MONTROSE — Those who have had the privilege and joy of riding their ATVs or UTVs on Lee County Conservation’s roadways will be able to continue doing so for some time to come.
The Lee County Conservation Board voted unanimously during their meeting Tuesday to continue to allow ATVs (all terrain vehicles), UTVs (utility task vehicles), and other side-by-side vehicles to continue to drive on Lee County Conservation-owned roadways for the foreseeable future.
The vehicles will continue to be allowed to drive on any conservation roads within county-owned parks that regular cars, trucks, and motorcycles can travel on.
But driving the vehicles off-road or on conservation trails will continue to be prohibited.
Drivers must also be licensed to operate the vehicles.
In October of last year, the board agreed to begin allowing ATVs/UTVs to ride on at the beginning of this year as a trial run to gauge any issues that might arise from allowing the vehicles to drive on conservation roadways with the intent of re-examining the policy before extending it.
During the board’s Oct. 14, 2025 meeting, the board reviewed a previous workshop discussion regarding citizen requests that had been made to permit ATV/UTV use on park roads, which aligned with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) decision in 2024 to allow such use.
During that meeting, the board did discuss concerns related to ATV/UTV traffic, noise, as well as the fact that conservation park roads are not through roads.
That conversation also noted that allowing ATVs/UTVs on park roads could lead to an increase in unauthorized use on trails.
But Huebner added during that meeting that other counties that she had contacted did allow ATV/UTV use without resulting in an increase in trail violations.
And some board members did express a desire to maintain consistency with state regulations throughout Lee County’s conservation lands.
At the end of that conversation, the board approved the ATV/UTV for a one-year trial period with the intention of reassessing the policy before the year was up
The topic was only listed on the Tuesday’s meeting agenda as an item to discuss and “take possible” action.
Prior to the vote on the Lee County Conservation Director Heather Huebner reminded the board that ATV/UTV use on conservation-owned roads was initially only approved for one year but said they had the option to approve their use indefinitely.
After some discussion, the board voted unanimously to approve ATV/UTV use on conservation roads indefinitely.
Other Business
The board also reviewed Lee County Conservation’s October 2026 Environmental & Outdoor Education Report.
The report noted that Lee County Conservation hosted a total of 13 field trips, eight non-field trip programs, and made a total of 2,331 contacts last month.
Some of month’s adult and family programs hosted last month included the DNR Shimek Forestry Field Day at Wilson Lake on Oct. 6, as well as the OWLS lecture on native gardening on Oct. 14.
Other youth programs Lee County Conservation hosted in October included the Nocturnal Animal Puppet Show, Incredible Journey, M.A.D. For Winter, Wild Turkeys, and Bears Snores On programs held at St. Vincent Elementary School in Keokuk.
Lee County Conservation also brought their Iowa Geology Rocks! Program to Fort Madison 6th graders on Oct. 27-28, their Iowa Habitats program to Central Lee 2nd graders on Oct. 29, and hosted a Central Lee 5th graders field trip at Pollmiller Park on Oct. 30.