Testimony of Tom Doak
Executive Director
Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine
In Favor of LD 254
An Act to Amend the Standards by Which Game Wardens May Stop All-terrain Vehicles when Operating on Private Property
March 7, 2011

Senator Martin, Representative Davis and members of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, I am Tom Doak, Executive Director of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine (SWOAM) testifying in support of LD 254 "An Act To Amend the Standards by Which Game Wardens May Stop All-terrain Vehicles when Operating on Private Property".

A few years ago, the requirement of obtaining permission from the landowner was added to the laws regarding operation of an ATV. The change was part of a comprehensive, and at times contentious, overhaul of the rules and standards for operating an ATV in Maine. This change was aimed at the growing frustration among landowners of the impact of ATVs on their land and the resulting increase in posting of land. Hunters, snowmobilers, ATV users and people wanting to walk on someone's woodland were all concerned about the loss of access that posting would bring.

Two legislative sessions ago a law was passed requiring reasonable and articulable suspicion for any law enforcement officer to stop an ATV. The effect was to nullify parts of the permission requirement. The permission requirement still exists; but a law enforcement officer can no longer stop an ATV just to see if that person has landowner permission. The officer must believe a violation is occurring, not just stop to check compliance.

This change came as a shock to many woodland owners who thought that a commitment had been made that if an ATV rider is on their land, that rider is subject to stop – period! (No acceptations).

Last session, there was an attempt to repeal the reasonable articulable suspicion standard and return things to the way they were. Unfortunately, that measure failed on the last day of the session when a nonpartisan issue turned partisan. So the issue is back again this year.

We have been told that if you don't want ATVs on your property, you have the right to post your property. That is true. But the requirement to get landowner permission before riding an ATV on someone else's land was established in large part to discourage posting. In fact, the permission requirement was put in place in large measure because landowners were posting their land, and not just against ATVs but all uses, in increasing numbers.

One of the arguments for the reasonable articulable suspicion standards was that landowners would be upset about being stopped on their own land. The ATV Stop Working Group appointed by Governor Baldacci found no evidence that this was true. In fact, the report from the Group stated:

"The clear issue with the landowner representatives is not landowners being stopped on their own property, but the landowner not having the ability to have law enforcement deal with the issues they have on their property. All representatives displayed interest in interaction with law enforcement about their user-owner conflicts. All representatives indicated that they had not received a single complaint prior to or after the law change regarding law enforcement stopping landowners on their property while riding an ATV. The Maine Warden Service who receives the majority of the complaints indicated that they had received no such complaints and that the common complaint from landowners is a lack of enforcement to deal with their concerns and issues."

We are not opposed to ATVs. Shortly after the Legislative session ended last year, we discovered two unauthorized ATV trails on lands owned by our organization. These trails even appeared on the map produced by the State showing authorized ATV trails. We were never contacted about nor gave permission for those trails. It would have been easy to close those trails. To do so would have disrupted the whole trail network in the area. Instead we decided to allow ATV use to continue for the time being, knowing that the issue of ATV stops would be back before the Legislature this year.

It isn't clear to us that the bill enacted to create reasonable articulable suspicion was needed in the first place.

1. When the law requiring permission from the landowner to use an ATV was enacted, there were a few hundred miles of ATV trails in Maine. Since then, the number of ATV trail miles has grown to over 6000 miles, mostly on private land.
2. The constitutionality of stopping ATVs under the old law (before the reasonable articulable suspicion law) has been upheld, twice, by the Maine Supreme Court. While there are people who disagree with the Maine Supreme Court ruling, it is the law.
3. Why is there a higher standard for law enforcement officers to stop an ATV than for other uses, when the Legislature recognized the challenges they pose to landowners by enacting the following statute in 2003: Title 12 subsection 13156-A Findings. "The Legislature finds that activities associated with ATVs constitute a more intrusive use of private property open to recreational use by the public than do other recreational activities, and that abusive uses of ATVs puts access to private property for recreational use at risk."
4. The relationship between ATV riders and landowners has been improving (as evidenced by the growth in ATV trails on private land). Yet, restricting the ability of law enforcement to deal with ATV issues by enacting the reasonable articulable suspicion standard creates friction unnecessarily between riders and landowners. This has already led to land being posted and more will follow.

Things weren't broken when the reasonable articulable suspicion standard was enacted two years ago. We urge you to support this bill.

Click here to read the bill

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