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Sounding (the silent sports) Alarm [2.07] ATV BAN SOUGHT FOR MISSISSIPPI HEADWATERS Environmental advocates and canoeists want the Minnesota DNR to ban ATVs from trails beside the headwaters of the Mississippi. The request is the result of evidence that ATV riders are disregarding efforts to contain their use in the Mississippi Headwaters State Forest. "No Motorized Vehicles" signs have been pulled out of the ground, boulders meant to block them have been moved, and deep ruts are evident on the sides of bluffs where ATVs have been repeatedly driven. The Headwaters State Forest, containing most of the Mississippi's first 40 miles beyond its source at Lake Itasca, is a pristine canoe route of national importance. The Minnesota DNR rarely closes entire forests to ATVs, however. In fact, the DNR has approved 386 miles of trails for ATVs in eight of the state's 58 forests, in addition to more than 1,000 miles of dirt roads available in those forests. The agency won't announce its recommendations for the Mississippi Headwaters Forest until next spring. As of early December, more than 50 people have written letters with all but one favoring closure of the area to ATVs. "For people who want to canoe down the river, and then have to experience those ATVs, I think that's a crime," Jerry Maertens, issues chairman for the Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society in Bemidji, told the Minneapolis State Tribune. Neil Freborg, a DNR conservation officer in the area, said that the site has been a frequent source of complaints, but that sign destruction, speeding and wetland damage occur just as often in other areas. "It's not just in the Mississippi Headwaters. It's everywhere," he said, according to the Tribune. Matt Norton, an attorney for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said the sharing of public land by motorized and nonmotorized users often fail. Those who prefer quiet recreation are driven from areas where off-road driving becomes popular, he said. "There are some things that just don't mix," Norton told the newspaper. RUM RIVER FOREST PLAN PERMITS MOTORIZED REC An ongoing process to manage recreational activities on Minnesota's public lands has led the Minnesota DNR to maintain the "limited" classification for the Rum River State Forest in regard to motorized recreation. Under the limited classification, motor vehicles are permitted only on routes that are signed as open to their use. Because of waterlogged soils in the area, no trails were designated for use by off-highway vehicles in the Rum River State Forest, but about 18 miles of forest system roads and minimum maintenance roads will be open to use by both highway-licensed vehicles and OHVs. The 20,000-acre Rum River State Forest is located in east-central Mille Lacs and western Kanabec counties. The limited classification also will apply to state forestlands outside the forest boundaries in Mille Lacs County. Snowmobile trails in the forest will not be affected. Limited use of motorized vehicles on undesignated trails by licensed hunters and trappers during specified legal seasons also will be allowed in the Rum River State Forest. However, a 570-acre nonmotorized area will be created in west-central Kanabec County to protect a geologically rare and ecologically sensitive natural area. The new plan will take effect September 1. In 2003, the Minnesota Legislature enacted a law requiring the DNR to evaluate and reclassify all state forestlands in regard to motorized access. The evaluation process is expected to take at least until the end of 2008. Criteria used to decide where OHV use is appropriate include the potential for damage to vegetation, wildlife, wetlands and other sensitive natural resources, existing motorized use patterns within a forest and the proximity of other motorized and nonmotorized recreational opportunities. The final forest road and trail designation plan and related maps and designation orders are available at www.dnr.state.mn.us. DNR PUBLISHES ONLINE NEW FOREST ACCESS PLANS In its ongoing effort to keep outdoor recreational users informed, the Minnesota DNR has announced a new online update on its forest access planning process. The newsletter will be published on the DNR website on the first Monday of each month. The publication, called "On Track," will list key dates, events, developments and deadlines in the road and trail designation planning processes, which will continue through December 2008, according to Brian McCann, Trails and Waterways planner. The monthly newsletter will be posted on the DNR website on the Trails and Waterways "Plans and Proposals" page, which can be accessed at www.findthetrails.com . Each issue will also be distributed through the DNR's online news service, CyberNews, for subscribers to the Trails News list server. Subscribe at www.dnr.state.mn.us. For more information about the forest access planning process, or for a printed copy of the "On Track" newsletter, contact Brian McCann at 651/259-5627 or brian.mccann@dnr.state.mn.us. POLARIS CEO CHANGES TUNE ON ATV SALES TREND Minnesota-based Polaris Industries CEO Tom Tiller is distancing himself from comments he made July 19, 2004, on a Minnesota Public Radio call-in show. He said then that two-thirds of ATVs sold are used for utility purposes and the recreation market accounts for only a third of total ATV sales. When ATV proponents and DNR officials have suggested the opposite – that most people buy ATVs to ride recreationally and therefore demand is great for more ATV trails and access to public lands – silent sports advocates have quoted Tiller. But in a December 7, 2006, letter to Wisconsin ATV Association President Randy Harden, Tiller claimed his comment has been "taken out of context" and "inaccurately represented." Tiller wrote, "The majority of our utility ATV customers do participate in recreational riding." He went on to cite a 2006 survey of Polaris customers indicating that 95 percent reported "using their machines for recreational riding, including hunting." What Tiller is now telling his customer base is very different from what he said on the radio to the general public less than three years ago. Here's what he said, in context and verbatim, as the archived Minnesota Public Radio interview reveals: "Most of the calls this morning would have you believe that every ATV is used on a trail in the state of Minnesota. That's not quite exactly the case. About two-thirds of the ATVs that are sold are actually sold for a work application, so if you think of a dairy farmer or you think of a rancher or you think of maybe someone who owns some acreage up in the Brainerd area, they might use an ATV to plow their driveway, they might use it to clean up the barnyard, to put up some fence posts. That's where the vast majority of ATVs have been used and are used. The recreation market is about a third of the total ATV industry." ATV MANUFACTURERS FIND ALLY IN NRA Makers of all-terrain vehicles have found a strong ally in the National Rifle Association. Meanwhile, various conservation groups are questioning the use of ATVs in hunting. "Unregulated, irresponsible and out-of-control use of ATVs threatens our hunting heritage," said Montana Wildlife Federation president David Stalling. "Simply put, unmanaged ATV use is reducing habitat security, increasing big-game vulnerability and, in the long term, greatly reducing hunting opportunities." In a speech to the annual conference of the Outdoor Writers Association of America two years ago, NRA president Kayne Robinson announced his group would lobby for laws that make it more difficult to close public lands to motor vehicles. Robinson said the NRA can't do much about the loss of wildlife habitat to development and urban sprawl, but it can lobby on behalf of access to the remaining land for blue-collar hunters. The NRA and Kawasaki Motors have even teamed up to release a special edition ATV: the Brute Force 750 4x4i NRA Outdoors. In light of these partnerships, Tony Dean, a columnist for the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, newspaper The Argus Leader, asked in early January, "Is the NRA a Second Amendment organization concerned with hunter and gun rights, or a shill for the ATV industry?" Dean pointed out, "There's nothing evil about ATVs. ... It isn't the ATV that's to blame for habitat damage or bothering wildlife, or the NRA, for that matter. It's the fault of those who willingly choose to use an ATV irresponsibly." ATV'ERS SEEK RAIL-TRAIL ACCESS EXEMPTION The federal Transportation Enhancement (TE) Program provides funding for trails with the stipulation they be nonmotorized, with the exception of winter snowmobiling. Now ATV groups in Vermont also want an exemption to gain summer and winter access to a TE funded rail-trail now under development. This the first time an exemption for ATVs has been formally requested. New Federal Highway Administration guidelines are in their final stages of review. A nonrestrictive set of guidelines could open up the floodgates to year-round ATV use on TE funded trails across the country. TE-funded trail users are encouraged to contact their state and federal officials to express support for maintaining the intent and integrity of the TE program and not allow any exemptions for recreational all terrain vehicle use on TE funded projects.
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