DANVILLE, Vt. (AP) – Federal rules appear to block use of the newly developed Lamoille Valley Rail Trail by all-terrain vehicles, a state transportation official says.

That word, shared with about 60 people who attended a meeting on the trail’s future this past week, could dampen the controversy that developed recently with news that the state was negotiating a lease that might allow some ATV users on parts of the trail.

The Federal Highway Administration has provided $5.8 million of the $7 million cost of the work involved into turning the former railroad bed into a 96-mile recreation trail stretching between St. Johnsbury and Swanton.

The work includes shoring up parts of the trail, repairing bridges, stabilizing stream banks, clearing brush and other maintenance. It must be performed in a way that would allow the trail to return to railroad use, should that become necessary in the future.

The state has been in talks with the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers, the statewide snowmobilers’ group, that would allow VAST to use the trail for 30 years in exchange for funding maintenance and law enforcement along its path.

Plans for the trail became embroiled in controversy when word spread that the lease being negotiated by VAST and the state Agency of Transportation was likely to allow some limited summertime use of the trail by ATV riders.

But Gil Newbury, assistant director of operations for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said at the Danville meeting that funding for the rail trail is coming from the federal Transportation Enhancement Program, which allows use by snowmobiles, maintenance and rescue vehicles but no other motorized vehicles.

Federal rules could change, but that does not appear to be imminent.

“This is a tough question with nationwide implications. It’s sort of uncharted waters,” Newbury said.

Laurel Ruggles, a board member with the group Friends of the Lamoille County Rail Trail, which supports winter use by snowmobilers but opposes ATVs using the trail, agreed with Newbury that lifting the federal ban on ATVs would be a first in the country.

“It could really open up a whole can of worms,” she said.

ATV riders, represented by the Vermont ATV Sportsman Association, have sought to alleviate critics’ fears, saying they only want to use short sections of the rail trail, incorporating them into their own trails, as well as rail trail bridges.