They say good fences make good neighbors, but what if your neighbor keeps ripping out your fence?
That is a concern for Dai Dayton, president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt. Last week, together with the Southampton Town Trustees and the Nature Conservancy, her organization installed 13 split-rail fences at sensitive junctures along the greenbelt to discourage mountain bikers, e-bikers, dirt bikers, and A.T.V. riders.
Motorized vehicles and bicycles are prohibited on the trails, which Southampton Town has long designated as part of a nature preserve.
Yesterday, the Nature Conservancy installed two additional fences near Crooked Pond.
“They're just going to rip them out,” said Ms. Dayton last week at a Sag Harbor entrance to the greenbelt. “I hate to say that, but it’s happened so many times. They’re in deep. They’re screwed together. But you’d be amazed. They’ll bring their trucks in at night and rip them all out and get the material. Unless the police chief does something.”
The town trustees had suggested installing trail cameras to discourage thieves and riders, but Lt. Todd Spencer of the Southampton Town police says their use is limited.
“Trail cams will only let us know when and where they are riding, so they could be used as a tool to assist, but we would not be able to issue summonses using video, as it is unlikely we would be able to identify any of the riders,” he wrote in an email.
The widening and rutting of the trails in the greenbelt has become obvious. Sprig Tree Path, for example, which runs along the western edge of Long Pond, was until recently only wide enough to place one foot in front of the other. In the last few years the path has increased to many feet in width.
Turtles lay their eggs along the sandy trails in the greenbelt; the eggs are destroyed by the heavy bikes.
The bikes “can accelerate erosion of the soil, tear up vegetation, and damage root systems,” said Joseph Jannsen, conservation lands director of the Nature Conservancy. “The Long Pond Greenbelt is a highly sensitive ecological area — a place where vehicle use can cause significant damage.”
Then there’s the noise pollution created by the motorized vehicles, which does not belong in a town-designated nature preserve. And when there’s less noise, as with an e-bike, there’s a safety issue, due to poor visibility. Going 25 miles per hour around one of the many blind turns along the winding trails, an e-biker could easily hit a pedestrian.
“I walk the greenbelt at least a couple times a week. It’s definitely a safety and environmental issue,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who lives in Sag Harbor, said in a text. “Enforcement is always difficult, and I applaud the Friends for their efforts to maintain the integrity of this sensitive area. I would also hope the Town could find more appropriate locations for e-bikers and other activities.”
“It’s going to be a problem,” said Austin McGuire, Sag Harbor Village Police Chief. “There’s going to be a tragedy with an e-bike.” A child riding an e-bike was hit by a car on Hempstead Street over the Memorial Day weekend, he reported. The child was okay, but such incidents are creating a buzz among parents with school-age children.
In fact, after a parent voiced concern, Jeff Nichols, the superintendent of Sag Harbor schools, held presentations last week for students about the dangers of e-bikes and the laws governing them. He also sent a letter home to parents.
“There’s a sense out there that people don’t know the rules,” Mr. Nichols said in a phone call.
In New York State, e-bike riders must be 16 or older. Helmets are required. Riders are allowed only on roads where the speed limit is under 30 miles per hour, and must obey traffic rules.
“This is more of a parenting than a law enforcement issue,” said Chief McGuire, noting that Sag Village police do not patrol the 800-acre greenbelt, which is in Southampton Town and under town police jurisdiction. “Parents shouldn’t let their kids ride dirt bikes, A.T.V.s, or e-bikes back there,” he said. Lieutenant Spencer agreed. “Parental involvement and supervision are imperative to prevent and reduce all types of adolescent, inappropriate behavior.”
For police, another enforcement option is to increase the use of drones to track and follow riders. “We utilize drones in an effort to locate illegal riders,” said Lieutenant Spencer. “They can cover more ground quickly, and with a better view, than an ATV. The drone operator can then direct ground units to the rider’s location. We can also use the drones to help track them back to their starting location, be it a home or vehicle, and have a sector car intercept them.”
Sag Harbor Village police would work in conjunction with town police should a drone track a rider back to a village property, said Chief McGuire. If caught, the rider would be ticketed, and the vehicle would be impounded. Impound fees start at $250 and increase depending on the time of day and the milage accrued by a tow company. An additional $40 per day storage fee is charged until the vehicle is removed from town custody.
Lieutenant Spencer noted that there are no legal e-bike or dirt bike trails in the Town of Southampton. The closest is in Calverton. “If there were a legal place to ride, it might help prevent some of the illegal riding,” he said.
Clearly, education will be key as e-bikes become more popular. According to businessinsider.com, e-bike retail sales quadrupled in the past four years, to nearly $1 billion in 2022.
At Khanh Sports in East Hampton, an employee said e-bikes range in price from $1,500 to $4,500.
As for the fences in the greenbelt, only time will tell whether they remain standing. For now, hikers who come upon people abusing the trails can call the Southampton Town police nonemergency line at 631-728-3400. It rings directly into their dispatch center.
“The biggest thing, for me, is to make people understand that the greenbelt is not a park,” said Ms. Dayton. “This is a nature preserve. And it’s never been meant for bikes, and it’s always been that way. If people are saying, ‘We’ve always ridden our bike on the trails,’ that’s because they’re riding right by the sign that tells them they shouldn’t!”
