BASS RIVER TOWNSHIP - Ray Heikel moved to a narrow wooded lane in New Gretna for the nature. He didn't expect all-terrain vehicles in his back yard. "There was nothing here," he said, leading a tour of the rear of his property. Now, "it's been all cut through."
Last month, while walking at the rear of his 51/2-acre property, Heikel discovered that people had blazed a path through his and his neighbors' wooded tracts.
And there was evidence they were using the path to ride on.
Heikel and his neighbors met with police, talked to the town government and have not seen evidence of recent travel.
But the damage remains.
At the rear of his property are freshwater wetlands and an old municipal dump, he said. There, reeds are battered down and a compacted dirt trail leads up the side of a hill to his land.
There, the people riding the ATVs, or quads, flattened a recently cut survey line.
The riders knocked over at least two of the markers that delineate Heikel's property from his neighbor Jerry Schoenleber, who said it would cost between $600 and $1,000 to replace the markers laid down several years earlier.
Trees near the path bear the brunt of the damage. Instead of marking the trail with paint, someone took a machete and hacked the bark off trees near the trail.
In the dim light of a rainy afternoon, the light-colored wood under the bark is shockingly bright. Several dozen green Heineken beer cans litter the new trail.
Damp matches and empty cigarette packs lie on the ground.
That got Heikel worried. No fire roads are near the property. "They would never be able to stop it," he said. Pointing to a nearby cedar tree, its lower limbs hacked off, he said in a fire "these things are like torches."
State Police agreed to run additional cars by his house. "What they are doing is illegal," Heikel said.
He said riders have not been seen recently. "It's a small town," Heikel said. "Word gets around fast."
If he or his neighbors catch the quad riders, he said they plan to press charges. Schoenleber said he also wants to recoup monetary damages.
Quads are banned on public roads and land, said the Bass River Township commissioners during a recent meeting. They can be used on private land, said Mayor Richard Bethea, but they have to have the landowner's permission. Bethea said they are dangerous.
"They are dangerous, but they are fun," added Commissioner Woody Shuff.
Quads can run in a Chatsworth park opened several years ago as a non-profit alternative for off-road quads, motorcycles and trucks.
The New Jersey Off Road Vehicle Park is along Savoy Boulevard, four miles from Route 72. Savoy Boulevard is just west of an overhead train bridge on Route 72.
Membership for a year is $150, while adult day passes range from $25 to $35.
For more information, contact the park at (609) 726-0900 or www.njorvp.org - 2/8/2002
