I recently had occasion to attend a board of selectmen’s meeting at a local town hall. I was not a resident of the town I was in, but had to attend the meeting for a business matter. While waiting my turn at the meeting a matter came up about the “town forest” and how the board had recently enacted a “juicy” $250.00 fine for anyone found to be on an ATV within its 115 acres. The whole thing made me queasy. 

Let’s back up for a second. For those of you not familiar with a board of selectmen, think of them as the town council. They are elected officials who are charged with making decisions for the town and its residents on all manner of things. During the course of the meeting I attended, the board approved the license of a man who wanted to open a pizza shop, allowed another restaurant to extend its hours, and debated the merits of paving a pot-hole riddled street. Typical town politics.

Things went south for me when a woman in the back of the room stood up and identified herself as a member of the “Town Forest Committee.” My first thoughts were of sympathy toward that poor bastard of a town forest. It’s 100% screwed if its fate is in the hands of a political committee. Things got even more hard to stomach when the woman proceeded to speak about how “successful” the implementation of a $250.00 fine (which she happily described as juicy) for people caught or identified as having driven an ATV or motorized vehicle in the glorious, majestic, 115-acre town forest. Seeing as the town forest is bisected by high tension wires, and riders in these parts tend to haul the mail through those areas, it is not as though endangered species were being threatened or the long term health of the forest (which is being pummeled by radiation from those wires) was being jeopardized. No bother, just fine them. Heck, they may even be residents whose taxes go to fund the administrative costs of the town forest committee, but they clearly have no right to be on the land in such a manner.

Adding to my increasing blood-pressure was the additional comment that ATV riders found to be on property abutting the town forest need to be carrying a signed note that police would demand to see. This note would be to confirm that the riders were allowed to be on the private property they were riding on. Failure to produce the note at the time of the stop would result in yet another $250.00 fine.

I’m sure the people on the town forest board think that they are doing the Lord’s work, protecting their version of the 100-acre wood. They’ve identified an easy to pick on enemy, people who use motorized vehicles to enjoy the great outdoors. I am a dedicated reader of Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off Road Magazine and have been since I was about 5 years old. Every month there seems to be more and more places being closed off to guys with ATVs, trucks, and other off road vehicles. I was kind of amazed to see it happening right in front of me, and with such glee!

I wanted to stand and ask some pointed and probing questions about the whole matter, but the fact remained that I was not a resident of the town. I don’t pay taxes there, don’t operate a business there, and because of that, I had no standing in the argument.

While the SEMA Action Network is an incredible organization that has done more to thwart restrictive legislation that would harm the car hobby, those guys and girls cannot fight on the ground level. That’s our job and in many cases we seem to be doing a poor job at it, myself included. I can’t say that I am going to run for local office, but what I have committed myself to doing is to attending town meetings, and following the actions of my own local politicians with a zeal I have not had before.

Car guys and girls are doers. We’re people who accomplish things and get jobs done. While it is great to be a SEMA SAN member, there’s more we can and must do. Lots of us belong to local car forums or boards, car clubs, or just have a gaggle of local gearhead friends. These need to become a myriad of “mini” SEMA Action Networks. Stopping repressive and ineffective legislation can often start very small, even at your town level. At minimum we need to start putting up a fight because when the town forest committee can blindly pass bylaws and rules that restrict the ability of people who live in a town to enjoy it’s public property without any kind of a fight a dangerous prescedent is being set.

Get involved and let’s work together to protect the things and activities that we love.

Thanks for reading,

Brian