ATVs on hiking trails a concern for stewardship manager
Dec 11, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.
FRENCHBORO—On an island where acres of protected wildlands sit in the middle of a year-round community, the Frenchboro Select Board spent Monday night walking a familiar tightrope: safeguarding fragile land and trail systems while keeping the town’s basic systems—its generator, its website, its planning work—functioning and strong for the people who call the island home.
The Frenchboro Select Board made quick work of its duties Monday night as it approved funding a generator, moved the planning board’s ordinance update and municipal advisory council’s resilience plan forward toward eventual public review, clarified ATV rules, and decided to overhaul its website by hiring Bill Batty at a rate of $40 an hour.
The municipal building needs a reliable standby generator, and the purchase will be funded via the fire department reserve and municipal building reserve. The electrician’s estimate for installation is approximately $24,000.
“That money’s been sitting for quite a while. We should find an appropriate use and spend it. We shouldn’t let it continue to sit,” Frenchboro Town Administrator Rick Erb said.
The town will also pursue an estimate for an LED light conversion, funded by an Efficiency Maine grant.
That’s important for a town that’s roughly seven or eight miles offshore from Mount Desert Island on Long Island, which is two miles southeast of Swan’s Island. Most of the village is along Lunt Harbor and much of the island is in the Frenchboro Preserve, created by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust with assistance from the Island Institute and Maine Coast Sea Mission.
According to the Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), “This 1,159-acre preserve includes 8.2 miles of shoreline, hundreds of acres of spruce forests, and dozens of forested and open wetlands, headlands, and beaches. While the interior provides intact habitat for forest and wetland wildlife, the preserve’s rocky shoreline is home to rare plants such as mare’s tail and beachhead iris. Beaver and deer were introduced in the 1900s and they have left a mark with ponds and little hardwood understory. Frenchboro Long Island is also home to nesting bald eagles and is a popular stopping point for migratory birds.”
The trust has a steward to protect that land—Trevor Herrick. Herrick is Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s regional stewardship manager for the island and other areas. He addressed some concerns about four-wheeler use on the island’s trails during the select board meeting.
“I was following tracks of a four-wheeler all the way to Rich’s Head,” Herrick said.
The issue is that those trails are meant to only be for hiking.
“One of the things that I’ve done is try to outline where the trails are and where they’re suitable for rescue vehicles in the case of a rescue or a fire where you could get a small truck or a Jeep or a four-wheeler to rescue somebody or to bring equipment. But that’s really just for emergencies,” he explained to the select board.
MCHT has signs that state that the trails are not for wheeled vehicles.
“And I did talk with the person who was operating a four-wheeler, and it was to retrieve a deer out on Rich’s Head,” Herrick said. “And they did a really good job to follow the tracks. They didn’t really do any damage. But I don’t think that’s something that we want to continue.”
He asked them to spread the word about how most trails are not meant for ATVs and what can be used in emergency situations or at all.
“There’s a trail from the gravel pit that’s kind of like a Jeep trail. And I think, well, I know the four-wheeler went up that road and then closer to Rich’s Head. Maybe it was on the way back or on the way there. I’m not sure. They went up the actual hiking trail. So the interior jeep trail that’s not on the maps as a hiking trail, I think that’s a good emergency use trail,” Herrick said. “I wouldn’t say that’s a great trail to go and just bomb around on their four-wheeler, so I’m hesitant to say that there’s any open areas for four-wheeler on the preserve.”
At one point there was a beautiful trail system on the island for four-wheeler trails and they never went on any other walking trails, an audience member said.
“I’d like to get with you because there’s an old four-wheeler trail that goes in the middle of nowhere and it’s been there—I’ve been here for 30 years, and we’ve been using it, and I’d like to just show it to you because he (a past steward) blocked that off so we couldn’t use it anymore, so it forced people to use the walking trail,” the member of the public said. “I don’t have a four-wheeler right now, but I used to, and I will be getting another one, but I’d like to have a specified area. I’ll follow the rules and do what I do, but we’ve got to have access to some, at least give us a little bit of area where we could ride our four-wheelers.”
“For recreation?” Herrick asked.
“Yes, for recreation.”
“Yeah. Our guidelines say we don’t operate a four-wheeler recreational preserve,” Herrick said.
The Eastern Beach Road is open to all vehicles. Gooseberry Road is owned by the town or has an easement throughout most of it, people agreed. Those roads can be used by motorized vehicles.
“Emergencies are totally different as well. So part of what we’re doing is trying to keep a lot of these areas open, year round,” Herrick said.
He can’t restrict emergency vehicles or a four-wheeler that’s sanctioned for a rescue, he said, but he does need to make sure that the trails aren’t damaged.
“So if you could all help spread the word that no, retrieving a deer is not a good reason to use a four-wheeler on the trails out there,” Herrick said.
Town Website Overhaul
The select board also agreed to overhaul its current website, which is currently not functional because passwords have been lost. Those lost passwords and other issues have prevented the town from posting updates and new content.
One of the town’s first tasks once it is up and running will be to post the planning board’s grant-funded materials to meet state requirements. The town will look to grant opportunities to help cover the cost.
Ordinance Update & Code Enforcement
Planning Board Chair Kirk Emerson said that at the end of October the planning board received a draft ordinance update from the Hancock County Planning Commission (HCPC).
“We got a draft report and recommendations from the Hancock County Planning Commission for updating our land use ordinance and recommendations with respect to connecting the ordinance with a future comprehensive plan, as well as resilience planning,” she said. “And in mid-November 11, 18, and 20, the planning board met and had two long working meetings to review what we were given.”
A timeline includes a call with DEP to clarify questions and then the commission will deliver its recommendations at the end of December. In January the planning board will review the final report and request funds for a legal consistency review with the ordinance going before the townspeople in February so that it will be set for a town meeting vote in June.
Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) Needs
The town will use Swan’s Island’s CEO on a case-by-case basis. The Swan’s Island job description and permit forms will be used as a template for Frenchboro. In Hancock County, Lamoine and Southwest Harbor are both looking for code enforcement officers.
Community Resilience Plan
The Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) has a draft resilience plan from The Musson Group with a goal of using the draft plan for community feedback. Likely in January there will be a Zoom meeting to explain both the plan and the feedback process with a larger community meeting in the spring.
The current grant ends in winter 2025–26. The town will seek a new grant (of approximately $5,000) to retain the Musson Group for the spring meeting.
Ferry Committee Nominations
The select board will nominate members for the ferry committee at its December 22 meeting. Early discussion indicated that the board will re-nominate the incumbents and seek additional alternates to build institutional knowledge.
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