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By: Rick Fowler
NORTHERN MICHIGAN ORV
OWNERS NEED A PLACE TO DRIVE
 ORV (off road-vehicles) specifically ATV
owners in the Northwest Michigan counties of
Charlevoix and Emmet are still shaking their
heads as to why the current EPA Act of 1994 has
not been rewritten or adjusted in any way even
though there are hundreds of ORV owners spending
thousands of dollars on machines that they
essentially can only use on their own property.
The three major sections of the 1994 Act
state:
1. A person shall not operate an ORV that
is not registered under the (Motor Vehicle)
code upon a public highway, street, or right
of way of a public highway.
2. A local unit of government may pass an
ordinance establishing access routes along
streets and highways under its jurisdiction,
if those access routes do not involve state
or federal highways
3. In the Lower Peninsula, all state-owned
land under the jurisdiction of the
department shall be closed to ORV use except
designated routes, designated trails, and
designated areas…
Yet, these same riders have seen the above
listed requirements altered in the Upper
Peninsula. In fact, all state forest roads in
the UP are open to ORV and ATV’ unless posted
close. Plus many, if not most, of the sixteen
counties in the UP have opened their local roads
to ORV’s stating, “The additional recreational
tourist revenue justifies the increased cost of
upkeep.”
So why can’t the NW lower counties find a way
to alter the EPA Act like their neighbors to the
north? It could be because there are no existing
DNR trails at this time or maybe because there
are more people in these two counties who have
diverse reasons pro and con. Also, it might be
because too many people believe that opening
these roads will lead to illegal activities like
hill climbing or riding on the beaches and
insist that these problems regularly occur in
those counties that are open to ORV use. Another
reason could be there doesn’t seem to be enough
people showing up at the right times at the
right places to express the pro ORV side of
things.
However, State Rep. Joel Sheltrown D-West
Branch has introduced legislation to amend the
Natural Resources and Environmental Protection
Act especially as to how it pertains to ORV/ATV
use in northern Michigan. Some of the 10-point
amendments are:
• To allow a
local unit of government to pass an
ordinance establishing access routes to a
designated DNR trail system along streets
and roads under its jurisdiction.
• To allow the
county board of commissioners to adopt an
ordinance authorizing the operation of ORV’s
on the righ- of-way public streets and roads
located within the county.
• To restrict
permitted use of the roads by ORV’s to 30
minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after
sunset
• To set a speed
limit of 25 mph or less, if posted
• To require
ORV’s to travel single file, except when
passing another ORV
• To apportion
30 percent of the fines and damages
collected to the county sheriff or police
department and 70 percent to the road
commission or city village department
responsible for street maintenance.
While not perfect, Sheltrowns’ proposal
certainly needs to be looked at and in time
adopted by those of us who recreate with ORV’s
in the NW section of lower Michigan.
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