ATV riders - young and old - want N.S. trail respect

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Tyler Prall was learning “a whole bunch of things” in a day-long course for kids who want to drive off-highway vehicles.

“I’ve been driving one for a couple of years - my dad has one, and he uses it for work, too,” the 10-year-old Greenwood boy said.

The All Terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia combined its fall jamboree August 29 to 31 at the Morristown Fox Mountain Campground with training sessions for adults - and kids.

This was the first youth training course offered by ATVANS with a half-dozen of 66 machines originally purchased by the provincial government for $230,000 in the spring - which, after huge public response, ATVANS bought from the province with its own funding.

“It was a program in the works for several years - we entered into an agreement with the province: they’d provide the machines, we’d provide the trainers,” says James Anderson, ATVANS’ volunteer spokesman.

“We held up our end, and now we’re doing what we need to do. It’s now our asset, and we’re truly in charge of it.”

The youth program covers woodland training, driver skills and includes a short trail ride with trained volunteers, such as Sheila Campbell.

“I’ve been doing the courses since 2000 - parents need to know when a child is old enough to ride an OHV, the same as taking up any other activity.”

It’s her job to cover the basics: hoe to get on and off an OHV, stopping and starting, riding for terrain, proper gear and the rules of “the road.” The program also sizes youth with OHVs they can handle: six to 11-year-olds, in a class max of four participants, can ride up to a 50 cc machine. Twelve- to 15-year-olds can handle machines between 70 and 90 ccs. Over age 16, OHV size is not restricted. Anyone under age 14 needs this course.

“If children are going to ride ‘em, they should definitely have training,” Anderson says, “and, OHVs are here to stay.”

With a membership of several thousand riders, ATVANS knows it is undertaking a bigger education program than just the rider-training for kids.

“We didn’t think we had the need to educate people, but it’s been a mess here and we’re seen as leader across Canada in how we’re handling it - other areas are looking at us.”

Anderson says riders aren’t all the “villains” pointed at by “fringe” and “special interest groups” around Nova Scotia, working to limit trail access, impose tougher regulations for ridership.

“We’re here at Fox Mountain especially because of those groups here in the Valley - they’re small and exclusionary. We have a membership that supports businesses, restaurants - they suffer when we can’t access them. We put $1 million from our own funds last year into trail development. We want them to be used and shared.”

Anderson says OHV riders, for the most part, are “classic outdoorsmen - just like my father and your father.” Getting that message out is a struggle with an increasingly urban and environmentally-conscious population.

“It’s a learning curve, and we’ve had to turn into a new era. There are issues - speeding, machine modifications, driving over the same areas; but our members join because they want to conserve woodlands.

“We need to cooperate with communities, and we’re going to go full steam.”