West Milford resident Bret Jenkins stands in front of a trail that has been blocked by trees cut by the township. Jenkins says the township should have come up a better way to keep ATV riders out of the woods.

Some West Milford residents are outraged that the township sent a crew into a wooded area on Earth Day last month to chop down trees and block the trails that ATV riders have been carving out for generations.

There is no public land anywhere in New Jersey where riding an ATV, quad, or dirt bike is legal. West Milford, with 87 square miles of mostly watershed, is cut with trails — and a favored spot for off-roading has long been a patch of municipally-owned forest off Macopin Road and behind the Camelot Estates.

Residents of Camelot Estates say they’ve shared the trails with dirt bikers for generations. But that share-the-road relationship ended April 22, when, without warning, the township sent a crew with chainsaws into the forest to cut down the trees and lay them across the trails.

“I came home from work, took a walk in the woods, and I wanted to throw up,” said Dave Mussina, who lives on King Arthur’s Court at the edge of the woods. Mussina’s wife works from home and she heard the whirr of the chainsaws as they ripped through the natural playground where the couple’s six boys all play.

“I stopped counting at 85 the number of trees they took down,” Mussina said. “It’s completely absurd that these trees were cut down. It’s sick. And they did on Earth Day, no less.”

West Milford Township cut down these trees to block the trails used by ATV riders in a patch of woods behind Camelot Drive.

“I know kids come back here and ride their dirt bikes and stuff, but for our neighborhood, it doesn’t seem to be a problem,” said Scott Kochan, 55, who has lived there for 24 years. “To cut down trees that weren’t even dead. I think they [the township] got out of hand.”

West Milford bought the land from a private developer years ago with funding provided through the state’s Green Acres program. Land bought with Green Acres money must be preserved as open space, but West Milford can’t seem to find a way to keep the dirt bikes out.

West Milford township Administrator William Senande declined an interview request for this story, but worked with the police department on a press release that was issued late Monday.

The township said it took “drastic action to prevent illegal activities” from continuing on the property, but didn’t say how many trees were taken down, only that “several trees were felled” to block access to off-road vehicles.

Some residents are outraged that West Milford Township spent Earth Day cutting down 85 to 100 trees to stop ATV riders from using a wooded area, seen here.

“Eliminating access to vehicles will prevent the further environmental degradation of the area and the long-term benefits of having the area reclaimed by the forest far outweigh the temporary measures that were required,” the statement said.

The township said the tree cut is in full compliance with Green Acres guidelines that require it to maintain the land for public use. West Milford police received 134 complaints about illegal ATV use last year and issued 15 summonses, the township said.

But residents say the forest — once popular with kids, hikers, strollers and dog-walkers, can’t be used by anyone safely. The trails entangled in fallen branches and tree trunks.

“This is absolutely disgusting and a disgrace,” said Donna DeRobertis, who grew up on Camelot Drive and has lived there for 40 years. “I grew up in these woods. It was a place where you could hike, bike, camp, do whatever you want. They destroyed it.”

While some residents are willing to share the woods with off-road vehicles, others are not. Camelot residents said they knew of one resident who lived on the edge of the woods who has repeatedly complained that ATVs were coming too close to his property.

“The destruction of the forest is the direct result of this man’s displeasure with the machines,” said Bret Jenkins, whose backyard touches the edge of the woods. “But this resident didn’t cut the trees down. The town did.”

Stephen Sangle, the chairman of the West Milford Environmental Commission, had not heard about the controversy as of Monday morning. But he said the commission was eager to hear from residents at its meeting scheduled for Monday night.

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