Maine officials are reminding the state's many all-terrain vehicle users that ATVs wider than 5 feet are not allowed on many sections of the state's vast trail network.
ATVs are a major tourism draw in Maine, and are made possible by agreements with private landowners who allow them on their land. State agencies say they brokered a deal with landowners based on a maximum width of 5 feet for ATVs.
But now, says Maine Warden Service spokesman Cpl. John MacDonald, many new vehicles are up to a foot wider.
"Now you have people who simply can't get across roads and bridges, doing damage to them," MacDonald says, "and, in some cases, they're even going around them and kind of forging rivers and brooks and streams and things, and making somewhat of a mess."
MacDonald says state trails don't have the width restriction, but some of the trails that do are important and well-traveled.
Maine registers nearly 70,000 ATVs every year. That total has climbed in recent years; in the early 2000s, fewer than 50,000 ATV's were registered.
