Snowmobiling Surge Fuels Maine's Winter Economy, Raises Concern for Safety.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, February, 2002

By Beth Daley, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 24--THE FORKS, Maine--As often as he can, Doug Nicholson drives four hours to one of the most remote swaths of woods in New England to be surrounded by the smell of exhaust fumes and the sound of revving engines.

It's here, in this speck of a town of 38 people, that New England's fastest growing winter sport roars. Every week, hundreds of snowmobilers like Nicholson descend on The Forks to explore the backcountry on a sprawling 12,000-mile trail system complete with stop signs and miniature billboards.

Some 200,000 snowmobilers are expected to rumble through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine this winter -- almost twice the number of a decade ago. For the first time, the...