Sierra Club Blocks ATV Program with Indefensible Arguments

NYSORVA strongly recommends the passage of an ATV Trail Program law before the June 11, 2006 expiration of the registration fee increase. An ATV Program will significantly enhance ATV safety and environmental protection, balanced with the interests of riders and small businesses, by funding rider education and management of trails through fees collected from ATV registrants.

Sierra Club and Concerned Families for ATV Safety today released a publication titled "Kill or Cure" as propaganda advocating against the creation of an ATV Trail Program. To lobby against an ATV Program in New York state is the height of hypocrisy. To argue that no program and policy response to address ATV issues should be promoted in this year's Legislative Session, that ATV recreation should remain unregulated and unmanaged for the time being, is in complete contravention to their argument that ATV recreation is bad for the environment and unsafe to society.

The indefensible position of Sierra Club and Concerned Families for ATV Safety is in direct conflict with other environmental and landuse groups in New York which recognize that a programmatic response -right now- is the logical way to address the challenges of managing ATV use.

Despite a lack to date of a reasoned programmatic response to the pastime, New York has the third-largest ATV recreational community in the nation. Its ranks are growing steadily, and doing nothing at this critical moment serves neither the ATVers nor the environmental advocates to any productive effect.

Please see www.nysorva.org for more information.