After much anticipation, trails officially opened Saturday for snowmobilers across Chautauqua County. However, the day was bittersweet, as some landowners closed off trails because of trespassing concerns. YNN's Katie Cummings talks with an area snowmobile club and landowner on how it affected the season.

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MAYVILLE, N.Y. - "If you ride when the trails are not open, you're jeopardizing the trail system for everybody, including yourself," said Chautauqua Lake Snowmobile Club President Steve Smith.

Members of the Chautauqua Lake Snowmobile Club were out in Mayville Saturday preparing trails for riders by contacting landowners and other clubs, sending out trail captains and grooming. Ninety-five percent of the trail relies on landowners allowing used of their private property. At least 29 miles of the 200 miles in the county has been permanently closed off by two landowners in French Creek and Busti.

"We just recently had a nine mile section closed last night because people were out riding earlier than when the trails were open. We had a section last week that was closed because the trails were not open yet. The landowners have called and said they're taking down my gates, people are opening my gates. We had an instance on the other side of a county that a farmer’s field was opened up and all the cows had gotten out," said Smith.

In response to the incidents, the club spent Saturday putting up gates to keep snowmobilers off the closed trails. The club president and one landowner agree safety is the number one reason to stay out.

"There's plenty of trees out there that have blown down that we don't even know about yet so we can’t just pick up the phone and say trails are open, please come ride. We have to make sure it’s safe for everybody," adds Smith.

"You drive out through my fields and you could find a rock or two that would be devastating to not only your sled, but yourself," said Town of Sherman landowner Ronald Reed.

Many of the landowners, like Reed, are farmers. He says the damage done by snowmobilers hitting trails early could potentially affect their livelihood.

"The investment is huge in our crops that we have out. The compaction on a limited amount of snow can be very devastating to the crop and as early growth coming on next year and with the cost of fertilizer, the cost of everything we have. The inputs into we rely on every bit of it we can get," said Reed.