MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on ATVs in the north woods. The U.S. Forest Service is about to make a major decision about where ATVs can go and cannot go in the vast Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. Segment includes various interviews of residents and environmentalists.
The forest is a web of old logging roads and unofficial trails. The agency’s decision will keep some of them open. The stakes are high in part because the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is located in the national forest.
Transcripts
text | pdf |
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The Superior National Forest covers about three million acres. That's nearly the size of Connecticut. A million of that is the roadless boundary waters. The rest of it is crisscrossed with all kinds of roads-- paved roads, gravel roads, dirt roads, and old logging roads that aren't kept up and are slowly turning back into forest, or at least they used to. With more and more off road vehicles in the woods, those old tote roads keep getting driven on, but they're not designed to be used forever.
ATV wheels with their deep treads erode the soil. The roads get muddy, and the mud silts up the creeks. So the Forest Service wants to decide which roads should be maintained, and which should be closed. Dwayne Louella is a planner with the Forest Service. He's been working on this for a couple of years, and he'll be offering up several alternative plans at open houses over the next week. He says the idea is to close roads where ATVs don't belong, and create better routes for them to follow.
DWAYNE LOUELLA: A lot of these are really short spur roads that start somewhere and go maybe a tenth or a quarter of a mile. And what we've tried to do is to say, where can we look for opportunities where there's larger loops, and there's larger connected routes.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: He's not planning to build a lot of new trails, but rather to connect existing routes, and in some cases to allow ATVs on roads designed for truck and car traffic. That sounds good to Rhonda Silence, Secretary of the Cook County ATV Club.
RHONDA SILENCE: The more enjoyable loops you have, the longer rides that folks can ride on trails, the less likely they are going to be going out, cross country and doing damage.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: But she's disappointed the Forest Service so far doesn't seem to be routing trails near businesses like gas stations and restaurants. And she says, some Cook County folks will be disappointed at some of the road closures.
RHONDA SILENCE: A lot of those short roads go to favorite fishing holes. So I think there'll be some wins and some losses in this plan, but it'll be good to get some maps and some directions so folks know where they're supposed to go.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: A couple of environmental groups have been following the planning process, and they've got several concerns. One is invasive species like spotted knapweed, Queen Anne's lace, and purple loosestrife.
BRIAN PASKO: Invasive species around the Superior National Forest tend to be concentrated along the roadsides and trails.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: Brian Pasko with Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, says in the maps he's seen, too many trails go too close to the edge of the Boundary Waters.
BRIAN PASKO: The ATVs travel through these infested areas. The seeds get picked up on wheels and on the machine themselves. And as we extend these roads up next to the boundary waters, that increases the risk of those seeds and those invasive species traveling into the wilderness themselves.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: Environmentalists here and all over the country say the danger is that temporary roads are being made into permanent roads, and they say the Forest Service is unable to take care of the roads it has now. Vera Smith with the Wilderness Society says the Forest Service is running an $8 billion maintenance backlog. Her group has been pushing the Forest Service to consider zoning the forests. She says we need to separate motorized users from quiet users, just like city planners zoned heavy industry away from homes.
VERA SMITH: We need to make sure we're protecting large segments of the forest for those who like to hike, backpack, and camp, and otherwise have some quiet natural experience. And then we need to figure out where we can have motorized recreation in a way that it's not so damaging, and we can manage to pay for this whole system.
STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The Forest Service will offer its ideas at open houses this week and next in Duluth, Grand Marais, Ely, and other towns near the Superior National Forest. They'll take public input, and they hope to have a plan ready by hunting season this fall. Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio News, Saint Paul.