Every year, Dean McFadden welcomes tens of thousands of people to Conestogo Lake Conservation Area, where he’s been park superintendent for 9 years.

Campers, swimmers, boaters, anglers, cottagers, hikers, picnickers, hunters and others enjoy the natural setting and amenities of Drayton-area park, owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority. They come in through the gate, pay fees and use the facilities provided for them.

But there’s one group that isn’t welcome at Conestogo Lake — off-roaders.

Whether they’re driving small all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or large four-wheel-drive pickups, they literally leave a trail of destruction behind them as they tear around the park. They’re trespassing and paying nothing to the upkeep of the conservation area.

They show up each fall when the water level in the Conestogo Lake reservoir drops down to its winter holding level and will be there almost daily until the snow flies. Then they’re back in the spring until the reservoir is refilled.

Many will tear through the woods on their way to the reservoir bottom where they spin doughnuts in the mud flats. To get there, they’ll run around gates, over torn-down fences and right past “No ATV” signs posted throughout the property.

The signs disappear regularly. Fences are cut down. Barriers built out of fallen trees have been cut into pieces and tossed out of the way.

McFadden estimates he spends about $1,000 a year replacing signs and fences. That’s money that comes directly out of park revenues, since no tax dollars are used to maintain the property.

And that doesn’t even begin to account for the environmental damage done by the four-wheelers that create big ruts, erode hillsides and leave behind assorted garbage, including liquor bottles.

It’s all very frustrating for McFadden who is one of just two full-time employees working year-round to maintain the 2,300 hectare property. About half of the property is forest and most of it is riddled with illegal trails.

“They’re riding right past the signs, so they know they’re not supposed to be there,” McFadden said while touring the property recently. “It’s a huge property and it’s impossible to fence it all. But they just cut through the fences anyway.”

It’s not only destructive, it’s illegal. Provincial law prohibits off-road vehicles from conservation authority lands. On top of that, they’re trespassing on GRCA land because they’re entering the property through makeshift entrances while the park is closed.

Every fall, McFadden, Assistant Superintendent Mike Stanwyck and other GRCA staff, spend many hours patrolling the property, looking for trespassing four-wheelers and repairing their damage. Steel warning signs have a life expectancy of a few days, and plastic ones can disappear in hours. He’s had to replace gates at $450 a shot and place large concrete blocks at trail entrances. But, more often than not the ATV riders just carve out a new entrance a few metres away.

A first offender may get a warning or a $70 ticket. Although he hasn’t done it yet, McFadden could take a repeat offender to court where the fines could run $2,000 or more.

Wellington County OPP have been helpful, says McFadden. When they spot a trespasser they may hold him while McFadden can get to the scene to issue a ticket. But the police, like McFadden, have better things to do with their time than track down the high-riding scofflaws.

The ATVers are coming from all over. He knows some are locals because he has followed them from the park to their home where he’ll take their name and address from the mail box and send out a warning letter.

But others come from miles around. He’s ticketed trespassers from Palmerston and Kitchener who will bring their ATVs to the park aboard a trailer.

McFadden said one common misconception is that Conestogo Lake Conservation Area is “Crown land” so it’s wide open to anyone for any activity.

“That’s just wrong,” he replies.

“It’s not crown land, it’s owned by the GRCA,” he explained. “Anyway, even if it were Crown land, that doesn’t give them the right to come in and wreck it.”

The ATVers are causing problems for other park users, as well. Each fall about 200 hunters buy permits to hunt pheasants, waterfowl and small game. A hunter may spend a lot of time in a tree or a concealed area waiting for game to come his way, only to have the quiet destroyed by a speeding ATV.

The owners of many cottages that surround the lake are also annoyed by the constant noise and the damage to the lakeside portion of their lots, which they lease from the GRCA. The GRCA has been working with cottagers to impress upon them that their leases forbid them from using ATVs in the conservation area outside of their own lots.

The ATVs also ruin snowmobile trails which are carefully maintained by members of local clubs who have a lease with the GRCA and pay a fee to use them. ATVs are not permitted in any season on trails maintained by the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs.

ATV riders may even be putting their own lives at risk.

“It’s a big property,” says McFadden. “If an accident happens, how can we find them and rescue them?”

The ATV trails are often narrow and rutted, it would be next to impossible to get a rescue vehicle into the forest, he said.

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Dave Schultz is the communications manager for the Grand River Conservation Authority.