Off-Road Vehicles: Fast and Fun, but Destructive and Illegal

 

By Hugh M. Carola

You’ve seen them, you’ve heard them, and perhaps you’ve even smelled them. Riding off-road vehicles (ORVs)—ATVs, quads, dirtbikes, etc.—has been called “one of America’s fastest-growing sports.” In reality, this “sport” destroys habitat, displaces wildlife, pollutes water, fouls the air and tears up the land. In addition to them being annoying, noisy and destructive, here are a few other things you should know about them:

·       It is against the law to ride ORVs on public land anywhere in New Jersey. That includes all state, county and municipal parks and all other government-owned land like railroad and highway rights-of-way.

·       Likewise, all private property is off limits to ORVs unless the rider owns the land or has the owner’s express permission to be on it. Otherwise, the riders are trespassing and vandalizing private property.

·       New Jersey requires that ORVs must be registered and insured just like all other motor vehicles (cars, trucks, boats, street motorcycles) but according to state figures, the vast majority of them are neither.

Despite these facts, evidence of ORV activity is everywhere: ruts dug into hiking trails in New Milford, torn-up wetlands in Old Tappan, illegally constructed ramps in Moonachie, and broken gates in Little Ferry. Next time you’re on the NJ Turnpike, if you see dust rising from the Empire Tract, it’s being kicked up by ORVs ridden atop the natural gas pipeline that’s buried there. During almost every weekend this past boating season, Captain Bill and I saw ORVers brazenly riding along the NJ Turnpike at Exit 16W and at other sites along the river in Lyndhurst. And almost every weekend we called the Lyndhurst Police. They and the newly hired Marsh Wardens of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission did a great job of responding but the problem continues.

There is some good news on the ORV front. In addition to the good work done this year by the police and the Marsh Wardens, EnCap Golf has promised to place 24-hour security on the 1,300 acres of landfills it’ll soon be redeveloping. Little Ferry passed a tough ordinance last year that allows for the confiscation of trespassers’ ORVs and the State recently passed stricter regulations and penalties for unregistered and uninsured operation. However, there is still much more to be done because New Jersey’s public lands belong to ALL the people, not just a select few who care only about the performance of their expensive machines. 

Listed below are the non-emergency numbers of the Police Departments whose towns are most prone to ORV vandalism. If you see people riding on any land you are fairly certain is off-limits, please call the police. Don’t confront the riders yourself because you never know whom you are dealing with; but please be a good watershed citizen and make the call. Thank you.

 

Police Non-Emergency Numbers to Report ORV Misuse

Carlstadt: 201-438-4300

Little Ferry: 201-641-2770

Lyndhurst: 201-939-2900

Moonachie: 201-641-9100

New Milford: 201-261-1400

Old Tappan: 201-664-1221

River Vale: 201-664-1111

Secaucus: 201-867-8000

South Hackensack: 201-440-0042

 

 

Editor’s note: We at Hackensack Riverkeeper do not condone the use of off-road vehicles in any way that could degrade the quality of wildlife habitat; however, in Chatsworth, NJ, there is an ORV Park owned by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation which allows the use of such vehicles. Use of ORVs in any other public location is a crime and subject to prosecution.