club members.
• Distributing state ATV revenues in the same categories as snowmobile revenues: to the the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for law enforcement and safety education; to the Department of Conservation for trail grants and equipment; to Maine towns, in lieu of excise taxes.
The forum in Auburn will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Kirk Hall, Room 103, at Central Maine Community College, 1250 Turner St.
Additionally, written comments can be e-mailed to [email protected] or mailed by Nov. 15 to Governor’s ATV Task Force, c/o Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Station #41, Augusta ME 04333
Task force recommendations can be found on its Web site at www.state.me.us/ifw/aboutus/atvtaskforce.htm.
The task force will complete its recommendations and send them to Baldacci by Jan. 1.
Comments are no longer available on this story