A Comprehensive Approach to ATVs in Vermont: Some Background

ATV advocates, ANR, recreational interests, citizens, and environmentalists in 2004 developed a comprehensive list of recommendations for Governor Douglas to improve ATV policy in Vermont. Click here for the report.
 
As part of its work, the ATV Collaborative recommended raising registration fees to $55 a year to pay for, in part, adequate enforcement, and an illegal trespass fund to pay for property damage. The Collaborative also recommended increasing penalties, which currently do not deter illegal activity.
 
Opening up public lands to ATVs was by far the most controversial and unsettled aspect of the Collaborative Report. A better approach to addressing ATV recreation in Vermont is to address enforcement, environmental damage, and funding mechanisms to deal with illegal activity, while examining whether state lands can accommodate increased activity.
 
ANR’s long-standing position has been that the state should understand whether public lands can accommodate the environmental impacts of ATV’s before opening up state lands to trails.  In 2000, an ANR ATV Committee, representing diverse professionals in the agency, commissioned a scientific study on the environmental impacts of ATVs. After reviewing the study, the ATV Committee concluded, “there is no environmental good news here.” When the rule was established last year, there was no environmental assessment as suggested by ANR. Such an evaluation is a necessary first step before contemplating opening state lands to ATV’s. 
 
Please support the ANR in repealing the original rule and tell the ANR that a proper environmental assessment is needed in addition to addressing ATV policy in a more comprehensive fashion.
 
If you have any questions, please contact VNRC’s Jamey Fidel at 802-223-2328 ext 117 or email: jfidel@vnrc.org.