Groups: keep larger ATVs off New York trails
North Country Public Radio
June 10, 2014
By, NCPR News in Albany, NY
A coalition of environmental groups wants to make sure bigger, heavier all terrain utility vehicles stay off of New York's public trails.
The environmentalists argue that allowing heavier vehicles, sometimes called UTVs, will cause more erosion, more water pollution and more air pollution. The environmental groups say the legislation also would open the trails to heavier utility-work vehicles.
In a press release yesterday, Willie Janeway, executive director of the Adirondack Council said the bigger ATVs are suitable tools for farming and logging. And they’re OK on private lands.
But he said “they don’t belong on public recreation trails where people are hiking or biking,” “They are too fast, too big and too destructive.”
The Adirondack Council and other groups are asking state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to block a bill that would allow owners of all-terrain vehicles heavier than 1,000 pounds to register them for use on public trails and roads. The bill would increase the eligible weight to 1,500 pounds.
The coalition said it agrees with the state’s policy allowing people with disabilities to use ATVs currently approved on Adirondack Forest Preserve roads and other roads designated for public access.
