Damage from off-road vehicles threatens park

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Riders of off-road vehicles are cutting deep ruts and gullies in the fragile soil that forms the hills of Hidden Valley Park.

"These ATV trails here didn't exist eight months ago," said Dan Watts, an officer in the Kansas City Police Department. "It's fresh."

Off-road riding in city parks is illegal and riders are subject to traffic citations. But many riders don't know that, Watts said, and they enjoy using all-terrain vehicles to speed up and down slopes or through creeks.

Watts and a partner are part of a special police unit outfitted with their own ATVs and special training to tackle such problems throughout the city.

At Hidden Valley Park rare ferns and towering oaks have survived for decades, but the riding is tearing up loess soil. Loess is wind-blown deposits from glaciers that is rich for plants, but is also among the most easily erodible soils.

Some damage at the park is light, such as mashed woodland flowers on gentle slopes. Heavier damage includes 4-foot gullies on steep inclines that threaten oak trees a century or two old.

The wildest portion of Hidden Valley has been designated a Missouri Natural Area, a program earmarking high-quality wild areas for special protection on public and private lands. Portions of it probably have never been logged, said Larry Rizzo, a natural history biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"It will take years for the damage to heal," Rizzo said.