Re[2]: [at-l] Snowmobiles and other off road motors

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob C.)]

"...Have you tried those dandy little blowout strips" asks blacknBlue.

 No. I've thought about them though. The problem is that we are dealing with
 people who are essentially law-breaking vandals. The damage they cause is
 obvious to even the most ignorant. And to prove their vandalism, they shoot up
 and otherwise destroy our signs and litter our trails.

 We are trying to avoid outright war, because they can do far more damage to our
 700 acres of forest lands than we can do to their tires. In a town with only
 one parttime law enforcement officer, we are unlikely to win any wars.

 We have the same problem in the AT corridor. (See this is trail related)

 The corridor purchased by the National Park Service in Maine includes the
 shorelines of several remote ponds with pretty sand beaches. ATVs and SUVs
 regularly violate the rule against motor vehicles in the corridor, chewing up
 the beaches and eroding the shoreline.

 These are tiny ponds that one could paddle across in 15 minutes, but some
 insist on launching high powered motor boats. We are talking about 300 feet or
 less for a canoe carry. But the motor addicts insist on 50 horse power
 outboards and 2,000 pound boats.

 The easy solution would be to hire a backhoe to create a "tank trap" that the
 boat trailers couldn't traverse. Instead we posted signs. The vandals tore them
 down and posted their own sign reading,  "you f**king *sshole."

 I've tried to avoid the tank trap solution because that would also prohibit
easy canoe portage to the beach. My most recent solution is concrete posts
attached to five-feet long re-enforced concrete trenches five feet deep. The
last time I checked they were still working, but what humans create other humans
can remove. So I'm not taking any bets.

  I could probably do the same with our land trust lands. But I'm trying to
  avoid carrying in 20 80# bags of ready-mixed concrete. Oh well. It's only a
  mile and a half. Do you suppose I should rent an ATV to help?

   Weary