Sounding (the silent sports) Alarm
Causes for concern & action
RIVERS AND TRAILS PROGRAM WORTH SAVING
An important federal trails program – The Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) – is facing significant funding cuts in next year's federal budget. RTCA supports 300 projects around the country each year, helping create nearly 700 miles of trail and preserving more than 61,000 acres of open space.
One advocate for the program is the International Mountain Bicycling
Association (IMBA) because the RTCA has proven supportive of mountain biking and partnered with IMBA on eight projects in 2005.
To help save RTCA, IMBA is requesting that Congress appropriate $10.1 million in their Interior Appropriations bill. This amount will restore RTCA's effectiveness by compensating for several years of flat and decreased funding, including a $200,000 cut last year.
Senator Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, are circulating an internal
Senate petition to show support for funding RTCA at $10.1 million. IMBA believes 30 senators are needed to sign on to restore the funding.
Besides being an efficient funding program, RTCA leverages an additional $50 million annually from local communities to improve their trail and conservation systems. Communities depend on RTCA staff to continue to facilitate hundreds of programs and the proposed budget cuts would stop dozens of projects and lead to serious job losses.
Trail projects
in the upper Midwest earmarked to receive RTCA funding this year but in danger of losing financial support in the future are:
• 11 in Wisconsin (including projects in Madison, Milwaukee, Racine County and the Northeast Wisconsin Lake Michigan Water Trail);
• 10 in Minnesota (including projects in the Bruce Vento Mississippi River Trail Connection and the Swedish Immigrant Trail);
• 6 in Illinois (including the Northeastern Illinois Water Trails and the Confluence Experience
Initiative at the Mississippi and Missouri rivers);
• 9 in Michigan (including the Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route Bike Path and the Detroit and Huron Rivers Heritage Water Trail);
• 7 in Iowa (including the Iowa River Greenbelt Water Trail); • also the Point Douglas Trail and the St. Croix River Crossing Loop Trail of both Minnesota and Wisconsin. With enough Senate support, RTCA and the valuable trails work it makes possible can be saved. For trail
enthusiasts in several states, particularly in Wisconsin, the senators' support is key. To reach your two U.S. Senators, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202/224-3121.
'SHARE THE ROAD' BILL PASSES IN IOWA
Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack on April 6 signed into law a bill that requires instructors of driver's ed course to make would-be motorists aware of the need to share the road with bicycles and motorcycles.
The bill was passed with the support and help of the Iowa
Bicycle Coalition, Iowa Department of Transportation and the League of American Bicyclists.
BILL TO AID BIKE SAFETY IN MICHIGAN SENATE
The Michigan Senate Transportation Committee on May 9 unanimously approved Senate Bill 1224 which would modify the Michigan Vehicle Code as it relates to bicyclists.
SB 1224 would do the following:
• Give bicyclists in the crosswalk the same rights as pedestrians and requires motorist to yield to bicyclists. The use of crosswalks by
bicyclists is becoming more common with the proliferation of off-road trails, and children are the largest group that use crosswalks on their bicycles.
• Allow bicycles to be parked on the sidewalk where it is not disallowed by signage and where the bicycle does not interfere with pedestrian traffic. To facilitate the use of bicycles for short trips and errands, riders need to be able to park on the sidewalk in front of businesses.
• Eliminates language that allows local ordinance to
require bicyclists to use an adjacent side path. The bill would also remove the requirement that bicyclists under age 16 use side paths unless an adult accompanies him or her.
For more information, go to the League of Michigan Bicyclists' website, www.lmb.org; call 517/334-9100 or write to LMM, 410 S. Cedar St, Suite G, Lansing, MI 48912.
ACT WEAKENS ONTARIO WILDERNESS PROTECTION
The government of Ontario, Canada, recently proposed a new Provincial Parks and
Conservation Reserves Act to replace the existing Provincial Parks Act that has not been substantially revised for more than 50 years. According to the Quetico Foundation, the new act seriously threatens the wilderness character and ecological integrity of the province's Wilderness parks such as Quetico.
Despite a statement that maintenance of ecological integrity is the priority of park management, the new Act removes the prohibition on mechanized travel, opening the door to ATVs,
motorboats, snowmobiles, aircraft and mountain bikes.
Under the new Act, logging roads, mining roads and utility corridors would be allowed to cross parks. The potential negative effects of activities or development outside of parks but immediately adjacent to their boundaries go unaddressed in the new Act.
The Quetico Foundation urges citizens, including U.S. users of the Quetico, to express their concerns by writing to Premier Dalton McGuinty and Minister of Natural Resources David
Ramsay at dram say.mpp.kirklandlake@liberal.ola.org.
The New Act can be read in its entirety at www.ontla.on.ca/documents/Bills/38_Parliament/session2/b011_e.htm.
MINN. DNR HOLDS OPEN HOUSES ON RUM RIVER FOREST TRAILS
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will hold two open houses to discuss proposed motor
vehicle use classification and forest road and trail designations for the Rum River State Forest. The DNR proposal deals specifically with motor vehicle and off-highway vehicle (OHV) access to and use of the forest, which is located in east-central Mille Lacs and western Kanabec counties. OHVs include all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles and off-road vehicles, such as four-wheel-drive jeeps or trucks.
The DNR proposes to retain the "limited" classification for the 17,000-acre Rum
River State Forest, and for the approximately 5,800 acres of DNR Forestry-administered lands that lie outside the forest boundary in Mille Lacs County. A "limited" classification means motor vehicle use is permitted only on roads and trails signed as "open" to motor vehicle use. Unsigned or non-designated routes would be effectively closed to most vehicular use under this plan, except for seasonal hunting and trapping activities.
Public meetings to review the proposed reclassification
and road and trail use designations will be Tuesday, July 18, at the Ralph Olson Center in Onamia, and Thursday, July 20, at the Kanabec History Center in Mora. Both meetings are scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m. Written or e-mail comments may be sent to brian.mccann@dnr.state.mn.us or to the above address. Comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on July 28.
The forest reclassification proposal, road and trail designation plan and related maps
are available at www.dnr.state.mn.us or or by contacting Brian McCann, DNR, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155-4052. | 
