All-terrain vehicles have become part of our rural reality. Their popularity has soared in the last 15 years. Nationally, ATV ownership is increasing at a rate of nearly 30 percent a year. Utah has 133,000 registered off-highway vehicle owners — 70 percent of them are ATV owners.
ATVs provide us with opportunities to recreate outside, enjoying vast panoramas and wide-open spaces some of us couldn't enjoy otherwise. They assist us in our work — from construction to farming — and have become a source of family enjoyment.
Government — from local city councils to the halls of Congress — needs to deal with the practical implications of the ATVs' soaring popularity in the West. That's one of the reasons I introduced HR3936, a bill to create the Shoshone National Recreation Trail in northern Utah for off-highway vehicle use.
But I believe we need to do more to address growing ATV use. State, city and county officials need to tackle the challenge of providing for appropriate ATV use on our rural roads.
My bill takes existing OHV roads and trails already on U.S. forestland and designates them as one system appropriate for OHV use. The bill also provides federal funding for the designation as well as trail maintenance. I intended this legislation to direct ATV users and others to appropriate roads and trails they may not know exist, providing Utahns with appropriate recreational opportunities for their motorized vehicles.
With this bill, ATV users know which trails they can legally use. Both ATV users and the Forest Service will know what their rights and responsibilities are.
But this doesn't address the growing pressure to allow ATV use on rural roads under safe and appropriate circumstances. Often, ATV owners on the farm or job site find it a practical necessity to occasionally travel along or across a local or state road to gain access from one parcel of land to another.
State law currently allows cities and towns to authorize ATV use on city streets when accessing a recreation trail or leaving the recreation trail to access services in town. Some towns have taken advantage of this option with wonderful results. The city of Marysvale passed an ordinance allowing ATV users to drive from town to the nearby Paiute Trail, or to leave the trail and drive into town on their ATVs to use city services.
Since allowing ATVs into town, Marysvale has enjoyed a new economic boom. The number of business licenses in town has jumped. The city of Panguitch has passed a law that allows ATVs to be used in a limited way on certain local streets during daylight hours without the risk of a citation.
Other cities and towns in Utah should examine this issue and follow the lead of Panguitch and Marysvale. I believe, in some areas, the use of ATVs on roadways can be expanded beyond mere access to recreation trails with positive results. The Utah Legislature should address the problem for all unincorporated areas of the state.
We must all work together — on all levels of government — to provide more appropriate places for ATV recreation. The problem of unauthorized use of public lands will only grow if additional trails or use areas are not established.
Governments at the local, state and federal level must do more to provide appropriate access to our public lands that protects our environment and wildlife, while providing more recreational opportunities to responsible ATV users.
With a little more concerted effort and creativity on the part of lawmakers and stakeholders, I am convinced that we can make ATV use in Utah a positive experience for both those who use them and those who don't.
Rep. James V. Hansen, R- Utah, is chairman of the House Resources Committee.