Letter: Chippewa National Forest needs greater transparency in road closings

Written by Lake County Echo

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

In the fall of 2008, the Chippewa National Forest closed the Woodtick Trail and hundreds of miles of low-traveled roads to ATVs and other off-highway vehicles. Public hearings were held, but there was no publicity of the road closings in local media. The "NO OHV" signs went up and that was that (with fines totaling $175).

Last summer, the Woodtick Wheelers ATV/OHM Club was formed in response to those road closings. The club quickly grew to over 150 members, showing the impact the road closings had on residents and cabin owners, many who now have no access to a public forest they and their families had enjoyed for decades.

Two weeks ago, the Chippewa National Forest sent out information packets announcing its plan to close another 27 miles of roads in the Remer area, not just to ATVs but "to all traffic."

Not only did the project receive little or no publicity, it was made mid-winter when many people who use those roads are not even in the area, and it gives the public just 30 days to comment.

Enough is enough. The Chippewa National Forest needs greater transparency as it continues to close or "obliterate" roads used for decades by hunters, hikers, and everyone who enjoys the National Forest in their car, truck or ATV.

Those who run the Chippewa National Forest are not the "landowners of the National Forest," as their public liaison officer told our ATV club. They are merely the caretakers. We, the public, are the landowners. And we deserve to be treated as such.

For information on the Moon Resource Management Project, maps, and comment sheets, contact Carolyn Upton, District Ranger, Chippewa National Forest, 201 Minnesota Avenue East, Walker, MN 56484-2189, call (218) 547-1044, or go to the Chippewa National Forest Web site and click on "Projects and Plans."

The deadline for comments on this unpublicized road closing is Feb. 19.

David Halsey
Outdoor Writer, Hunter,
President of Woodtick Wheelers ATV/OHM Club

Source: http://www.pineandlakes.com/stories/020310/opinion_20100203085.shtml

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“As a rancher who leases public lands for cattle, I’ve seen my share of cut fences and rangeland damaged by ORV use. I’ve also experienced ORV trespass onto my private lands. But I’ve had no way to identify the culprits when reporting trespass or illegal ORV use to local law enforcement. Congress should require that ORVs used on public lands have visible identification plates or decals. Doing so would remove the anonymity enjoyed by ORV riders who are bent on breaking the rules.”

- Ambers Thornburgh, second-generation rancher from Oregon who grazes cattle on his private land and adjacent lands leased from the Bureau of Land Management