All-terrain vehicles can go where few people tread — from the slopes of Mauna Kea to Ka'ena Point.

But in addition to safety concerns that surfaced after the recent death of a Big Isle teen, state land use experts are concerned about the impromptu trails they carve into the landscape and the damage they cause to Hawai'i's remote watershed forest areas and protected beaches. Rutted paths from ATVs have increased erosion and runoff, and the vehicles have disturbed habitats and threatened endangered species.

The state could seek to deny all access to ATV users. Instead, riders and Department of Land and Natural Resources trail managers have created partnerships to protect the environment as well as the freedom enjoyed by off-road enthusiasts.

ATV riders on O'ahu formed a nonprofit organization last year to work with DLNR. Their hope is to transform a 30-acre parcel of unused land on Sand Island into a riding track.

The blueprint was used on the Big Island two years ago, when the state worked with ATV riders to open 56 miles of trails on logging roads above Hilo. The Upper Waiakea ATV/Dirt Bike Park is the first of its kind in Hawai'i — an off-highway vehicle riding area in a state forest reserve.

"What we want to do is move people out of an uncontrolled wilderness experience into a more controlled track where it can still be an experience, but it is better managed," said Peter Young, DLNR chairman. "It's one thing to say you can't do it here because the comeback is: 'Where can we do it?' We are trying to set up tracks on each island so they have a place to go."

Riding areas would allow better monitoring of the safety issues. Eleven ATV riders have died in the past four years, including Kamanuwai Waiwaiole of Mark Twain Estates, who died Aug. 17 while riding his ATV illegally on a public street. Police say he was speeding when he collided with another ATV rider. He was not wearing a helmet.

There are no estimates on how many ATVs are being used in Hawai'i, but the numbers nationally have grown from 3.8 million in 1998 to nearly 7 million in 2004, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In Hawai'i, riders are not required to register the vehicle or have a license to use it. There are no age restrictions. They can buy an ATV, which sell for as little as $600, and ride. Children as young as 4 can ride ATVs that come equipped with a remote engine kill switch their parents can operate from a distance.

Riding ATVs, motorcycles and dune buggies is prohibited on unauthorized portions of state land, including unencumbered state land, state parks, forest reserves and public hunting areas. They also are prohibited on beaches and public roadways.

And while the state has 270 miles of forest reserve access roads primarily used by hunters, ATVs are not authorized on the vast majority of those roads.

"We could allow ATVs, but we have elected not to because of the lack of assurances that they would abide by staying on the roads," said Curt Cottrell, program manager for DLNR's Na Ala Hele Trail and Access Program. "And I have learned from users that the roads are boring. They want more jumps and a sort of theme-park experience. We discourage that on our dirt roads."

That doesn't mean they haven't found the roads and done their own exploring. Because ATVs can roam over a wide range of terrain conditions, "social trails," as the state calls them, are created all the time. Riders see where others have gone and follow.

ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS

A current source of concern for the state is O'ahu's Ka'ena Point Natural Area Reserve, one of the last intact dune ecosystems in Hawai'i. Land-use officials say ATVs are damaging a stretch of coastline already marked by illegal off-road truck use.

The reserve features nesting sea birds and native ground plants, said Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter.

"They are pretty special and their purpose is to preserve that biodiversity rather than provide recreational uses for gas powered, four-wheel drive vehicles," Mikulina said.

On the Big Island, ATV riders have legal access to a dirt road through the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve at the 10,000-foot elevation. But riders often leave the road in favor of taking their nimble ATVs up cinder cones that pimple the slope, said Irving Kawashima, DLNR trail and access specialist on the Big Island.

"Once you scar the cinder cones, those tracks stay there for a long time," he said. "And if someone else sees those tracks, they follow them and eventually there is a big rut on the hillside."

The state plans to open 40 miles of Mauna Kea road system to ATVs and dirt bikes sometime in the next six months, Kawashima said.

"There are still going to be some outlaw riders who go out and climb those cinder cones," he said. "But the majority will stay on these roads."

The Waiakea park, situated on a 2,000-acre timber management area in place since the 1960s, is viewed by riders and land-use managers as a model approach to the ATV problem.

"It's been a huge success story," said Alan Mefford, a 69-year-old ATV and dirt bike rider who helped develop the trails. "It's fairly popular with the riders. It never gets crowded but has a good, steady clientele."

Mefford, a member of ATV Riders of Hawai'i, the club that helped the state develop the park, is up there twice a week riding and working on trail maintenance.

"It's a beautiful area," he said.

Partnerships like the one that created Waiakea are the only way riders are going to create additional places to ride, especially in Hawai'i, where there are few areas to begin with, Mefford said.

"We are in our infancy in creating legal riding areas," Mefford said. "Every piece of state land has a designation for what its use is supposed to be, and if you want to change that and make a riding park, it is fairly involved."

WORKING TOGETHER

But not impossible. A group of riders — the Sand Island Off Highway Vehicle Association — is working with DLNR to create a track on land that hasn't been used for 25 years.

The group has the blessings of Cottrell, DLNR's Na Ala Hele program manager, and the state parks division. Cottrell will seek preliminary approval of the project — which would be contingent on permits from the county and an environmental assessment — at the Sept. 8 land board meeting.

The Sand Island track would be an alternative to the only legal place to ride on O'ahu — the 650-acre Kahuku Motocross Park, which is only open on weekends, said Reid Shimabukuro, the 37-year-old president of the nonprofit association.

The Kahuku track is often crowded and potentially a dangerous place for novice riders, Shimabukuro said. The Sand Island track would offer lessons and stress the use of proper safety equipment, including helmets.

"We want to be able to educate riders from the beginning," Shimabukuro said. "It is a new facility with new rules that is centrally located on the island. It would be open periodically during the week. We hope that would alleviate some of the overcrowding at Kahuku."

The group's members are volunteering much of the labor, from planners who can write the environmental assessment to heavy equipment operators who would clear the area and shape the track, Shimabukuro said.

"The whole sport has a lack of facilities, so people are willing to donate their time and resources for the end goal, to have someplace to enjoy and to ride safely," he said.

In the 12 months Shimabukuro has explained the track to neighborhood board members, politicians and state officials, no one has rejected it. He tells them the track is a positive alternative to trespassing in the wilderness.

"Our whole focus is to educate kids and parents and provide a safe environment to recreate," he said. "It's a really good family sport. Moms and dads get on them and participate with their kids. And it usually becomes an all-day activity. There is a lot of good family bonding time."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.