BARRIE, ONT. -- Standing in knee-deep mud puddles along his snowmobile trails, Greg Mazure is fed up.
"We have to nip it in the bud. Stop it," he says.
Mazure has been forced to close his private property trail on Narrows Road in Severn Township to keep all-terrain vehicles out.
"We could reopen in the future, but we've closed it down to take control."
Mazure says he has started repairing the damage done by ATV riders throughout his one-thousand-foot-long trail.
He purchased the 56-acre trail two years ago. It's part of a popular snowmobile trail that runs from the south of Barrie to Cochrane on his private property.
But he says the ATVs have now turned it into a 'no-go zone,' prompting a plea from snowmobilers to ATV operators to stay off private property and not ruin their season.
"It's only meant to be used in the wintertime," says Baxter Snow Riders vice president Monique Phillips.
"If it's a property owner and they've given the Snowmobile Club a land-use agreement, then they are trespassing if they go on there in the summertime," Phillips adds.
Meanwhile, Mazure says repairing the damage to his trail could take up to a year or more, meaning no one will be enjoying it for some time.
