WV House includes ban on ATV trail systems within state parks and forests in bill on verge of passage

The House approved the change proposed by Delegate Ty Nestor, R-Randolph, to SB 468 in a voice vote Saturday evening after Nestor expressed fear in a floor speech that irresponsible all-terrain or recreational vehicle operators could decrease visitor interest in state parks.

“They don’t want to come here for the action,” said Nestor, co-chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. “They come here to get away from it.”

But even with the proposed change, SB 468 would still allow development and use of connector trails from existing private trail systems to give all-terrain, off-road and utility-task vehicle users access to state park and forest recreational facilities.

The state began allowing all-terrain and off-road highway vehicles to drive on roads and trails in the Cabwaylingo State Forest in Wayne County in 2019 as part of a pilot project. DNR Director Brett McMillion told the Outdoor Recreation Committee earlier this session the Cabwaylingo project had proven to be “very beneficial.”

SB 468 lists names the Hatfield-McCoy trail system as a potential system the DNR could develop and use to provide access to state park and state forest recreational facilities for all-terrain, off-road and utility-task vehicle trail system users.

Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, complained to an interim legislative committee in November that recreation-driven economic growth is unavailable to many towns and cities near the trail system but not connected to it.

The Hatfield-McCoy trail system spans 1,000 miles and connects to 17 towns and cities.

The Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority is a quasi-governmental agency created by the Legislature in 1996 to build and maintain recreational trails in Southern West Virginia.

Lusk touted the “luxury” that all-terrain and utility-task vehicle trail riders have of riding out of bed and breakfasts through towns onto the trail system.

The Senate Outdoor Recreation Committee advanced a scaled-back version of SB 468 last month later approved by the Senate after considering a more expansive committee substitute last month that sparked opposition from environmental advocates.

That version of the bill would have allowed the Division of Natural Resources to establish trail systems for all-terrain, off-road and utility-task vehicles within state forests.

West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser expressed relief that the version of SB 468 approved by the Outdoor Recreation Committee dials back proposed all-terrain vehicle use. But Rosser said she’s still concerned about how increased vehicle presence through connector trails would change the visitor experience and character of state parks.

McMillion told the Outdoor Recreation Committee last month that SB 468 would allow the DNR and its parent agency, the Department of Commerce, to determine whether any further development of Hatfield-McCoy or other trail systems close to state parks or forests merit connections between the parks and forests and those systems.

“Do we need to utilize the revenue potential from these connector trails? It would really have to make sense, I think, in order to do so,” McMillion said.

McMillion said Twin Falls Resort State Park, in Wyoming County, and Chief Logan State Park, in Logan County, are two sites where the state would like to increase the potential for revenue for “a little more self-sufficient number.”

Twin Falls and Chief Logan have trailheads in the vicinity that would open them up to ATV and UTV motorists to stay at a lodge or overnight facility.

“[They would have] access to park at that lodge and load their vehicle and have access to that particular trailhead so they don’t have to load up and go again,” McMillion said.