Measure would limit off-road activity

Enthusiasts of the hobby criticize proposal to ban vehicles from river area

By April Castro
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, December 20, 2002

Off-road enthusiasts who take their hobby to Texas rivers could be forced to find a new place to drive.

A bill filed Thursday would prohibit motor vehicles from operating in or near the state's rivers.

The proposal comes in response to research that says off-road vehicles in riverbeds harm aquatic creatures and damage the habitat on which they depend.

Off-road enthusiasts criticized the proposal as potentially limiting public access to the state's rivers, but state officials said that is not the objective.

"The public and landowners will still have access to Texas rivers under this legislation," Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs said. "They just won't have the right to destroy a river with their vehicles."

Off-roading has been common at numerous rivers and streams throughout the state, but Combs said damage from the hobby has been most severe at the Nueces, Canadian and Llano rivers.

At the Nueces River, a study by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department found fewer game fish in areas where off-roading is common. Officials also worry that punctures from rocks could cause automotive fluids such as oil and antifreeze to leak, contaminating rivers.

"I am filing this bill on behalf of my constituents, who love and enjoy the Nueces River in a nondestructive manner and do not want to see it destroyed by irresponsible behavior of off-roaders," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who's co-sponsoring the bill in the Senate.

Richard Jones, an off-road enthusiast, said people who don't live along the state's rivers will be shut out if lawmakers pass the proposal.

"If you keep vehicles out of the rivers, you will keep people out of rivers, but landowners still have access to it," said Jones, president of South Texas Offroad.

The legislation is the result of a rare joint effort among a number of agricultural and environmental groups in Texas, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, the Farm Bureau, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas Wildlife Association, the Sierra Club and the Texas Water Conservation Association.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials earlier this year told lawmakers considering the issue that no state agency has legal authority to bar motor vehicles from rivers and creeks.

The joint committee was asked to review the issue after the Nueces River Authority asked for help to control organized outings of as many as 108 vehicles, most of them trucks, congregating in the river near Uvalde.

During the committee's meetings, off-road enthusiasts disputed findings that vehicles have damaged rivers and said many people who drive off-road don't do it in the water.

They also said if access is denied to all-terrain vehicles, trucks and other off-road vehicles, it also must be denied to boats and other watercraft.

"They are all vehicles in the strictest sense of the word," said Carol Smith, representing the 270,000-member American Motorcyclists Association Community Council, which also represents users of small all-terrain vehicles.

Advocates of vehicle restrictions have said they want lawmakers to protect the public's right to access streams for fishing, boating, swimming and hiking.

The proposed law would not affect that access, officials said.

The Legislature is scheduled to convene Jan. 14.

Under Texas law, which guarantees public access to public waters, driving in a riverbed is legal as long as the vehicles stay within the normal boundaries of the river. That includes streambeds that may be dry.