The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has voted to object to a proposed rule that would allow limited use of all-terrain vehicles on state lands.
The committee says it’s not clear the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) has the authority to make the rule. Committee members also raised concerns whether the rule’s economic impact had been inadequately addressed.
The vote is a setback for ATV users who have long pushed for access to public land.
The rule would have created a half-mile connector trail on state land in Stockbridge and set up a process for considering similar trails elsewhere if they link to existing systems on private property.
The vote was 5-3. Those in the minority argued the agency did have the necessary authority.
In 2009, the committee opposed a similar effort to create a mechanism for allowing ATVs on public lands, but the agency felt it had addressed the committee’s concerns in the new rule.
Danny Hale, executive director of VASA, the Vermont All-Terrain Vehicle Sportsman’s Association, says it’s been a lengthy, frustrating and, so far, fruitless fight for his members.
“We’re disappointed. It’s a long process. We’ve been at this a long time. There’s support from a broad field of folks, very little opposition but powerful opposition in the political world and this is the result,” Hale said.
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy had urged a thumbs-down vote on the ATV rule in a letter to rules committee members.
"We're disappointed. It's a long process. We've been at this a long time. There's support from a broad field of folks, very little opposition but powerful opposition in the political world and this is the result." — Danny Hale, executive director of the Vermont All-Terrain Vehicle Sportsman's Association
Addison County Senator Christopher Bray chairs the natural resources committee. He says the committee felt lawmakers would be giving ANR too much discretion and that the legislature has to set out a clearer policy for the agency to follow.
“I’m sympathetic to people who feel like this has been an open question for a long time and my sense is that there will be a bill and that it will clarify where we are going,” says Bray.
Bray says there will be a bill introduced this session.
“We have a choice,” says Bray. “We can either write statute that spells out how ATVs would be used on state lands or prohibits them entirely. Or we could ask ANR to do rulemaking again, but we would provide more guidance.”
"I'm sympathetic to people who feel like this has been an open question for a long time and my sense is that there will be a bill and that it will clarify where we are going." — Addison County Senator Christopher Bray
Bray’s House counterpart, East Montpelier Representative Tony Klein, says his committee is also willing to clarify how the Agency of Natural Resources deals with ATVs on state land.
“You can’t just have it open-ended, that ANR can open up this, open up this, open up that. It’s got to be very, very controlled. I think we can get there,” Klein says.
Whatever the outcome of the legislature’s effort, it will likely prompt a lively debate and it could result in lawmakers closing the door entirely on ATV use on public land.
“I represent a district where the word ATV is poison,” says Klein. “I’ve already heard from dozens of my constituents saying please don’t allow ATVs on state land.”
Robb Kidd of the Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club says that's what his group will push for.
“The Sierra Club is very concerned about opening up state lands and would like to see a debate on the merits of that; what the economic impacts, what the environmental impacts would be on the issue,” Kidd says.
The Sierra Club and Vermont Natural Resources Council opposed the rule during a public comments period last year, but the overwhelming majority of comments from both the public and organizations were in support of it.
While the agency could still institute the rule, it appears unlikely it will proceed, which means ATVs will continue to be prohibited on state land until the legislature acts.
