Good Neighbors Make Few Fences

GOOD NEIGHBORS MAKE FEW FENCES

Bob Hicks

Why Crowded New England has the Best Trail Riding in the Country

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island. Three of the smallest states in the USA, three of the most densely populated states, the three southern states in New England. They are home for the majority of the 3000 members of the New England Trail Rider Association. They are the location of thousands of miles of known and used trail bike routes. They were the scene of more than 30 enduros in 1977.

How is this? Nationally there’s justified anxiety about places to ride. At every turn there’s a gate, a legal hearing, an attempt to close or restrict what lands are still available. How can this heavily populated and undersized corner of the nation offer so much trail bike enjoyment? Why haven’t the spreading housing tracts and blooming industries crowded bikes off the land? How come environmentalists aren’t carrying on an overt campaign to have trail bikes banned on all public and private lands? What’s the secret to maintaining and increasing trail bike access to trails in our present anti-bike national mood?

For the New Englanders involved, the secret is NETRA, the New' England Trail Rider Association, the efforts of many of

its 3000 members and its full-time Executive Director, David Sanderson.

It has taken a united effort by concerned trail bike riders to turn back the anti-bike tide at New England’s borders. Since its formation in 1971, NETRA has achieved regional recognition as a responsible trail bike association, not just from local bikers but from public land officials, state and federal, from environmental organizations, from other trail user groups, hikers and horsemen. This status of acceptance as bona fide outdoor recreation has been earned by a lot of effort on the part of many members. Coordinating much of this and acting as NETRA’s official representative, Sanderson is an eloquent spokesman on behalf of the interests of trail bikers as well as the interests of preserving the open lands they enjoy.

NETRA’s organizational meeting (in March of 1971) attracted 800 trail bikers. Included in the program were speeches by such public land officials as New' England's White Mt. National Forest Supervisor and Massachusetts’ Dept, of Natural Resources Recreation Chief. Most of the riders attending signed up on the spot, at $5 each, to get the ball rolling.

Within two years, NETRA had attracted more than 2000 members. NETRA representatives sat on advisory trail committees in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island. New Hampshire and Maine. NETRA organized an enduro program that required riders to be licensed according to ability. All new' applicants were required to attend a one-day enduro school, in the interests of showing them just what an enduro was and how only proper behavior would ensure continued use of available lands. Most important, NETRA hired Sanderson as a full-time salaried executive director to administer the policies and programs adopted by the 36 trustees elected annually by the membership. Sanderson had worked for several years in Indiana on the Hoosier National Forest ORV program. With a qualified full-time man running day-to-day operations, NETRA grew to more than 3000 members and became well known to anyone interested in trail-oriented activities in New England.

Now in its seventh year, the organization is solidly established and offers members programs in adult and youth enduro competition, non-competitive recreational trail ride events, and provides route sheets for more than 1500 miles of trails for individual or group riding. A major effort in 1977 added new routes and updated existing trail routes to reflect changing conditions.

Another major issue NETRA has tackled is that of noise. Slogans are not enough. Too many trail bikes continue to be too loud for acceptable use on trails that thread around and through hundreds of small rural communities. NETRA adopted a noise standard that must be met by enduro entrants. The same standard is increasingly being applied to non-competitive group trail rides. Director Sanderson has carried on lengthy correspondence and discussion with manufacturers or distributors in an effort to make them realize that many of their bikes are just too noisy and are ambassadors of ill will. There’s been a lot of backyard engineering done to cut 92dbA machines down to 86dbA or less. Using these consumer achievements as ammunition to illustrate that it can be done, Sanderson hammers away at the reluctant members of the industry who just don’t believe that noise is their worst obstacle to sales.

Local trail bike clubs, as chapters of NETRA or as independent clubs associated with and adhering to NETRA overall policies, have resulted in ever widening goodwill with landowners and other trail users.

Most land in New England is privately owned. The only federal lands of size, the White Mt. and Green Mt. National Forests in New Hampshire and Vermont, have little or no trail bike activity because the land is steep, wet, rocky, and covered with trees and brush. Most trails soon end at impossibly steep, rocky slippery grades. State lands do provide much good riding. Massachusetts has many trails in its 60 or so state forests. NETRA and its members and clubs have worked closely with the state land managers to organize trails and enduro routes. Sanderson is a member of the Division of Marine & Recreational Vehicles Board, which reviews and approves policies and procedures of enforcement of off-road vehicle regulations.

In Connecticut, bike trails are now open in several state forests. All were closed four years ago. It took a lot of negotiating to reopen some trails but it was done, and done through cooperative effort with state

officials, not by confrontations and namecalling. The current state forester in Connecticut is an enthusiast and has been a long-time friend to trail bikers, without prejudicing his principal role as protector and developer of Connecticut’s forest assets.

In New Hampshire thousands of miles of snowmobile trails have been established by state/landowner/ snowmobile club cooperation. The New Hampshire Bureau of Off-Highway Recreational Vehicles is working with NETRA representatives to provide trail bike access to appropriate portions of this system. NETRA people have assisted in drafting that state’s ORV safety booklet as it applies to trail bikes.

Another off-road advantage enjoyed by New England riders is the public way. Sounds quaint, but remember, people have lived here since 1650, literally centuries before pavement became practical. New England has miles of what were trails and roads, never paved and long since abandoned by motor cars. Once these ways were public access to and from rural areas. As people moved into the towns, the ways became overgrown. Many rural towns keep the ways as legal access, because hunters,> fishermen and owners of adjacent lands find them useful and sometimes the only way to get from one place to another.

Provided the machines are quiet and their riders polite and willing to share the ways, the other users have no objection to motorcycles. The public ways, twin-wheel ruts through the leaf-covered woods, provide some of the nicest riding in New England.

But it’s private land that still makes much of the riding possible. Private land can’t be ridden on willy-nilly. Somebody owns the land and pays taxes on it and has the right to approve or disapprove the use of this land by bikers, hunters, hikers or even bird 'watchers. Traditionally in this part of the country the pedestrian public has had right of access to private lands (unless posted “No Trespassing”) provided they did no damage in passage. With the advent of snowmobiles, jeeps and trail bikes, enough damage was done so that today most New England states require owner permission for use of private lands by any form of motor vehicle.

So NETRA enduro and recreational trail ride organizers spend much time getting the OK from farmers, wood lot owners and forest product companies to use certain trails for enduros with 250-300 riders, or rides involving 50-200 riders. Individual riders find they expand their riding

opportunities by getting to know the people who own land containing attractive trail routes and winning their OK for passage. Thus in both an organized way, and on an individual basis, private land gets opened to trail bike use. Of course, much land remains closed because of owners’ personal views, but in that event, NETRA helps the owners.

Yes. Any landowner requesting them will be given NETRA signs announcing the land (or trail) is closed to trail bikes. While this may on the surface seem negative to trail bike interests, it is a great public relations tool. What often happens is that the owner may relent to the extent that he will permit trail bikes on one specific trail across his land. NETRA has signs for that purpose too: “Stay on the Marked Trail.”

Today the single greatest threat to continued trail access in New England is not from environmentalists or public land managers or landowners, but from foolish and irresponsible bikers who race across areas highly valued by their owners, or ride loud motocross bikes in the woods and fields too near dwellings. NETRA wrestles with the problem of how to properly reach and educate these irresponsible riders. A face-to-face meeting on the trail often results in scornful disdain for any sober advice about cleaning up their act to protect access for all of us. Advice in pam-

phlets distributed by members and cooperating dealers often appears to go unheeded. Apologizing for our own idiot fringe continues to be a painful but necessary reaction to public opposition to our sport.

NETRA’s concern with irresponsible actions even extends to include those motorcycle manufacturers who insist on selling over-loud bikes. Having decided that some people only react to force, NETRA supports a noise standard law in Massachusetts that will restrict sale of bikes to those meeting a reasonable standard. New Hampshire has already adopted such standards, with NETRA cooperation. Better we clean up our own act before the public decides to get rid of our act.

It’s this policy of striving to become good neighbors on the trails of New England which has provided and maintained the trail riding opportunities that can be enjoyed in New England today. Other areas may have different problems, in type and in scale, but the basic principle still applies. Learn to get along with those who own or manage the land, or use the available trails.

Readers interested in more detailed material on the NETRA story can request information from NETRA, P.O. Box 66, Newbury, Mass. 01985.