Out for a Joy Ride

Our Pond

About a week ago a trio of hooligans raced down our river in their 4-wheelers (ATVs). Yes, they were in the river. I was out for a Sunday afternoon stroll around the property when I heard this awful noise that reminded me of a go-cart or chain saw. It sounded like it was coming from across the river, so I decided to walk down to the river and have a look. Imagine my surprise when I stuck my head between a break in the tree-lined river bank to see three 18-something looking boys on ATVs up to their ankles in river bottom muck! Tires were spinning and throwing mud everywhere, and one of the boy's was trying to free himself from 18 inches of muck and a vine that got tangled in his front axle.

I stood there staring at the boys stunned by what I was seeing. A large tree had fallen across the 18 inch deep river keeping them from going any further. The normally clear river water was a deep muddy red and the smell of exhaust permeated the air. If I hadn't seen it with my eyes, I would not have believed it. For what seemed like a very long time I stood there with my hands on my hips staring at the three boys. Finally, one of them noticed me. I was about ready to shout, "Hey, don't you know this is private property. Get out of here!" But then I remembered that I was one, and they were three and much bigger. Instead, I grabbed my camera which I happened to have with me and started snapping pictures.

At the sight of my camera, they hurried up the process, turned around and three abreast, headed back in the direction they had come throwing up water and mud all along the way. About every few seconds, I heard tires spinning, and the sound of another one trying to get his tires out of the muck. Quickly I hurried back to the house to find my husband who was sitting on the back steps when I arrived. "You want to use your shotgun? There are three guys on 4-wheelers in the river." He jumped up and followed me down to the river while I explained what had happened.

By the time we returned, the boys were gone, but evidence of their presence will be there for a very long time. We walked down the length of the pristine river that lines our property. Though we couldn't see the river bottom, we knew that the tires had dug deeply holes in the river bed. No doubt, the numerous turtles, water snakes, salamanders, lizards, fish, snails and other wild life who live in our river had their homes disturbed if not totally destroyed. How many of the small animals along that long stretch of the river were killed? I could not even begin to guess.

As we continued to assess the damage, we noticed the small waterfall made of river rocks that my husband, a friend of ours and I had spent the greater part of a weekend restoring nearly 14 years earlier. It had survived rain, floods and children playing on it all those years, and in a matter of a few minutes, it was completely destroyed. I shook my head in disbelief, in a short 15 minutes 3 boys on ATVs had done more damage than anything nature had thus far dished up.

I don't consider myself to be an environmentalist. I don't give money to Green Peace, and I am not so sure how I feel about people losing their property to national parks for the sake of the environment. What I do care about is the land that has been entrusted to me and my husband. When we decided to live here, we made a choice to allow the wild animals to roam free and live at peace with us as long as they were not causing harm to us or our children. We fish in river, and throw them back or put them in the pond, we rescue tadpoles, and we are careful to let rare native plants continue to grow along the river rather than chop them down for our convenience. And, we don't look too kindly on people who come in and destroy it for a moment of fun.

I don't wish bad on the hooligans who partied on my river, but I do hope that the next time they want to go for a joy ride, they take it to a place designed for ATVs and leave our little part of heaven alone.