Some fed-up residents of Maisonette, N.B., have taken matters into their own hands to protect their beach and its endangered birds, but the Department of Natural Resources is unhappy with their approach.

Dozens of massive boulders have been placed across the shore because residents say they're sick of all-terrain vehicles turning their northeastern New Brunswick beach into a secondary highway.

Gaetan Dugas said it's not acceptable.

"It could be up to 40 vehicles that could be there, and it could be day round, it could be in the night, in the day, in the morning, when people are on the beach, anytime," he said.

François Chiasson with DNR says their answer isn't acceptable either.

"These rock structures, rock walls, are on Crown land," he said. "It's unauthorized, so that would be one section we would be looking at, for illegal occupation."

Another resident, Jean-Guy Robichaud, said residents had no choice.

"If the authorities and the RCMP had done their job, we wouldn't have had to spend thousands of dollars to protect our properties and our security, really."

No one will admit how the boulder barrier was constructed.

The DNR agrees that ATV riders are an issue, because their trespassing on coastal areas destroys the nesting grounds of the piping plover, an endangered bird that lays its eggs in the sand between the dunes and high-tide marks.

The sparrow-sized plovers are usually found on beaches in northeast New Brunswick. Their eggs are hard to see because of their sand-coloured camouflage.

Two ATV drivers have  been caught riding illegally, but the DNR said when it comes to keeping ATVs off the beach permanently, it's a question of breaking bad habits.

"People always historically drove up and down the coastal areas, but that is not acceptable these days anymore," Chiasson said.

Dugas thinks the ATV riders need a place of their own.

"I think that there is a need for some trail for the vehicles, that should be designated somewhere, in the forest, but not on the beach," he said.

The temporary solution put up by residents here isn't one DNR is willing to accept, but removing the rocks won't be easy.

"We're not sure how we're going to handle that one, but eventually the rocks are going to have to go back onto private land, and off Crown land," Chiasson said. "How we're going to remove them and who is going to remove them, we have to look at that."

Some residents of Maisonette said they have no plans to get rid of the stones, even if it means they're breaking the law.