ATV riders are seeking trail access (Vermont)

MARK E. RONDEAU, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/20/2007 04:46:55 PM EDT

Tuesday, March 20
POWNAL — Members of the Bennington Trail Conservancy will be coming to Thursday's Select Board meeting to introduce themselves and discuss trail access.
The group is a all-terrain-vehicle club formed within the past year and dedicated "to fair and equal trail access."

Ideally, the group is looking to establish a local network of trails on which they are approved to ride. They are not looking to create new trails, as plenty already exist, and want to use trails where they will have the least impact and will co-exist with other users, said Michael Lynch, president of the BTC.

Meeting boards

The group has already been in Woodford, where it has permission to use a trail. In addition to the Pownal Select Board, the group will also be going to Stamford, he said.

"We're trying to keep it low key right now," he said.

According to its Web site, Bennington Trail Conservancy, the BTC is currently "working on reopening certain portions (of) former trails and working to expand those trails through working with federal, state, local and private land owners."

As of last year, the group had 90 members, said Lynch, a Bennington resident.
Said Pownal Select Board member Stephen Kauppi, "They're putting the pieces together, which is a very good thing. It's the first positive move we've made on this, and they've got some real good information that they're going to bring us."

BTC is a member of the Vermont All Terrain Vehicle Sportsmen's Association Inc., a Montpelier-based group formed in 1998 "to provide the State of Vermont with a central point of contact for leadership in ATV recreation and (to) begin the planning, implementation, and management of a statewide ATV trail system," according to the VASA Web site.

A year ago, in March 2006, more than 100 people gathered in Bennington to discuss the creation of a new ATV club. Todd Sheinfeld, then the executive director of VASA, led the meeting. He said that local clubs and trails are recognized by the state only if they are also recognized by VASA.

Mark Rondeau can be reached at mrondeau@benningtonbanner.com.

Article Reference: Bennington Banner - ATV riders are seeking trail access

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MARK E. RONDEAU, Staff Writer
Saturday, March 24

POWNAL — The Pownal Select Board lent a sympathetic ear to a request for trail access from two officers of the Bennington Trail Conservancy — an all-terrain-vehicle club based in Bennington — at Thursday's board meeting.
The board made permanent, subject to review, a list of trails for ATV use that it had already approved for such use on a year-to-year basis. For other roads and trails the BTC club would like to use in town to create a trail network, most of which are not approved for ATV use, members of the board will seek input during the next month from residents who live near them.

Seeking input

"We ... know that there are some trails and or roads that Pownal does allow some ATV activity on as it stands right now," said BTC Kerry Ryan. "We're trying to come up with some trails that we can make loops, such that if you start at one end you can make a continuous ride around and not have to backtrack, if at all possible."

Coming into the meeting, the group had approval for use of one trail, in Woodford. "We're starting from scratch here," he said.

Creating a network of trails could make the activity less noticeable. "Having a trail where you just ride from point A to point B and turn around and go from point B to A on the same trail, tends to be more of a problem because it's just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth," Ryan said. "I own land on County Road and I know that's what happens."

"Having a loop ... will alleviate some of that repetition of people just going back and forth," he said.

According to a map Ryan and BTC President Mike Lynch showed the board and left at the town office, their ultimate goal would be two major loops. The largest would be five to seven miles around and would run through Pownal, Woodford and Stamford. The men already received approval recently from Woodford to use a lengthy trail that runs from east to west. BTC officials have yet to make their case in Stamford.

"We're hoping this will give you some idea of what we want to do," Ryan said of the map. "Now some of this is not Pownal; in fact a lot of it is not Pownal. A lot of it is Stamford," he said.

Judging by the map and the discussion, a much smaller loop would be in south Pownal, and much of the discussion at the meeting dealt with where certain roads and trails ran in town. One trail the group is interested in Pownal runs near the Dome. Part of this trail belongs to Pownal, but part lies in watershed property in town owned by the city of North Adams, Mass.

In the overall BTC plan, much of the land and trail system the group wants to use is on Green Mountain National Forest Land.

"We're not asking to make trails; they're already there and the roads are already there. We would just like to have access to them," Ryan said. "Our hope is to be able to get these trails and then we would do signage on them and maintain them, and then work with whomever it is — National Forest, the towns, landowners to keep it a safe and viable trail."

Roads in Pownal that have been and will continue to be open to ATV use — pending any future review by the Select Board —include Schankar, part of Old Military Road, Noble Road, County Road and Cross Roads.

The BTC, which formed about a year ago, had 90 members last year. About 20 these live in Pownal.

Article Reference: Bennington Banner - Pownal considers trails for ATVs