The vrooms of engines and plumes of dust that go along with ATV riding are generating a larger duststorm across Southern New Hampshire.

As more and more all-terrain vehicles take to the trails, many landowners are rebelling against noise, torn-up property and disrespect on the part of drivers -- some of them from Massachusetts, where there are fewer places to ride.

It's an issue that is so hot it has led to fisticuffs and ATV chases in some communities and even the arrest of a former Chester selectman who confronted riders on his property.

Concerned about resident complaints and about danger -- there have been six ATV-related fatal accidents in the area in the last four years -- some towns have launched ATV patrols. Others have considered banning the vehicles from public lands, or excluding out-of-town riders.

ATV riders, meanwhile, blame the problems on a handful of "renegades" who give the other riders a black eye. At least one ATV club has even asked volunteers to police trails and look for offenders.

Thomas Lewis and his wife, Cheryl Keim, are among the complainers. They say they are fed up with all-terrain-vehicle and dirt-bike riders who continue to tear up their land.

More than two years ago, the Hampstead couple rebuilt an old stone wall on their property three times before ATV riders finally stopped tearing it down and driving through the back yard of their Pilgrim Circle home.

Since then, however, ATV riders have cut a trail through private property, including some of the couple's land. The trail runs from Route 121A in Plaistow along private property into Hampstead and Kingston, Keim said. "It's like an ATV highway," Keim said. "It's wide enough to drive a truck through it. The total disrespect they have for the land, not just the landowners, but the land itself, is what bothers me the most. The fact that they've never asked permission to use the property is upsetting. I wasn't brought up that way. They go up and down the hills causing gully washes. What they do is so blasted noisy and awful. They wreak havoc. They come to a stream and ride over it and rip it up. Every time they go around the puddle created they rip it up and make it bigger. They think it's fun." Some New Hampshire landowners, including Keim, are miffed that some of the people riding on their property don't even live in town.

"I'm fairly certain a substantial number of the riders are from Massachusetts," Keim said. "They come from another state, and many of them are young, and their parents use the ATVs like baby sitters."

Of the 24,047 ATVs and trail bikes registered in New Hampshire, 4,180 -- or 17 percent -- are registered to nonresidents, with a majority of those living in Massachusetts, said Chris Gamache of the New Hampshire Bureau of Trails.

Many Massachusetts residents travel to the Granite State because there are far fewer "riding opportunities" in the Bay State, which does not have anything close to New Hampshire's 800 miles of trails, including state and club trails, Gamache said.

The Rockingham Recreation Trail -- the most popular ATV trail in the Granite State -- happens to be the closest to the Massachusetts border, and many of its riders are from Bay State communities, including Methuen, North Andover and Haverhill. The trail runs through Derry, Hampstead, Danville, Sandown and Fremont.

Walter Fields, who lives with his family on Hampstead Road in Sandown, also complains about the cloud of dirt stirred up by fast-moving ATVs. "You can stand there and see this dust come right up the hill," he said. "If you've got the windows open in the summertime, the dust comes right in." Fields used to walk his dog along the trail behind his house, but he stopped because of the ATV riders.

This summer, area police departments are stepping up their enforcement efforts to deal with ATV complaints on the Rockingham trail and elsewhere, anticipating more problems as summer approaches and students get out of school.

"We all have the same problem," Hampstead Police Chief Joseph A. Beaudoin Jr. said. "It's not the majority of the riders, but a few give the rest a bad name. They have complete disrespect for the laws of the land. They operate them too fast, they operate them too loud, they operate them on private property without permission. And those few are creating all the problems for us and the surrounding towns."

Richard Goudarzi, executive director of the Granite State ATV Association, defends the sport, agreeing with Beaudoin that a minority of ATV riders -- who are disrespectful and disregard the laws -- give all the others a bad name.

"I think right now the prejudice in New Hampshire against ATV riders is rampant and unfounded," Goudarzi said. "We're very visible and because we're so visible, we're an easy target. All it takes is one loud bike or ATV at the wrong time to upset a community. Over 90 percent of the riders conform to the rules and are responsible and respectful of the land and the landowners."

During a "spring fling" in Keene sponsored by the association earlier this spring, the only complaints communities received involved riders who were not part of the event, he said. Those included noise complaints and driving on private property without permission of landowners, he said. There were no problems created by the 450 riders who were part of the official event, Goudarzi said.

Representing 23 clubs in the Granite State, the association has taken steps to try to get all ATV riders to follow the rules and respect landowners. This has involved establishing a "full trail patrol program" for the clubs, making them "ambassadors" on the trails. They give out directions and help out with any ATV problems.

"As a courtesy, they also point out that riders need to comply with the requirements of the trail, which means no excessive speeds and no excessively loud exhaust systems," he said.

Many local police departments are relying on grant money from the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department to launch ATV patrols to enforce the laws governing use of the vehicles.

Violations include everything from altering exhaust systems to make them extra loud to driving on private property without written permission from the landowner. Even a failure to come to a complete stop for a horseback rider is a violation. Violators can face citations ranging from $60 to $120.

Through a new program, which started three years ago, 47 police departments and one sheriff's department will receive a total of $335,646 this summer through the latest round of grants for ATV enforcement patrols.

Local police departments receiving the grant money, announced last week, include Derry, which will receive $13,440; Salem, $6,720; Hampstead, $4,200; Pelham, $10,080; Windham, $15,120; Londonderry, $5,400; Danville, $6,552; Kingston, $7,644; Newton, $5,040; and Plaistow, $5,040.

An increase in ATV registration fees makes the grant money available. Beaudoin, the Hampstead police chief, is in the process of setting up Hampstead's first ATV police patrol that will be in action this summer. He is using $2,500 from his regular budget along with a $4,200 grant from Fish & Game to set it up.

It will patrol the section of the Rockingham Recreation Trail that runs through Hampstead as well as other spots in town used by ATV riders without permission of the landowners.

One of those areas is a sand and gravel pit, located off of Owen's Court, owned by Hampstead resident Charles Ashford.

"It used to be out of control with the number of bikes there," Ashford said about his sand pit. "About a year ago, my wife and I saw about 40 bikes of all different kinds there -- four-wheelers, motorcycles and dirt bikes. I called Fish & Game and they did a great job of cleaning them out, but I can't get rid of them one hundred percent.

"I put up signs prohibiting off-road vehicles, supplied by Fish & Game, and we blocked off every place imaginable with rocks so they won't come in, but they still get around them somehow and come in," Ashford said. "The four-wheelers drive me wacko. They tear up everything you own, and you can't say anything to them. You can't stop them. They could care less. You can hear them at midnight or one o'clock."

Some local lawmakers and selectmen are tackling the issue another way -- through legislation. One law passed by the Legislature last year closed a section of the Rockingham Trail in Windham.

But Goudarzi criticized the legislation, saying closing that portion of the popular trail was a "horrible disservice to the area."

"Enough people raised enough stink without any real input from the user community," Goudarzi said.

Atkinson is one of several Southern New Hampshire towns that has cracked down on ATV use. It bans the vehicles from town-owned trails. Danville last year considered a ban on out-of-town ATV riders on town-owned trails, but dropped the idea until local ATV riders could provide more input.

Some property owners have taken matters into their own hands. A former Chester selectman, Andrew Hadik, was charged with criminal threatening after confronting three off-road riders trespassing on his land, but the charge was dropped when he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 12 months at the county House of Correction, which was suspended on good behavior.

Another incident started with trespassing and a fight between riders and a landowner, and resulted in a two-hour police chase and the arrest of two men on the Rockingham Recreation Trail in Sandown last September.

While most police departments haven't started their ATV patrols yet, Derry has had an ATV patrol on the Rockingham Recreation Trail every weekend since the beginning of April. A five-mile stretch of the trail runs through Derry.

Six Derry police take turns manning the department's two Suzuki four-wheelers.

Derry Police Officer Jack Hall is one of them. He said the initial problem police confronted was altered exhaust systems that made too much noise. "We have addressed that through enforcement and we're not seeing those people out there any more due to the law enforcement effort. All that was needed was a little policing," Hall said. "More and more families are coming out on the trails. They are happy to see us out there. Word is getting out that we're patrolling."