ATV group: Trail growth will take time

MILLINOCKET – Local business owners are always telling David Moore how great it would be for Millinocket to have an ATV trail network. When they ask how they can help create one, the president of the Northern Timber Cruisers Club responds with one thought:

Be patient.

“It’s a very, very slow process,” Moore said Thursday. “We are having a hard time having landowners give us permission to use their land. Every day, something new is coming up. It’s like a clock. It’s changing every hour.

“My perspective is that it will take a year,” he added. “It’s too bad, because we have a really great area here, and a great club, but it’s going to take time.”

Timber Cruisers club officials met with Marcia McKeague, president of Katahdin Timberlands LLC – the area’s largest landowner – about 11/2 months ago to discuss creating a network of trails on a tryout basis on Timberlands property and adjacent lands, she has said.

Katahdin Timberlands has tentatively agreed to allow ATV trails on some of its property if agreements can be obtained from adjacent landowners, Moore said. He is awaiting word from Prentiss and Carlisle and J.M. Huber Co. about his trail proposal, he said.

McKeague has said she is rather lukewarm to the idea of allowing all-terrain vehicles on portions of Timberlands property.

She expressed concern for trail rutting, damage or destruction to tree-growth areas or fauna, traffic safety issues and littering that sometimes accompanies ATV use.

But Katahdin Timberlands would like to prevent rampant trespassing by ATV riders, who are not presently allowed on their land, and other problems. The company allows snowmobile riding and cross-country skiing on trails running through much of its property, she said.

Moore is entirely sympathetic to concerns expressed by McKeague and landowners. The problem, he said, is with the nature of ATVs themselves.

“When you take a snowmobile trail, you might have three feet of frost in the ground and several feet of snow on the ground,” said Moore, 53, of Millinocket. “We’re not going to hurt the turf on a snowmobile, while an ATV has aggressive treads.”

Also, ATV riders must not litter or stray from trails, he said.

But an ATV trail network, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said, would be a significant boon to town businesses hit hard by the lack of snow over the last several winters. The network would attract thousands of ATV riders. It would also give Millinocket year-round riding activities to compliment snowmobiling and water sports.

Moore agreed.

“Last year was horrible. Every business felt it [the lack of snow], including us,” he said. “We had [fundraiser] suppers through the summer because we didn’t make enough money. We never had to do that before.”

The club, which has about 200 members, holds fundraiser dinners every first and third Thursday.

Millinocket’s lack of ATV access cuts off the town from a network that runs over most of the state, Moore said, prompting ATV riders to refer to the town as “the missing link.”

If it’s workable, an ATV trail network would be nothing anyone would want to discourage, Moore said, given the town’s recently being ranked sixth among the Top 10 Hot U.S. Travel Destinations for 2007 by the travel Web site TripAdvisor.com.

Town Council members who pledged to improve the town’s tourism infrastructure in response to the ranking could be helpful here.

“This area needs four seasons,” Moore said.