ATV Reprise: USFS and Cook County Roads

True's mailbox includes a packet from the U.S. Forest Service about their proposed OHV (ATV) trails and asking for public comment. With chagrin, he notes that the public comment period ended today.
Still, True has read and studied the USFS scoping document as well as their maps and he thanks our Tofte and Gunflint ranger staff for making this process very open, for coming to town and county meetings, for mailing out information to interested parties such as Yours Truly. He is impressed at the effort to close dead-end trails, reclassify roads, and create trails to move from the lower to the upper forest. Okay, he (I) don't like or want ATVs over-running our county but if they must and will come here let them come to designated trails. As Tofte district ranger John Wytanis put it, "We are not going to allow everything, and we are not going to allow nothing."
But, unfortunately, on the ATV issue most all of the comments come from the ATVers themselves. Notably, a four-page document was submitted by the local ATV club recommending additional trails to be opened. Ugga bugga boo.
For most of us, the USFS plan is a compromise we can reluctantly live with, but not for the hard-core folks who like to enjoy the environment by destroying it. This puts me in mind of nasty little boys who tear the wings off of butterflies because they just don't SEE anything outside their personal ego demands for instant gratification.
Metaphors aside, a more serious ATV issue looms on the horizon, that being permission to ride on virtually all county roads. Last time the county had a public hearing at least two-thirds of those attending were strongly pro-ATV. Next time, who knows? We have a statewide lobby that would just love to devour Cook County as an ATV destination.
Commissioner Jim Johnson has promised to vote against the Open Season ATV Plan (because his constituents are adamantly opposed) but most of them, like politicos everywhere, are just watching to see which way the wind blows. Commissioner Bruce Martinson, at least, has been vocal in his reports to his West End constituency about all of the issues in play here; his personal concern is safety.
True (aka yours truly) admits that there will be an increased ATV presence here in Cook County and hopes that if enough folks who love the peace and quiet of the woods, or even enough folks who understand that the economy will suffer if the ATVers take over the woods, will speak out in time to make a difference, in time to set limits we can live with.