At a June 13 "open house" in Brimson, the Minnesota DNR declared that 880 miles of user-made ATV routes are "sustainable ATV trails". Yet, according to DNR staff "a cursory approach has been taken to identify many of these routes soley from aerial photographs", not from on-the-ground inspection. The DNR has inventoried 1100 miles of roads and user-made ATV routes and is poised to permanently "designate" them as "open". Designation will be irreversible and will proceed without public and environmental review. Designation of what the DNR calls "sustainable ATV trails" in the Cloquet Valley State Forest would create one the largest concentrations of publicly funded ATV routes in Minnesota. No quiet place will remain in the Cloquet Valley State Forest. DNR Map of inventoried routes (PDF, 2.8 MB).
While multiple anonymous sources close to or inside the DNR's internal planning process have informed MRR that an unofficial but unannounced desire persists to designate at least 600 miles of ATV routes in the Cloquet Valley State Forest, the DNR has engaged the public in a series of "open houses" this week to obfuscate this fact.
The DNR's own press release announcing the "open houses" is designed to further obfuscate this fact and to mislead the public into believing something benign is taking place. While the purpose of the "open houses" is to legitimize the DNR's intensions to designate permanent ATV routes in the Cloquet Valley State Forest, the words "ATV" , "all-terrain vehicle", "off-highway vehicle", "off-road vehicle" or any referece to these machines are entirely missing from the DNR's 6/5/06 release. 6/5/06 DNR Press Release
DNR Background on "Road and Trail Designation Forest Classification" also omits any reference to ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks, which are entirely the subject and focus of "trail designation forest classification".
No Public and Environmental Review of DNR ATV Proposals in State Forests
Despite a 2003 Legislative Audit recommendation that Environmental Assessment Worksheets be completed before designating ATV routes, the Minnesota legislature, in 2003, "suspended" this one and only right of citizens to intervene regarding proposed routes on state forest land. An Environmental Assessment Worksheet is a three page, thirty question worksheet which requires proposers to respond to questions regarding potential effects on vegetation, soils, waters, wetlands, wildlife and other forest users. MRR considers completion of EAWs to be the essential first step in determining if and where ATV use is to be allowed. The EAW process provides the public a 30-day comment period after completion of the EAW and in response to decisions made by the project proposer. The EAW process empowers citizens with the option of challenging unacceptable ATV proposals in court. The DNR and local clubs have a well documented history of situating and constructing ATV routes in wetlands, on private property and adjacent to quiet recreation areas.
The wholesale designation of ATV routes without completion of Environmental Assessment Worksheets violates the number one recommendation of the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor and puts the Cloquet Valley State Forest and those who value and enjoy it in jeopardy. This also amounts to taxation without representation as the DNR uses public funds to develop ATV access to public land. The public pays $15 million dollars each year at the pump to unwittingly promote use of ATVs and other forms of motorized recreation. Minnesota's public lands are owned by all citizens in common. The DNR's wholesale designation of ATV routes in the Cloquet Valley State Forest violates best management practices and the principles on which our democracy is based.
Speak up!
Tell the DNR you will not accept any designated ATV routes in the Cloquet Valley State Forest without completion of Environmental Assessment Worksheets.
Mail or e-mail your comments by June 30 to:
jim.weseloh@dnr.state.mn.us
Jim Weseloh
DNR NE Region Planner
1201 E. Highway 2
Grand Rapids, MN 55744
218-999-7914
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