Dear True,
If you are one of those who still trusts the DNR to do the right thing for the environment this webpage should completely eliminate that thought.Anonymous
Hay Creek ATV damage
The Hay Creek ATV damage site is on an 80 acre parcel of our state land within thousands of acres of Cass County land. Cass County controls the access and refuses to restrict ATV riders access.
On April 4, 2005 I was hiking my favorite trail and photo documenting the massive amount of ATV damage that is taking place on our public lands because of the do-nothing MN legislature and the MN DNR.
I came across severe ongoing erosion caused by ATV riders. The trail is a winter logging trail and is designed to be used only during winter when the ground is frozen. Beavers had dammed a flowage and caused the water to run down the trail as they had done in the past only this time the deep ATV ruts concentrated the flow. Without the root matt to hold the soil it was rapidly eroding into Hay Creek during fish spawning season.
This first series was taken as I walked towards Hay Creek on 4-4-05. It shows only a very small portion of the rutted trail. I have only used a few of the photos in order to speed loading. This spring I took hundreds of similar photos of ATV damage to our forest trails in Cass and Crow Wing County forests. Gross negligence on the part of Cass and Crow Wing County officials and the MN DNR has allowed the creation of literally miles of ruts just like those shown in these photos.
Here's the beginning of the washout next to Hay Creek. The photo was taken looking backwards. It was taken on 4-4-05.
On 4-5-05 I notified the MN DNR and Cass County of the ongoing damage and emailed photos of the site.
Here is what the same site looked like on 4-12-05 seven days after I notified the MN DNR and Cass County.
Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.
Here is what the same site looked like on 4-21-05 sixteen days after I notified the MN DNR and Cass County..
Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.
Here is what the same site looked like on 5-4-05 one month later. I brought the MN DNR and Cass County staff to look at the site on that day.
Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.
Here is what the same site looked like on 7-3-05. Vegetation covers most of the site so the 4 foot deep gully is barely visible.
Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.
As of January 16, 2006 despite numerous group hugs and agency visits to the site nothing has been done to restore or stabilize this trail from continuing to erode into Hay Creek. I expect that spring runoff and spring rains will continue the process of erosion.
Even though $475,000 sits in the ATV damage account for just this sort of restoration the MN DNR still refuses to use that money. I believe it it so that pro-ATV legislators (Bakk, Dill, Penas, Hackbarth, Saxhaug and Irv Anderson) and certain DNR staff can claim it isn't needed. In 1999 when our very own MN DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten was Representative Holsten he teamed up with then Representative Tom Bakk to push an 11th hour amendment that allowed ATV riders to leave the trail and ride randomly through our forests. That helped create a No Boundaries attitude that can be seen in the ATV trails around closed signs to this day. It's no wonder that ATV riders are destroying our forest trails and wetlands with a so-what leadership like that at the very top of the MN DNR.
I was able to email a question to DNR Commissioner Holsten on MPR Midday. The host asked DNR Commissioner if he regretted pushing the 1999 amendment that allowed ATV riders to ride randomly off trail through out forests. You can hear him tapdance around the question here http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/02/05/midday2/ . Click on the listen button to the left of the image. Then scroll to 11:36 minutes to hear the question and his evasive answer. I doubt that he regrets it and only regrets that people know what he did.
You can add Senator Satveer Chaudhary's name to the Hall of Shame when it comes to supporting irresponsible and destructive OHV use in MN state forests. He is the chair of the Environment and Natural Resource Committee in the MN Senate. His actions and the bill he passed out of his committee puts him in the same league as the scoundrels above.
The MN DNR finally "restored" the Hay Creek ATV damage site. You will see what I mean by "restored" in the following photos. It is PATHETIC. Now they will refer to this site as a success story about how they, the great protectors of the environment rushed to the rescue and made everything right despite great obstacles. The MN DNR and irresponsible legislators like those named above are the obstacles to protecting our state forest from irresponsible ATV riders.
Here are before and after restoration photos of the site.
Before After
The "before" photo was taken well before the erosion was complete. The final gully was 4' deep and up to 11' wide.
Before After
I don't have any good before photos of this part of the trail shown below but as you can see it doesn't matter because the DNR didn't make any attempt to restore this portion of the trail. The majority (90%) of the trail was not touched in the "restoration".
It's no doubt that the DNR was more concerned about saving ATV damage account dollars than restoring the trail.
Cass County has refused to control access to this site even going so far as to place the gate at the east entrance to the area in such a way that ATVs and mudder trucks can go around the gate.
Cass County also refuses to close the west access point even though ATVs are riding in Pistol Lake. These photos represent only a tiny portion of the ATV ruts along the shoreline of Pistol Lake. They are clearly visible from the air and Cass County is well aware of the ongoing damage. The water from Pistol Lake flows into Hay Creek and then to Daggett Brook and finally into the Whitefish Chain before joining the Pine River on it's way to the Mississippi River. Without the cooperation of Cass County Commissioners there is little chance of enforcing any ATV regulations or protecting this site from further ATV damage. They seem to have embraced a slash-and-burn economic development philosophy when it comes to ATV regulation with their stated goal of leaving 90% of Cass County land open to ATV riders.
Unfortunately Crow Wing County has adopted the same reckless position of allowing ATV riders to destroy our trails. It is evident in that we have NO county ordinances that would allow any realistic regulation of these machines despite the fact that Crow Wing County commissioners have had years to write those ordinances.. I have photographed literally miles of deep ATV ruts in Crow Wing County.
Some of those images can be seen at http://www.crowwingcountymn.org
MN legislature stealing our gas tax dollars to give to ATV riders
Each time you buy gas the ATV riders illegally siphon off 0.27% of the Constitutionally dedicated gas tax that you paid. Each year ATV riders are stealing nearly $2 million from our badly needed transportation fund. It's called a "refund" because supposedly ATV riders cannot use our highway system but ATV riders ARE using our highway system ditches. It also violates the MN Constitution to divert money from our highways and bridges.
The ATV lobby pushed legislation that requires all ATV owners to license their vehicles even if they never leave private property. Then they steal that license money to build ATV trails. It also inflates the numbers of ATVs so that the ATV lobby now uses that massively inflated figure to justify building more trails and prevent any reasonable ATV regulations.
A study was commissioned to find out how much gas tax ATV riders pay and where they ride. After spending our tax dollars to fund the study and collecting all the data the MN DNR looked the other way when 1/2 of the study was left undone. The half that was left undone with the DNR's permission would have drastically reduced the amount of our gas tax funneled into the MN DNR Trails and Waterways. The missing part of the study showed that only 15% of riders use trails on public lands.
In a nutshell the gas tax "refund" is based on the false premise that ATV riders aren't riding in our ditches, massively inflated numbers of ATVs and that 100% of ATV riders ride on public land instead of only 15%.
Gene Larimore from the Jack Pine Coalition finished the second half of the study. Here are the results of his analysis. Gas tax His analysis has never been contested by the MN DNR or the ATV lobby.
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