NO MORE ATVs IN BLACK RIVER AT LESTERVILLE; BAN IS OBSERVED

Anyone who has visited the northern reaches of the Black River in the Missouri Ozarks near Lesterville knows about the spectacular natural beauty of the area. The clear river flows over gravel and twists through the forested hills. The views can be breathtaking almost any time of the year.

It is this outdoor vista that attract many visitors to the Lesterville area. Among those visitors are thousands of all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts, who for years have made a sport of riding their vehicles in the Black River. Not alongside the river. Not across the river. In the river.

Because of what many conservation and other officials thought was a danger to the river and its downstream ecology, a law was passed in 1990 barring the use of motorized vehicles in Missouri's rivers. There are federal laws that prohibit such activity as well.

By the Parks Bluff Campground has continued to be a Mecca for ATVs, because the campground's owner believed there was a loophole in the 1990 law created by the longstanding practice of ATVs using the river in that area.

This year, however, the campground's owner has relented and will bar ATVs from the river. Instead, artificial mudholes are being created in the terrain near the river.

Lesterville merchants -- there are only a handful of stores in the town of some 50 residents -- have grown accustomed to the hordes of ATVs that come during the major summer holidays. Some of them are sorry to see the campground go along with the ban. Others are please the ATV ban will finally have compliance in the river, which skirts the edge of town right behind the local shops.

But the battle over regulating motorized vehicles in streams was fought many years ago. The upshot of that battle was the 1990 law.

There is not doubt that ATVs offer an outdoors experience that is thrilling and unique. However, it is good to see the ongoing battle between officials -- Missouri's attorney general was threatening court action -- and the campground's owner and customers come to a truce.

There are still plenty of good reasons to enjoy that part of the Ozarks. As for riding ATVs through streams, devotees will have to look elsewhere, although there doesn't appear to be another place to go in Missouri.