Hurting rural counties try to lure ATV dollars

Three Washington counties hope to rev up their economies by opening county roads to all-terrain vehicles.

Hundreds of miles of county roads in Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties are now open to ATVs, linking towns and forest trails.

Tonight, Stevens County commissioners could amend their recently passed county ordinance, opening even more roads to ATV use.

“Recreation money is leaving the area instead of coming here,” said Commissioner Tony Delgado.

Some residents, however, are concerned about safety, dust, noise and the impact on public lands.

“The big issue is public safety,” Colville resident Dave Urban said. “I don’t feel they belong on public streets with all the other traffic.”

Urban said he feels the county is loosely interpreting a 2006 state law that lets counties pass ordinances allowing ATV use on county roads connecting towns of 3,000 or fewer residents to off-road recreation areas.

The county initially had a short list of roads it planned to open, Urban said, but proponents pushed for greater access.

“Someone came up with the idea of let’s add every road in the county,” Urban said.

Hundreds of miles of county roads were opened to ATV use in late fall, and Delgado said the hope is to add “more roads and in different areas.” Delgado acknowledged questions about such issues as safety, dust and noise. “I was concerned, too,” he said.

So he called Shoshone County, Idaho, where roads are open to ATV use and where ATV jamborees draw thousands of visitors each year. “They said it’s the best thing that ever happened,” Delgado said.

Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds encourages ATVs in his county as a “business-friendly sheriff.” “It’s a huge draw for ATVers to come here and spend money and enjoy themselves,” he said. “As long as people are not driving fast or recklessly or being a jerk on the road, we leave them alone.”

The rules are simple: Ride single file, stay on the right side of the road and don’t speed. Reynalds said there hasn’t been a serious wreck or fatality involving ATVs on county roads.

In Stevens County, “I know some are a little nervous about it,” Delgado said. “But we feel if it works in Idaho, it should work here.”

Craig Newman, a recreation engineering lands and mineral staff officer with the Colville National Forest, said he doesn’t expect use in the forest to increase as a result of the counties’ ordinances.

“I think it’s going to get it into a more manageable situation, where the public will have correct information on where they can ride and where riding will not create impacts that will create harm to the National Forest or cause them to get cited,” he said.

Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council and a Ferry County property owner, said his county’s ordinance allows ATVs on roads leading to “virtually every trailhead in the county,” including trails that weren’t previously used by motorized vehicles.

“These were remote, quiet trails people could hike and ride horses on,” Petersen said. “Now they’re opened up to motorized vehicles that have a lot of trouble staying on trails.

They have this vision of turning our national forests into a ‘thrill-craft’ park.”

The Ferry County Rail Trail board, which supports turning a 28-mile stretch of railroad right of way into recreational trails, worries that commissioners will allow ATVs on the trail. Board President Bob Whittaker said ATV use of the trail would make it unattractive to cyclists and horse riders.

Another group, the Quiet Communities Coalition, has also spoken out against Ferry County’s ordinance.

Ferry County Commissioner Mike Blankenship, an ATV enthusiast, said the county has tried not to introduce ATV use into areas popular with non-motorized users.

As for the rail trail, Blankenship said the county hasn’t acquired the right of way or made decisions about its future use.

Like Delgado, Blankenship believes making the area more inviting to ATV users will revive the economy.

“We lost our timber industry,” Blankenship said. “I’m not here to tell us recreation is going to bail us out, but you take all the little dollars and add them up and pretty soon you have a bank account.”