More than 100 people turned out on a cold Wednesday night at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel to discuss the possibility of territorial legislation governing ATV use.

An all-party committee of the legislature is overseeing consultation on the matter.

Members of the public expressed a wide mix of views. They ranged from those who believe the machines are destroying important wilderness areas and driving local wildlife out of their habitats to those who believe the land should be shared by riders and non-riders alike.

As long-time ATV and snow machine rider Bruce Henry said, there seems to be a lack of tolerance for motorized traffic in the outdoors.

He pointed to being swung at with a ski pole when he slowed down for a skier while he was out on his snow machine. As well, signs that have been placed along the Buttercup Trail in Mary Lake state it's for non-motorized use.

"It's not their land. It's not their trail,” said Henry.

"So when I hear people come forward and say there should be trails for these and there should be trails for those, what they should have is a little bit more tolerance, and realize these trails are for all of us,” he said. Motorcycles helped cut the trails in places like Miles Canyon that many now use for hiking, he added.

"We're all taxpayers, we're all citizens of the Yukon and we should be able to work together, and that's where education comes in,” Henry commented.

"Education is partly so you don't go out and destroy the land, it's partly so you wear a helmet, but it's also on the other side so that these people who have a lack of tolerance can be educated to have tolerance for other people's wants, needs and uses.

"And this tolerance has got to come through education.”

Long-time hunter Paul Deuling argued that "... we all own this country – yes, it is free, but it doesn't belong just to those people who want to go out and drive over it and wreck it for others. We all have to consider everybody else's values.”

Deuling recalled first seeing three-wheelers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those riders started cutting trails and getting into the alpine, where those tracks remain today.

"And then we got the four-wheelers, and this was just great for the further, faster, higher crowd,” Deuling said. He noted the "spider web” of trails behind the former mine near Faro is spreading further out each year, making him wonder if it will ever stop.

One time, Deuling was sitting along a little lake 5,200 feet up in the alpine when out of nowhere a vehicle came up the mountain "chewing its way” up the range. It stopped just long enough for everyone in the vehicle to get out, have a look around, then herd back into the vehicle to drive off again.

"Those tracks don't just disappear,” Deuling commented. "They're there for a long time, and anybody who disagrees with me: sorry, I don't think you're right.

They're not just going to wash away with the next rainfall. We see, year after year, more and more of those tracks, and they do not go away.”

In another instance, Deuling was flying over a mountain north of Faro when he and the plane's pilot noticed a large, dark spot next too a bunch of smaller spots.

As they flew in closer, they soon learned it was a swamp that had been turned into a mud bog. On each side of it were eight sets of tire tracks.

"Sixteen tracks, that takes up a lot of space,” Deuling said. "Isn't that a lovely thing to have in your alpine? Isn't that beautiful? (It'll) make people want to come here and visit.”

He argued that anytime he goes to meetings, such as Wednesday's, many ATV riders will say they wouldn't mess up the alpine.

"... so if you guys ever plan on making legislation – I hope you do – I want you to include it to prevent martians from coming down here and wreckin' our country,” he commented while the crowd laughed. "Would you do that? Because nobody here does it.”

Deuling said he knows ATVs aren't going away. Though he's not opposed to seeing ATVs on trails, he suggested that if they are going above the alpine, they should be on hard rock trails and not leave those.

"And for anybody who's worried about enforcement, I'm going to help enforce, because if you're wearing a plate I'm going to report you,” Deuling said.

"I don't think enforcement's that big a deal. Hunters report on one another all the time if they break the rules so let's put that aside; it's not a big deal, in my opinion.”

Deuling added he's also not opposed to having some leeway or mountain areas set aside for people who are disabled, but suggested they be ranges already developed so more development doesn't have to happen.

Roy Ness, meanwhile, said he couldn't understand the reluctance in taking steps to control ATV use and creating new trails.

"... because everybody knows what happens when a new trail gets made; the next guy comes along and makes it further, and the next guy comes along and goes further until finally there's a trail all the way up that valley that used to be untouched at that time before that and then all of the sudden what happens ...

everybody knows what happens to the animals,” he said. "They're either killed off or they're driven off.”

Learning the area is no longer safe, Ness said, they move into smaller and smaller spots. While many might argue the Yukon has a lot of room for everyone, eventually there's not enough, he argued.

"We've seen that happen over and over again,” Ness said. He pointed to an example of a place outside the territory that was declared closed to motorized traffic in an effort to protect it.

"And I think there's a sentiment in the Yukon that we want to protect areas like that; that we want to protect the wildlife, and so I think there should be regulations and yes, it's complicated, it's a problem, there's a problem with enforcement, who's going to enforce it, but nevertheless life is complicated now, and it's

complicated because ATVs have made it complicated.

It was a young Whitehorse man left paralyzed in an October 2009 snow machine competition crash in the U.S. who reminded the crowd of the positives the machines – quads, snow machines and dirt bikes – have brought to his life.

As Darryl Tait noted, those machines are now his only access to the outdoors in many ways.

"Being in a wheelchair limits me to where I can go, where I can be so having that option just to jump on a quad, snowmobile and go straight from my house and go places I wouldn't be able to go to in my chair is a real huge part of my life now,” he said.

Tait mentioned the good memories he has of doing laps or racing his friends around the dirt bike track in the past year. These days, he enjoys watching his friends take the ramp at the track.

"To have that taken away is, I don't know, it really cuts me deep because we have such good memories, and I don't want that to go in the next generation of progression,” Tait said.

"Like, say, if kids want to be a professional, they can just go down to the track and ride around and pursue their dreams and I just want to keep that going in the Yukon because it's such a free place, and that's why I'm living here now, because, like, I have the freedoms of going out and doing these things straight from my

house, and if that's taken away, I don't know, I might as well be down in Vancouver.”

The meeting followed five previous public meetings held in Faro, Dawson City, Carmacks, Mount Lorne and Teslin.