‘Loved to death.’ Ky officials need to control ATV use along our waterways.

Over the several years that I have been passing along my thoughts through this column, one overriding theme has been the encouragement to folks “to get outside and enjoy what nature has to offer.” There are many ways to do this besides hunting or fishing. For many it has been accomplished through hiking, riding bicycles, kayaking flowing waters, and for a great number of people it has been through exploring the back roads with all-terrain vehicles.

Yet, over the years, the use of these ATV machines may have caused a love affair with death when it comes to our streams and rivers. Sixteen years ago when I returned to Estill County, I began to fish, in earnest, Station Camp Creek and its tributaries, War Fork and South. These creeks were not unfamiliar to me as I had been wading and fishing their waters since the early 1970’s.

The creeks are prone to change when flooding occurs as they contain large amounts of sand, small gravel, and small stones. The power of water is mighty and can move much in its way. But the change in these waters over the last few years is due to more than Mother Nature. Holes and pockets of water that had been there for almost an eternity are now, in many cases, gone. The depth of the creeks are much, much less in most places and in many instances much, much wider. In earlier years, for instance, there were only two crossings on the upper portions of South Fork due to ATV travel. In the 1970’s when many traversed these hills for ruffed grouse the trails did not even exist.

Now these trails crisscross the creek at several random points. The larger machines of recent years can travel most anywhere they desire. And even when not crossing the creek the paths lead up the shoals which they have created to be wider and wider and splashing through these stretches of creek have become a past-time.

The future of fish populations along the stretches of these creeks are in peril. In addition to wider, shallower waters the sediment thrown off by these vehicles along the rock strewn bottoms of the creek are enormous. Spawning in these type of conditions can be impossible. The pathways of the creek have been altered in ways unimaginable in previous years when flooding would occur.

So, in a sense, these flowing bodies are being loved to death. The beauty they provide is unsurpassed and by rights all need the opportunity to enjoy the vistas. Yet, at this point, the costs are becoming too great. It is time for the Kentucky Division of Water to take a hard look at ATV use on the flowing streams of Kentucky. All farms are required to have a conservation and water quality plans to operate around bodies of water and this should apply to off-road use of lands as well. With streams that flow into both the Red River and Kentucky River, I doubt that the Hollerwood Off-Road Park has a plan to take this runoff into consideration as well. Eventually all streams travel to one body of water.

Everyone needs to enjoy the outdoor experience and I realize that times have changed and the physical exertion of walking is not the choice of many. Yet if we are to keep the unspoiled views of creeks and rivers we must protect them. It is the true conservation way that our country has embraced for centuries. For the sake of our flowing streams and rivers and for the future health for following generations they must be protected. It is just the right thing to do.

Mark Reese is retired from the UK Cooperative Extension Service and lives on a small farm in Estill County where he raises sheep, and writes a weekly outdoor column for the Estill County Citizens Voice and Times.