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A state Supreme Court judge has ruled against the state Department of Environmental Conservation in its efforts to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a North Country ATV club in regard to the state's closing of 54 roads on state land in the North Country to ATV access.
The 230-member Black River Valley Four Wheeler Club filed the lawsuit in January against former DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty in an attempt to reopen the roads. Crotty resigned in late January and was replaced by Denise Sheehan.
DEC now has 60 days to respond to the decision after the court found that were "triable issues that a jury may differ as to whether DEC acted within its scope of authority".
In 2004, the state announced it was closing dozens of roads on state land in Lewis, St. Lawrence, Herkimer and Oneida counties to unlimited ATV access by the general public. Roads within the Aldrich Pond, Independence River, Black River and Watson's Ease Wile River forest areas were affected.
The Adirondack Park Agency then banned the use of ATVs on trails in sensitive forested areas which affected the 154-mile area south of Potsdam to an area north of Herkimer County and includes parts of St. Lawrence and Hamilton Counties.
In April, 2004 the Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, had sued the DEC after a study conducted by the DEC was released on the impact of ATV use in the Adirondacks and thereafter DEC initiated its ban.
The DEC edict banned ATVs from the 2.6 million acres of state land in the Adirondack Forest. DEC said ATVs could continue to be used on five roads from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15 each year but even those roads would be closed to ATVs by 2006 if the DEC closure plan is allowed to stand.
The DEC action bans ATVs from all roads in the state-controlled area of the 6-million acre Adirondack Park.
"It is not the policy of DEC to provide riding opportunities on state lands," Crotty had warned. "Motor vehicle use, however, provides a means of access to DEC programs such as hunting and fishing. This policy will establish a set of criteria for evaluating the suitability of roads for ATV access in limited circumstances in compliance with existing law."
The five roads open under temporary revocable permit include the Jackworks and Maple Hill Roads in the Aldrich Pond Wild Forest, the Herkimer Landing, and South Shore and Wolf Lake Landing roads in the Black River Wild Forest. These five roads are slated to be rehabilitated for automobile and truck access by 2006 at which point public ATV access will be eliminated. 10-29-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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