We reside in a wonderful recreational village in the US. As is with most recreational communities a lot of families own 4 wheelers, as we do ourselves. They're used for work to plow snow and move items around the yard, as well as for recreation and travel during hunting season and in the trails. My belief is that 4 wheelers are a useful and enjoyable vehicle if respected and driven responsibly. The down side is there are a lot of irresponsible drivers who use 4 wheelers to damage the beauty of our back country and forests. These users are endangering the fun of these vehicles for everyone else.

We're luck enough to have paths in the woods directly behind our home for 4 wheelers. We utilize the paths to travel from one neighbor’s home to next as well as stroll through the woods. The wooded area where the paths are located is quite dense and filled with very old beautiful hardwood maples and ash trees. This wooded area is tax forfeited land, meaning it's owned by the State. There is an agreement among the neighbors that we will all do our part to keep the paths cleared of brush and fallen debris. We haven't put any nor has there been any imposed rules upon us about the usage of 4 wheelers in the paths. We all use common sense and respect nature and the beauty of the paths.

Until recently our path system was very quiet, that is until a rowdy group of racers on 4 wheelers found it. They began to generate an immense amount of noise and damage to the paths flying through them on their 4 wheelers. This caused natural resources to come in and stop the use of ATV's on the path system all together.

This is a horrid disappointment for us that used our 4 wheelers very responsibly on those trails. When I discussed the situation with several people at work I was shocked at how many told me that all 4 wheeler trails should be banned. Most thought that these trails were dangerous for our environment. They believed the 4 wheelers them selves were the bad thing, rather then the stupid behavior of a select few driving them.

Our backyard is a lot quieter now. While some people still take advantage of the trails for walking, and nature enjoyment the 4 wheelers are no where to be seen any longer. The one thing how ever that really bothers me about it all is that people are getting the idea that all 4 wheelers are horrible for nature, when this just isn't true it's not the 4 wheeler but the user of the machine that's bad for nature, I guess there just isn't an easy way show where the fine line is.