OK, I'll agree that mountain terrain in the NE serves as a wonderful and effective filter to keep the wheel and motor crowd off attractive hiking trails. But land management decisions about this must be approached carefully because of their enormous and immediate impact on quieter and slower-paced pastimes, which their presence always displaces. And the noise the ORVs of all sorts make carries oppressively for long distances, even in wooded areas. I really don't know the situation in MA in any detail, and only offer up my home state of MI as a warning about what happens when wheel and motor access is not well managed and controlled. That's the way it always goes.
Hikers have a monopoly on mileage, despite the fact that they are no more environmentally sensitive.
But land management decisions about this must be approached carefully because of their enormous and immediate impact on quieter and slower-paced pastimes, which their presence always displaces. And the noise the ORVs of all sorts make carries oppressively for long distances, even in wooded areas. That's the way it always goes.