Adventure Tourism: No Way

An Open Letter to Governor Steve Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo

         The Adventure Tourism initiative put forward by the administration under the leadership of Lt. Governor Dan Mongiardo would lead to disaster, since it involves constructing and facilitating use of selected trails by off-road vehicles as well as by hikers, and horseback riders.  

         Inviting off-road vehicles (ORVs) into the state, no matter how carefully the trails on which they are to ride are chosen, would likely massive result in trespass on public and on private lands.  Riders of off-road vehicles are looking for wild experiences and therefore many of them do not want to ride on trails.  The rougher the terrain the better they can demonstrate the prowess of their vehicles and themselves.  Wetlands are an invitation to them to make tracks. 

         Kentucky already has problems with ORVs that do not stay on designated trails and in designated areas.  Appalachia--Science in the Public Interest in Rockcastle County began in the early 1990s to document damage by illicit use of ORVs and to explore ways of preventing trespass by ORV drivers (see, for example, "Nine ORV Control Options," Technical Paper 64). The issues raised then have never been satisfactorily resolved.

        Experience across  North America where ORV traffic is heavy  illustrates the type of situation that will become increasingly common in Kentucky as a result of an influx of adventure tourists.  Here are just two examples:

    ----The organization Earthroots in Ontario states on its web site (www.earthroots.org):  "The 1997 Temagami Land Use Plan (TLUP) determined that certain parts of Temagami must be off-limits to motorized travel so that important ecological features are protected, and hikers and paddlers can enjoy a remote wilderness experience.  Unfortunately, these directions are not being followed.  Illegal use of logging roads is rampant in the Temagami region and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles are tearing through unauthorized areas.  The problem is serious enough that, in response to Earthroots' concerns, the Ministry of Environment has directed the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to compile an annual access violation audit.  The last three audits have found that access violations are systemic in the Temagami region.  Unauthorized users are willing to ignore signs, break gate locks, and create their own trails . . . "

    ----A conservationist, hiking this year in New York's Adirondack Park writes:  "The hike from Cranberry Lake's East Inlet to the junction with the trail back east to Chair Rock Flow is one of the Adirondack top forty trails.  Much of the forest appears to be old growth or nearly so. . . a forest primeval magical tour. . . . The magic begins to wane by the time the Chair Rock Flow trail enters from the southwest.  The trail now goes east-northeast through younger forest and follows old roads.  ATVs have trespassed, apparently at least in part from the primitive roads the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) maintains west of Horseshoe Lake.  The old road/new trail I'm now walking eastward toward Horseshoe Lake is obviously still used by four-wheel drives too.  I find more  ATV trespasss off the main way . . . ."

             A decision to keep ORVs out of Wildlife Management Areas and State Nature Preserves will not protect these areas if ORV riders are encouraged to come into the state in large numbers.  A massive force of law enforcement personnel would have to be deployed across the region in any attempt to keep the riders where the state decides that they are supposed to go.  Such deployment, year round, would be costly and its effectiveness would be questionable.  Inviting ORVers into the state would be to open a Pandora's box that the state would come to wish that it had kept closed.

Respectfully,

Mary Davis, Director of EcoPerspectives

                                                                                                                                    --Posted November 2, 2008

Update 12/26/08

              The Pioneer Horse Trail under construction in the Hensely-Pine Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Letcher County is an example of the problems involved in Adventure Tourism.  County officials sought permission to build the trail as a replacement for a portion of the Little Shepherd Trail that had been paved.  The new horse trail will roughly parallel the paved section.  The county began constructing the trail with heavy equipment in July 2008 despite the fact that none of the studies required before construction had been completed and that heavy equipment was not to be used in building that section of the trail. Conservationists point out that the horse trail will be an invitation to ATVs.

               The paving of a portion of the Little Shepherd Trail was itself controversial.  The Little Shepherd Trail and the Pioneer Horse Trail go along the ridge of Pine Mountain. The five thousand acre Hensely-Pine Mountain Wildlife Management Area, which they cross, is "covered with what wildlife officials call 'relatively unfragmented, mature forest' that has seen little disturbance since being purchased with federal wildlife funds more than half a century ago," Andy Meade writes.  Black bears are making a comeback in the area, and the relatively unfragmented character of the forest makes it important habitat for neotropical migratory birds.

Source:  Andy Meade, "Horse Trail in Trouble from Start," Lexington Herald, December 26, 2008, pp. A-1 and A-18.