HALIFAX - Every so often, Bob Haagensen's slumber is interrupted by the rumbling and growling of a powerful engine behind his home in nearby St. Margaret's Bay.
Even in those early, post-sleep moments, the sound of an all-terrain vehicle is unmistakable to the 64-year-old engineer.
"Try to imagine a 747 on full takeoff power about 500 feet away from you," he says.
"It's a window-rattler. It really is."
The popular recreational machines have been the cause of morning grumpiness and increasing aggravation for a number of residents whose rural homes abut provincially owned trails and other preferred riding spots.
And there appears to be little common ground in what has become a polarizing dispute, with some homeowners taking the matter to court and a group representing ATV riders arguing they have a legal right to enjoy the outdoors.
In recent years, ATVs have driven into the centre of not-in-my-backyard opposition that has spawned anger, irritation and reports of violence.
Most recently, a man was shot in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun while riding around private property in Carleton Village on his four-wheeler. His injuries were not life-threatening. Police said two ATV drivers were riding recklessly when the shooting occurred.
The homeowner is due in court next month on charges of assault with a weapon, among other offences.
Aside from confrontations, there have also been reports of metal plates imbedded with sharp screws being placed deliberately on ATV trails in Tantallon, a fast-growing community near Halifax.
Across the province, lobby groups are squaring off against ATV associations in hopes of having the powerful machines -- which they say are too noisy, too obtrusive and too dangerous -- banned from certain trails.
At the centre of the debate is a network of former railbeds that are now provincially owned, multi-use trails.
James Anderson, a spokesman for the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia, doesn't believe the criticism from the anti-ATV side squares with reality.
"They're running out of hard facts because the evidence keeps indicating -- contrary to their personal view -- that shared-use trails work for the vast majority of us."
Anderson says ATV enthusiasts are the ones who groom the trails, making them passable for walkers and cyclists. Most ATV riders only use the railbed trails as paths to other, more exciting trails, he adds.
Anderson acknowledges that some ATV riders ignore speed limits and curfews, but he believes the problem has been blown out of proportion by "a small core group who tend to be more articulate than their detractors."
"The vast majority of ATV riders are very, very responsible, conscientious people," he says. "As much as Honda Civics are the top choice for street racing in North America, it's not reasonable to assume that all Honda Civic drivers are bad people."
Gail Smith, a member of a citizens' group working to block ATVs from Crown-owned trails, says many people are afraid to speak out.
"People are very uncomfortable in coming forward because there has been intimidation," says Smith, whose rural property in Smith's Cove is located about 10 metres from a railbed trail.
Smith says she successfully argued a 10 per cent reduction in her property tax because of the trail.
Still, she says the greater problem lies not with ATV enthusiasts but with a provincial policy that panders to four-wheelers.
Nowhere is the dispute more pronounced than in Paradise, a tiny community in scenic Annapolis County. A local group, the Paradise Active Healthy Living Society, has taken its fight to court in hopes of reversing a decision by the former Conservative government that permits ATVs on a railbed trail in their community.
Initially, barriers blocked access to ATVs but they were removed in recent years after the province held community consultations. Believing they had already made their point clear, homeowners near the trail didn't attend the meetings.
"Apparently there was a lot of pressure put on the previous government by ATV lobby groups, so they broke the promise and took the barriers down," says Dale Dunlop, a Halifax-based nature writer and lawyer who's taken on the case for the citizens' group pro bono.
Some members of the groups say they're hopeful the province's new NDP government will make a change. But the issue could prove contentious for a party that fought hard to make inroads in rural Nova Scotia before winning a majority government in June.
Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell has described the issue as a "lightning rod for discontent," adding he's hopeful a solution can be found that makes both sides happy.
In the meantime, RCMP have recently announced efforts to step up patrols on trails.
But for Haagensen, who says colder weather won't keep ATVs off the trail that runs 18 metres from his bedroom window, the enforcement isn't good enough anymore.
"The two entities can just not co-exist," he says. "People walking and people on motorized vehicles just can't be on the same trail at the same time."
