|
|
|
Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Cape Tip Moto-Cross Association member Carl Roach at a Conservation Commission meeting on Tuesday, with environmentalist Peter Souza in the background. |
|
Dirt bike controversy at Clapps Pond continues
By Mary Ann Bragg & Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Tension between motocross riders and conservationists continued this week over use of motorized vehicles around the Clapps Pond conservation area.
Cape Tip Moto-Cross Association member Carl Roach said on Tuesday that the group he represents wanted to gain exposure in the last few weeks for their plight, and discredit local environmentalist Peter Souza.
“We’ve done that,” Roach said.
Roach appeared before the Conservation Commission here on Tuesday, saying that a cease-and-desist order issued to Cape Tip on Sept. 25 was riddled with errors. Roach said that he alone did trail cutting that was attributed to Cape Tip in the order, and that the exact location of the cuts were incorrectly identified.
During the meeting a shouting match erupted between Roach, Souza and another supporter of Cape Tip.
The Conservation Commission voted to correct the errors on the order and also seek compensation for the damages to the conservation area.
The town maintains that the Clapps Pond acreage has been reserved for conservation and passive recreation, which excludes motorized vehicles. That belief is based on a Barnstable Superior Court case in 2001 where the association’s lawsuit against the town, for prohibiting use of the trails, was dismissed. The town also cites a Town Meeting vote in 2001 that transferred the 40 acres at Clapps Pond to the Conservation Commission.
The Cape Tip association maintains that it has rights to use the land dating from the 1970s, re-enforced with a 1995 Town Meeting vote.
In the last few weeks, Souza and partner Sheila Benzer have made complaints about motorized vehicles on the Clapps Pond trails to local and state officials. As a result, the Conservation Commission issued the cease-and-desist order to Cape Tip, to prevent vehicles on the land and to stop new trail cutting. Also a state official issued permissions for local police to restrict vehicles on neighboring state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife land.
For Souza and Benzer, though, there is a courtroom to face as well.
On Tuesday both residents received notices in the mail from Orleans District Court saying Roach has filed applications for criminal complaints against them because of an incident on the trails on Sunday, Sept. 25.
The charges against Souza and Benzer are nearly identical and relate to brush, logs and yellow police tape placed across a newly cut trail that Cape Tip is accused of creating recently.
In comments made last week, Roach said the two had “booby-trapped” the trails, and that he was injured when his vehicle hit the logs.
The complaints accuse Souza and Benzer of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, attempted murder and stalking, and conspiracy to commit a felony and tampering with evidence.
“I am disabled and Souza made it worse,” Roach wrote on one complaint, which was filed on Thursday, Sept. 29.
The probable cause hearing is set for Nov. 15.
In the last week, two local supporters of Cape Tip have said the association has had a long, productive impact on Clapps Pond, and that the many young people involved in the club are being wrongfully “smeared.”
One supporter from Wellfleet said the trails that were being called “fresh-cut” are actually deer runs. He said he knows many of the young people who ride motorized vehicles around the pond, that they are courteous and trained to handle the vehicles, and have often helped clean and maintain the land. “These are not Hell’s Angels,” the man said.
Roach said last week that the Cape Tip membership numbers around 280, and the Wellfleet supporter said that more than half are young people.
The Clapps Pond measures about 40 acres, north of Route 6, near the intersection of Shank Painter Road.
This week a former resident of North Truro and a Nauset High School graduate, Chris Blackwell, said that as an avid trail rider and municipal planner in Western Pennsylvania, he believes the area needs designated areas for motorized trail riding. “In the Allegheny National Forest there are hundreds of miles of trails maintained by all-terrain vehicle [ATV] organizations,” Blackwell said. “The trails are well maintained and trail hosts monitor their use. Sensitive areas are avoided and storm water management measures are in place to prevent erosion. Rather than jump all over the trail riders, a compromise can be made. If designated trails are supplied, then law enforcement can be more effective and riders have no excuse for damaging other areas.”
mabragg@provincetownbanner.com
|
Vehicle access request for shellfish grants put on hold
In the News
Educational program uses art to teach critical thinking
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 6th, 2005