Memo in Opposition, S. 7164 – Authorizing Anyone 65+ to Use ATV’s on All NY Forest Preserve Lands
Memorandum of Opposition
S. 7164 / A. 7886
The bill amends the vehicle and traffic law to authorize anyone 65 years and older to operate an ATV on state lands, including the “forever wild” Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve, to ice fish on waterbodies. The bill authorizes such ATV use wherever snowmobiles are permitted.
This legislation is unsafe, dangerous, contradicted by existing law, and constitutionally impermissible on the Forest Preserve. Furthermore, existing state policies already provide persons with disabilities numerous opportunities to recreate on public lands, including ice fishing where lake ice thickness permits. Thus, the bill is unnecessary.
The bill would create unsafe, dangerous conditions by authorizing older New Yorkers to take off-road vehicles weighing thousands of pounds onto snowy, slushy, often muddy trails not designed to support such weight, therefore exposing the riders to disabled vehicles and unsafe winter conditions miles from rescue. The bill allows the ATV use even if the trail is not covered with snow, thus exposing older riders to stuck vehicles during winter weather; and in the process causing great damage to the trails, local wildlife, native plants, and other state land resources. Once the ATV leaves the snowmobile trail to ice fish the legislation exposes riders to dangerously thin ice conditions caused by the climate crisis. Increasingly, ice on our state’s waters have thinned and can no longer support vehicular weight, causing deaths by drowning each winter as well as forcing stressed forest rangers to attempt to save lives in frigid waters miles from highways.
The legislation would contradict and violate existing ECL, related Forest Preserve regulations, and the Adirondack and Catskill Park State Land Master Plans. These laws and regulations prohibit motor vehicles other than a snowmobile on a marked snowmobile trail. ATVs are specifically prohibited on trails in the Forest Preserve except on roads marked as open for public motorized use. DEC has a long-established policy and program (Commissioner’s Policy 3) to permit mechanized access for certified persons with disabilities to all manner of public lands wherever such access does not damage natural resources, including to lakes and ponds, and to public shoreline public fishing sites. Thus, the legislation is unnecessary and disruptive to the existing statewide system of permitted access.
Finally, the bill is unconstitutional. Article XIV, Section 1 of the NYS Constitution, recently upheld by the NYS Court of Appeals, prohibits alteration and damage to trails and natural resources on the Forest Preserve beyond what may be necessary to accommodate hikers. By authorizing ATV use on trails to reach remote ice fishing locations during warm winters would cause severe damage to the forest floor, widening trails, and causing natural resource damage on and beyond the trail width. The legislation would invite a constitutional challenge. Adirondack Wild strongly opposes the legislation for these reasons.
May 28, 2025
David Gibson, Managing Partner
518-469-4081
[email protected]