CENSORED: ATV proponent takes Country Today editor for a spin
I sent the following as a letter to the editor of The Country Today, a weekly newspaper about rural issues in Wisconsin and Minnesota, after reading this one-sided, front page news article. Moments after sending it, TCT Managing Editor Scott Schultz called me to say he wouldn’t publish it unless I rewrote it so “that it doesn’t impugn one of my reporters by calling her lazy.”
If TCT doesn’t publish self-criticism, I asked him, how then would the reporter be held accountable for such shoddy journalism? In this instance, Schultz said his reporter made one factual error for which a correction would be printed. Otherwise, Schultz said she did her job and, besides, I’m “just an advocate.”
Sure, I’m an advocate. I admit it: I’m an advocate for nonmotorized sports enthusiasts AND for fair news coverage of the issues important to us.
Here’s what I wrote:
It was sad to see Regional Editor Sara Bredesen fall victim to the ATV industry’s chief spin doctor in her April 29 coverage of the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board’s decision not to permit ATV trails in the Northern Highland-American Legion (NH-AL) State Forest.
Breseden’s reporting was so lazy, her primary source, Wisconsin ATV Association President Randy Harden, was allowed to redefine the issue – an issue that in reality was decided after a two-year process that included many more persuasive points of view rooted in environmental science, recreational trend analyses and fairness to the public at large.
In addition to handing Harden the reins to her story, Breseden made one particularly large error: The DNR proposed a 30-foot-wide ATV trail corridor, not a 60-foot-wide one as she reported. The fact is many of the service roads the ATVs would have followed are already 30 feet wide.
It is dishonest of Mr. Harden to claim to be surprised by the trail widths and estimated costs provided by the DNR for 78.6 miles of the ATV trails recommended by a stakeholders group on which Mr. Harden served.
NH-AL Superintendent Steve Peterson said he told Harden and the other stakeholders early in the process that the ATV trails would need to be 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.
ADDED: The fact that wetlands, lakes and streams constitute as much as 30 percent of the NH-AL, many lengthy boardwalks and bridges would have been required to accomodate ATV travel, the most expensive aspect of the now rejected project.
The problem is, Harden’s ATV organization is not in the business of building sustainable ATV trails; in fact, he does very little to promote accepted development standards. Harden is primarily in the business of demanding ATV access to public land – any and all public land – regardless of how much ATVs cause environmental damage, noise and air pollution and displace the majority of visitors who prefer nonmotorized recreation.
It was irresponsible of Breseden to allow Harden to claim, without proof or challenge, that the process determining whether ATVs belonged in the NH-AL was “hijacked by silent sport people” and dismiss legitimate concerns for ATVers straying off trail. “He said that might have been the problem 25 years ago in the early days of the sport, but it is not true now,” Breseden reported.
Surely Breseden knows that the number of ATVs registered in Wisconsin has nearly tripled just in the past 10 years, suggesting that there is likely more conflict between their riders and hikers, bicyclists and other nonmotorized recreationists.
All she needed to read was the DNR’s 2005-2010 Wisconsin Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) which states, “It is evident that ATV riding is incompatible with every other land-based activity but snowmobiling.” The SCORP also points out that 85 percent of outdoor enthusiasts in Wisconsin prefer nonmotorized activities.
For further proof that ATVers are very much inclined to stray off trail and trespass, Breseden could have cited a 2007 survey of Wisconsin ATVers by Bob Smail, a graduate student in the UW-Stevens Point’s College of Natural Resources. Smail found 65 percent of trail-riding ATVers admitting they prefer to ride off of maintained trails designed specifically for them. “While this does not indicate that (the majority of ATV) users will disobey trail rules, it does suggest that by staying on-trail, users will be suppressing a preference for riding off-trail,” Smail warned.
It could be argued that Breseden presented both sides in her story. But while the overwhelming opposition to ATV trails in the NH-AL was given one paragraph and a partial quote, Harden got the lede and an additional 11 paragraphs devoted to his POV, however misleading and dishonest it was.
While there was no evidence of independent research or critical thinking on Breseden’s part, it is fortunate the DNR and Natural Resources Board did not take the same approach to the ATV issue in the NH-AL. The state’s largest forest has been spared for those who value safe and serene wild places. Thank goodness.
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– Joel Patenaude