OCEAN COUNTY – County and state officials are seeking solutions to issues of ATV/quad users damaging environmentally sensitive woodlands.
Judy Noonan, a resident of the Whiting section of Manchester noted the problems of improper use of ATVs, quads and trucks damaging such areas within her community during a recent meeting of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners.
“They are destroying our Pinelands. I was on a livestream meeting listening to the people who drive these quads and ATVs and some of them really don’t care. Some of these people don’t live here,” Noonan said. “I listened to the Assistant Commissioner from the State Parks and people really are destroying our Pinelands and the police are not able to stop them. There needs to be another place for them and it needs to be addressed.”
Noonan, a former Berkeley Township Councilwoman, said that there had been complaints of ATV users making fires out in the Pinelands area. She noted Berkeley has a similar problem in the woods behind senior communities. In Manchester, one location is along Country Walk where they go through fences.
“Some of us have private roads. They are destroying the Pinelands and the (State Department of Environmental Protection) is doing the best they can. I know you have some say with the Pinelands. I know the (Ocean County) Sheriff got a new vehicle that can go into that area which is really fantastic because the police’s hands are tied with what they can do,” Noonan added.
“They just don’t give a hoot about the Pinelands,” Noonan added regarding the remarks she heard from some of the ATV riders. “Most people want more enforcement. I don’t know what the county can do but the Pinelands Commission can. They are also coming into our home properties. They are very arrogant and they have children on the back of their quads and over the years people have been hurt in the woods.”
“I don’t have the answer but something has to be done. I would like someone to address it a little more and push it a little harder to some of these people. Some feel it can be moved to another place. We (in Manchester Township) have Heritage Minerals and perhaps we can create a place for them over there because it is contaminated,” Noonan proposed.
She noted pictures showing the harm to wildlife and “the roads they put in there, the fire hazards. I’d appreciate some input.”
Joseph H. Vicari, the director of the Board of Commissioners noted that this was an ongoing problem. “We worked with the Pinelands and we also worked with seven different police departments and what we felt the biggest problem was behind the WOBM building. They would come on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there was drinking and there were drugs. It was an absolute disgrace.”
“We couldn’t even get an ambulance to the back there. We’ll reach out to the police departments and we’ll get a recommendation out from our professional staff. It is hard to find out where they are coming from. Some of it is on private property; some of it is public property,” he said.
Board of Commissioners Deputy Director Commissioner Gary Quinn noted he was a commissioner on the Pinelands Commission for 11 years. “The problem with the Pinelands is that they have no enforcement authority whatsoever under the guidelines of the State of New Jersey.”
“We were having problems a couple of years straight in the state forests and different areas. They were bringing in trucks and just destroying areas and something we were fighting constantly and the Commission was trying to get the state involved so they would put more enforcement in there,” Quinn said. “We relied on the Forest Fire Rangers to do it and I think at the time I was on the Board back then. We had three rangers covering the entire Pinelands. There was no possibility of catching these people and slowing this thing down.”
“The Sheriff’s Department has gotten involved with a lot of the towns around the county. The Sheriff’s Department is not only buying the vehicle you were talking about but other equipment,” Quinn told Noonan.
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