Home About Us Calendar Contact Us Membership ATV Safety
Yamaha Polaris can-am can-am
About Us

About NYSORVA

NYSORVA is the statewide advocacy group focused on issues that affect the trail motorcycling and ATVing community, such as land-use issues and legislation. NYSORVA is recognized for it relevance by national organizations such as the American Motorcyclists Assn. (AMA), National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC), The Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC), and the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC). NYSORVA is the state’s conduit for communication with the wheeled off-highway vehicle (OHV) user community.

USDA Forest Service estimates as of 2005, that 1.9 million New York citizens, or 13.1% of the population 16+ years of age participate in wheeled-OHV recreation, the third-largest riding population of all states in the nation.

In brief, NYSORVA’s mission is to work with all interested parties for increased safe and environmentally-conscious OHV recreational opportunities on both public and private lands in NY State for our growing community.

NYSORVA is a nonprofit corporation, is run entirely by a volunteer staff of trail riding enthusiasts, and is funded with donations from clubs, individuals, dealers and grant agencies.

There are very limited publicly-open riding areas in NY for wheeled-OHVs and a few private club land areas. Your best bet for finding places to ride is to join a local club to learn of the opportunities in your area. See the New York Clubs page for a list of clubs and links.

NYS law requires that any ATV (any multi-wheeled off-highway vehicle including trail bikes, defined per NYS Vehicle & Traffic law) be registered and insured for a minimum of liability, with few exceptions. However an ATV plate does not allow access to public highways unless a municipality has designated such roads for ATV travel (just a few localities have this provision for local roads), nor does paying the registration fee currently buy you any services (such as trail facilities) other than the peace of mind of legal compliance (see the full story in the “It’s the Law” section). We hope that passage of a Trail Program bill will change this situation.

Please ride safely, tread lightly, and keep your machines maintained and quiet, registered and insured.