I've said it before and I'll say it again, and again, and again, and again, but when those who enjoy the outdoors attempt to ban another sect of the outdoors-enjoying public, we all lose. It's just a fact.
The latest in our outdoors infighting comes from the great state of Pennsylvania where the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, an environmentalist group within the state, has sued the state, the state's governor Josh Shapiro, and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources over the latter organization creating new ATV trails with the Northcentral Regional ATV Trail Connector Pilot (NRAT for short).
The issue is that ATVs are allowed in any of the state's public forests, and the creation of these trails, aimed at providing riders with over 374 miles of new riding, is "unconstitutional" under the state's constitution. And in reading this lawsuit, as well as the group's statements about the lawsuit, the same dull headache I get whenever groups who enjoy public lands but hate that others use it differently from how they do has returned...
Let's get into this.
All this stems from local ATV riders asking the state for more legal trails to ride on. This comes after a couple bad actors on ATVs created illegal trails throughout the region. Thinking more legal trails would curb such illegal activity, it makes sense for the state to do some, as it would help preserve the forests' natural beauty and curb the trashing of trails.
And after two decades, the state did something, ergo the NRAT.
As such, the state allocated $2.4 million to create the new trail system which, according to our friends at UTV Driver, was a financial success for the region. "Two of the four counties the system crosses, Potter and Tioga (Clinton, Lycoming are the others) are said to have made $10.4 million combined in 2022 and $13.1 million in 2023," states the outlet, adding, "Businesses along the trails 'reported that about 35 percent of their summer customer base was a result of the pilot.' On top of that, the state pulled in $430,000 from ATV passes sold during the first three years."
So that's that, right? Wrong. According to the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, ATVs are antithetical to the state's constitution, citing the passage stating, "The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."
There's a lot to dig into there, but their interpretation of that passage means that mechanized travel should be banned from state forests and public lands as "ATVs have caused and continue to cause [harm] as this use continues to be authorized and expanded through our unique high value public forest lands." Basically, they say ATVs cause too much harm to the environment, whether that's the trail systems or the gases they emit, to be allowed on public lands.
A reminder, this fight comes at a time when our public lands are under increasing threat from those that hate we, the public, are allowed to enjoy these epic places. So fighting amongst ourselves, those who enjoy the outdoors on the back of an ATV, riding in a UTV, hunting, fishing, or backpacking and hiking, isn't the best strategy in defeating those forces. Yet here we are.
Luckily for literally everyone who enjoys those forests, as well as public lands proponents, the group's first lawsuit failed and was sent packing. However, the new lawsuit is just getting going, so we'll have to watch and wait to see what happens. Hopefully, it too will be thrown out, because if it succeeds, fewer public land lovers would be able to use their public lands. And that, in the end, means fewer people to fight against the rising tide of those who would develop every square inch.
Do you really want that?
