ATVs

A New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer was seriously injured Saturday while conducting speed enforcement in Dummer. 

Shortly before 5 p.m., Officer Matthew Holmes was trying to stop two off-highway recreational vehicles that were speeding when he was struck from behind by another OHRV that was also speeding, according to the Fish and Game Department. 

Holmes was thrown from his ATV and landed several feet away. Several other riders stopped to render first aid.

More all-terrain vehicle trails are opening in northern New Hampshire as they recover from late winter snowfall and heavy spring rain.

Some trails are opening Saturday, but others remain closed because of bridge issues.

[READ MORE:  Sound of Money: Can ATVs Reinvigorate N.H.'s North Country?]

Wet and cooler-than-average spring weather delayed snow melt in several areas.

Three towns in New Hampshire's Great North Woods could signal disapproval for ATVs on local roads at their town meetings Tuesday.

Pittsburg, Colebrook and Stewartstown have non-binding resolutions on their warrants that would suggest banning ATVs from municipal roads.

Beth Bissonnette works for the town of Pittsburg. She says selectmen would have the final say on any changes regardless of Tuesday's vote.

She says she's concerned keeping ATVs off local roads – limiting them to trails – would be bad for her town.

Groups in the North Country are working together to create a new system of signs on established ATV trails.

Corinne Rober owns Bear Rock Adventures in Pittsburg and serves as the Marketing Director with the North Country Chamber of Commerce. 

She says, with the ATV economy booming in the North Country, businesses, ATV clubs and the chamber of commerce saw a need to improve the safety, promotion, and proper use of the area's trails.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says one man has died while riding an all-terrain vehicle.

The department says 62-year-old Roger Johnson was found next to his ATV with fatal injuries on June 20 in Chatham. He was pronounced dead at the scene that afternoon.

The investigation revealed the South Chatham resident was following another ATV when he left the roadway and struck a tree. Johnson was not wearing a helmet at the time.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

A group of residents in the town of Gorham is suing to shut down a popular ATV trailhead.

Neighbors of the trail say they are fed up with the dust, noise and fumes from the four-wheelers. In their court filing, they cite an escalating number of police complaints lodged in Gorham in recent years involving ATV and OHRV riders. 

The New Hampshire House voted to allow people to carry loaded guns on ATVs, snowmobiles and other off-highway recreational vehicles. A bill lifting existing restrictions passed 181-148 on Thursday but will still need Senate approval before taking effect.

Just a few years after opening up local roads to ATV traffic, residents of the town of Stark are debating whether to reverse course. A warrant article up for a vote at tomorrow’s town meeting would close local roads to off-road vehicles beginning in mid-April.

An estimated 12,000 ATV enthusiasts descended on Jericho Mountain State Park in Berlin for the second annual “Camp RZR” festival this weekend, sponsored by off-road vehicle manufacturer Polaris. But trails weren’t the only place where the ATVs’ presence was felt.

The city of Berlin will host its eighth annual ATV festival this weekend, a celebration of the sport and its importance in the local economy.

Festival-goers can take a spin on their ATVs through a mud pit at Jericho Mountain State Park, or catch live music on Main Street in Berlin.

When the Jericho ATV festival first started in 2010, it attracted a couple hundred people. Now it draws around 6,000.

The New Year will bring plenty of new rules and regulations to New Hampshire, covering everything from police body cameras to the use of laser pointers. Here's a look at some of the bills that will officially be law as of January 1st:

More riders on all-terrain vehicles are being seen on New Hampshire trails — and now, on some local and state roads — and the Fish and Game Department's 42 conservation officers are feeling stretched.

In recent years, towns in Coos, Grafton, Sullivan counties and elsewhere have been allowed to open up their roads to the vehicles, beyond the state's 1,200 miles of riding trails.

Two men who suffered non-life-threatening injuries from an ATV rollover in Stewartstown have been taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Fish and Game officers say the accident happened on Saturday near the entrance to a campground at Coleman State Park.

 A 59-year-old man was seriously injured Friday in an ATV crash in the North Country, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.The crash occurred about 1 p.m. on the Blueberry Hill Trail near Stratford when Timothy Flanders of Hill, New Hampshire, swerved to avoid a water hole and rolled his ATV several times, said Conservation Officer Glen Lucas. He suffered injuries to his right leg, chest and head and was taken by helicopter to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Northern New Hampshire's "Ride the Wilds'' network of 1,000-plus miles of interconnected off-highway recreational vehicle trails is open for the season.  

A grand opening event for one of the largest such trail systems in the country was being celebrated Saturday at Jericho Mountain State Park in Berlin.  

The final segment of the network's first phase opened in August, enabling riders to travel from Lancaster to Pittsburg.  

A Hudson man has been fined $1,000 for riding a four-passenger ATV on a North Country snowmobile trail not marked for that use.

There were three charges brought by Fish and Game against Jeffrey Rogers, of Hudson, over the September 12th incident in Stewartstown.

Appearing in District Court in Colebrook Thursday, Rogers plead not guilty to charges of operating an off-highway recreational vehicle in a wetland and causing damage to property.