ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Gullies cut more than a foot deep by churning, knobby tires and mud pits created by packs of all-terrain vehicles on sensitive Adirondack land has environmentalists calling for severe restrictions of ATVs in public forests.

It’s not just the aesthetic damage and loss of hiking trails or the roar of speeding four-wheelers in pristine forests that concerns the activists. They say the increasingly popular ATVs are hastening erosion and undermining the Adirondacks, as well as the Catskills and smaller wild areas including the Long Island pine barrens.

Even in the many areas were ATVs are banned on public land – including a half-dozen counties in the Adirondacks – the go-anywhere ability of ATVs has made enforcement difficult if not impossible, according to environmental groups.

Now the Pataki administration is studying ATV use with an eye to more regulation and enforcement, lawmakers are gearing up for more restrictive bills, and environmental groups are uniting to keep state government on track for action in 2004.

“Our forest preserve is being ground up into trail mix,” said Peter Bauer of the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks. “Damage from ATV riding is one of the greatest threats facing the forest preserve,” he said.

“We get the strong impression ATVs are pretty much unwelcome anywhere on public land in the park, but the state doesn’t seem to be catching up with that idea,” said John Sheehan of The Adirondack Council. “At a time when they could prevent a lot of destruction, they are sort of looking the other way… our frustration led to calling for a ban last year in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Albany Pine Bush and the Long Island Pine Barren – arguably the most sensitive forests in the state,” Sheehan said Friday.

The Residents’ Committee seeks to close all roads now open to ATVs pending an environmental review of each trail and a review of state laws governing ATVs on public roads and land. The committee also wants a team of state enforcement officers to patrol areas heavily used by ATVs.

“The vast majority of off-highway-vehicle enthusiasts are, in fact, responsible and law-abiding,” said Tom Lindsay of All-Terrain Vehicle Association. For example, the group supports responsible access to public lands and backs a federal bill “that would get tough on individuals who cause willful damage to federal lands,” said Lindsay of the group based in Pickerington, Ohio.

He said off-road motor vehicles including ATVs have boosted Colorado’s tourism by $500,000 a year and California’s by $3 billion. The organization also said off-highway motorcyclists often volunteer for trail maintenance, cleanups and safety patrols.

“Most are reasonably responsible,” said state Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Carl Marcellino. “These are tourism areas, so you don’t want to negatively impact them, but you don’t want them to go out and destroy the environment… that’s the push and pull we have.”

He said the state Department of Environmental Conservation is doing a study of ATV use that could be used in further restrictions on sensitive public lands including the Adirondacks, Catskills and on Long Island, where ATVs are already banned in some areas.

Department spokesman Michael Fraser said the trails where damage is often cited by the environmentalists is being reevaluated.

The department “has been active in addressing the concerns of ATV use in the Adirondacks,” Fraser said. “We have increased our enforcement efforts, and we continue to proceed with Unit Management Plans and have seen substantial progress on all of them.

“We look forward to a comprehensive ATV policy that will incorporate the interests of groups across the state,” he said. “We are conducting our efforts as expeditiously as possible.”

“Any important study the senator is referring to is news to me,” said Bauer. “We have heard of no such study nor have we seen any evidence of vigorous enforcement.”

AP-ES-12-26-03 1415EST

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