EXPANDED ATV TRAILS IN PA?
Plan would pump money into trail development

Controversy has arisen over a plan to expand all-terrain vehicle riding opportunities on state forest lands, using a network of township roads as connectors.

Nearly 40 townships in 15 counties, including Potter, Cameron and McKean, have approved ATV riding on certain municipal roads, totaling about 650 miles.

The Pa. Bureau of Forestry recently announced that it would add 29 miles of new forest trails to its existing 247 miles of designated ATV riding trails. Township roads already designated for ATV riding were used to help determine which trails to open.

A spokesman for the Pa. Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources said the state's $2.25 million project is being financed through DCNR's snowmobile/ATV fund, which gets revenue from vehicle registration fees.

DCNR said expanding ATV trails will reduce illegal riding on unapproved trails. The agency said each of the state's even forest regions, including the Elk and Susquehannock state forests, have an average of 50 miles of unauthorized trails.

There are more than 237,000 registered ATV owners in Pennsylvania.

The DCNR plan recently came under fire from a land conservation group, the Pennsylvania Forest Coalition. That group contends that encouraging the combination of township roads and state forest trails will result in more accidents.

"It's a recipe for disaster," said coalition coordinator Richard Martin. "DCNR is confusing transportation with recreation."

But DCNR spokesman Terry Brady said the plan makes sense.

"Most of the connector roads through the forests are in townships that open roads to ATVs," Brady said. "By using township roads to connect ATV trails, riders can stay on the vehicles and travel from one trail to another instead of having to put the ATVs on a trailer to make those leaps."