Sounding (the silent sports) ALARM

In one voice, NRB says 'no' to ATVs in the NH-AL

After two years of study and unprecedented public debate, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (NRB) finally answered the question "Should ATV trails be built within the Northern Highland-American Legion (NH-AL) State Forest?"

With a unanimous 7-0 vote yesterday afternoon, the board simply replied, "No."
So with "overall public opposition" cited as one of the reasons, the NH-AL has been spared from the environmental damage and recreational displacement ATV riders would cause

The NRB's decision was anticipated only since April 11 when Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank issued his recommendation to the board that the 78.6 miles of proposed ATV trails through the 230,000-acre forest, Wisconsin's largest, "not be considered further."

The NRB accepted Frank's detailed recommendation, which estimated the ATV trails would cost between $4.8 million and $14.9 million to build through an area 30 percent covered by wetlands, lakes and streams.

NRB members asked few questions of the 27 people who testified (all but two of which opposed ATVs in the NH-AL) and didn't spend any time discussing the issue amongst themselves before voting.

One board member, anticipating there would be little debate among his colleagues, assured the 75 people present that the board has been considering the ATV trail plan for more than a year.

The vote was met with applause, sighs of relief and congratulations among the many assembled advocates for an ATV-free NH-AL. Sue Drum and her Vilas County-based organization Northwoods Citizens for Responsible Stewardship worked tirelessly on the issue – starting not long after the hard-fought passage of a 2004 referendum against ATVs on Vilas County land. Drum rallied the troops time and again, and the coalition represented at Tuesday's meeting –including a biologist, geologist, professional wildlife photographer and many nonmotorized recreation advocates – was laregely a culmination of her efforts

ATV trail fan avoids NRB to 'save gas'

Curiously, no one at Tuesday's meeting of the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (NRB) spoke out in favor of the particular ATV trails proposed for the Northern Highland-American Legion (NH-AL) State Forest.

Of the 27 people who testified, only Jane Severt and Mike Peterson, representing the Wisconsin County Forests Association, questioned the DNR's recommendation against ATV trails in the NH-AL.

Peterson said the state agency's NHAL ATV Trail Feasibility/Suitability Study "infers there are ATV riding opportunities elsewhere. That's a transparent statement that the county forests must provide the trails."

While there are nearly 8,000 miles of legal ATV trails and routes through 32 mostly northern Wisconsin counties, many of the trails cross state land. The DNR is also "committed" to recreational ATV riding through its ATV registration and trail maintenance grant programs, according to Paul DeLong, administrator of the DNR's Forestry Division.

The DNR's recommendation not to build ATVs in the NH-AL "should not be viewed as a lack of support for ATVs," DeLong said.

Yet no one from the Wisconsin ATV Association (WATVA) addressed the NRB on Tuesday. Nevertheless, WATVA tried at the 11th hour to get the DNR to change course. (In fact, it was the only outside group thanked for its late input by DNR Secretary Matt Frank in his April 11 memo to the NRB.)

This morning in a phone interview, WATVA President Randy Harden told Silent Sports he didn't go because the NRB's decision "was a foregone conclusion."

While WATVA Vice President Rob McConnell attended the NRB meeting, Harden did not. "Why waste gas driving there like you people?" he cynically asked of this writer and the many other nonmotorized recreation advocates who did go to the meeting.

Harden said his organization decided to rest its case on written comments submitted earlier to the DNR. In an April 10 letter addressed to DeYoung, Harden and McConnell argued against the need for a 30-foot-wide trail corridor for ATVs. They suggested that the ATV trails in the NH-AL be half as wide and include paved and hilly "technical" sections.

While the WATVA officials said "long, straight trails are found to be boring" by ATVers, they conceded the DNR's plan to have ATV riders follow existing fireroads "does minimize further fragmentation of forestland."

NH-AL Superintendent Steve Peterson suggested Harden is feigning surprise when he claims he didn't expect the DNR to map ATV trails wide enough for two-way motor vehicle traffic.

"I remember walking the possible routes with them and talking about the need to ditch and crown the trails, which would have to be shared with trucks," Peterson said. "Most of the ATV trails would have followed forest roads that are already 30 feet wide."

Harden and McConnell also expressed doubt the ATV trails would cost $4.8 million to $14.9 million to build, as estimated by the DNR.

In their letter, they suggested eliminating from the plan a 11.6-mile section of trail through what the DNR described as an "ecologically sensitive" peatlands area. Because that trail alone would have required 3,250 feet of boardwalk and cost as much as $5.1 million, it was the least likely alternative to be constructed anyway.

The NRB decision to accept the DNR's recommendation will likely keep the NH-AL closed to ATVs until at least 2020 when a new master plan for the forest will be due. The master planning process will start in 2018. Only a change in state statute could keep ATVs out of the NH-AL permanently.

OUTAGAMIE CO. VOTES TO KEEP TRAIL CLOSED TO ATVS

The Outagamie, Wisconsin, County Board has voted 27-4 to keep ATVs off the rural, yet-to-be developed 22.8-mile Seymour to New London rail-trail.

The March 25 decision ended a months-long debate over whether the trail should be open to ATVs, and thus unappealing to hikers and unrideable for bicyclists. Now the trail has potention to help connect several existing nonmotorized trails in east central Wisconsin (including the Wiouwash, Friendship, Mountain Bay and Fox River state trails).

Although a local ATV club, backed by the Wisconsin ATV Association, lobbied hard for access to the trail, that effort was more than matched by the grass-roots organizing of Fox Cities Greenways Inc., the Fox Valley Chapter of the Sierra Club, Bicycling Federation of Wisconsin, Pacesetters Running Club and many individuals interested in keeping the trail nonmotorized.

Before the vote, several county supervisors said they were convinced the trail was a poor location for ATV riding. Some expressed doubt that state funding would cover the cost of trail maintenance and law enforcement if it was opened to year-round motorized use. And one county supervisor said he  received 20 letters from citizens and every one of them requested that ATVs be kept off the trail.

A state grant for $180,000 can now be put toward developing the trail. Because snowmobiling will be allowed on the trail in the winter, the county has received some state snowmobile trail maintenance funds already.

There is already talk of establishing a a Friends of the Seymour-New London trail group to help see the project through, provide volunteer maintenance and promote the trail.

MADISON COUNCIL ADOPTS 'BICYCLE FRIENDLY' PLAN

By a 19-1 vote on April 8, the city council  of Madison, Wisconsin, adopted all 100 recommendations in the city's Platinum Bicycling Committee's report "Making Madison the Best Place in the Country to Bicycle."

The goal is to earn the city the highest "bicycle friendly community" designation bestowed by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). Madison became one of seven gold-level bicycle friendly communities in 2006. Only Davis, California, is rated patinum by LAB.

The committee's 73-page report completed last December details how facilitating bicycling would improve the quality of life for city residents, promote healthy activity and increase environmental sustainability.

The recommendations in the report include providing more bike paths, lanes, routes and bicycle parking facilites. It suggests that the police conduct more patrols by bike and report bicycle crashes for safety analysis.

The committee also advocated putting on a summer bike festival and monthly "Sunday parkways ride," during which selected streets are closed to motor vehicles and opened to bicyclists and pedestrians. Some communities in South America do this. And Chicago closes Lake Shore Drive for the annual Bike The Drive event, which is set for May 25 (www.bikethedrive.org).

The city also needs a "safe routes to school" plan that encourages young people to ride their bikes and assures parents their children will be safe doing so, the committee report states.

All the recommendations in the report can be implemented within the next 10 years, said Robbie Webber, a city alderperson and Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin staff member.