Silent Sports Sounds Off

Wisconsin DNR Secretary Matt Frank is recommending against the development of ANY ATV trails in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest.

In a memo to the Natural Resources Board released this afternoon, Frank said his reasons included:

• the negative impact ATV trails would have on many of the 2 million nonmotorized NH-AL visitors every year,

• the “very strong opposition to ATVs on public land,” particularly in Vilas County,

• “the potential for adverse ecological impact” from ATV trail development,

• and the high cost of ATV trail development, on-going maintenence and law enforcement.

Frank’s recommendation comes in advance of the April 23 meeting of the Natural Resources Board (NRB), at which a final decision will be made whether to permit ATV trails in the NH-AL.

The Frank memo is an excellent sign that common sense and good public land management will prevail. And the recommendation was not unexpected by anyone that read Frank’s February memo, discussed here.

No one should assume, however, that the NRB will agree with Frank and vote to prohibit ATVs in the NH-AL. Chances are they will, but I, for one, won’t plan to attend any parties until after the votes are cast and counted.

As stated in an email by Sue Drum, a leading opponent of ATVs in the NH-AL, “Now we need people, more than ever, to come to Madison for the April 23 meeting to show the NRB that this recommendation has many supporters. When we are winning, it is not the time to pull back.”

In order to speak at the meeting on the 23rd, you must call NRB liasion Laurie Ross at 608/267-7420 by this Friday, April 18, at 4 p.m. Testimony will likely begin at 1:15 p.m., according to the NRB meeting agenda.

– Joel Patenaude

By a 27-4 landslide vote, the Outagamie County Board last night designated as nonmotorized the 22.8-mile, yet-to-be developed Seymour to New London Trail.

The decision ended a months-long debate over whether the trail should be open to ATVs, and thus unappealing to hikers and unrideable for bicyclists, or a key connector trail for several existing nonmotorized trails in east-central Wisconsin (the Wiouwash, Friendship, Mountain Bay and Fox River state trails).

The county board ought to be congratulated for giving the issue reasoned consideration. An overwhelming majority of the board concluded that the Seymour to New London Trail is best suited for nonmotorized recreation. The vote reflects the majority of likely users and the trail’s potential as a connector for a great regional network of hiking and bicycling trails.

Thanks largely to the grassroots organizing by Fox Cities Greenways Inc., the Fox Valley Chapter of the Sierra Club, Bicycling Federation of Wisconsin, Pacesetters Running Club and many area residents and many individuals, the trail will be available to the majority of outdoor recreationists. (As a silent sports trail advocate, avid trail runner and cyclist in adjacent Waupaca County, I was more than a bit interested in seeng this campaign succeed.)

Last night’s county board debate was remarkable for several reasons. But the number of supervisors who said they had been persuaded by our side was most gratifying. One supervisor said he had received 20 letters and every one of them argued for keeping the trail nonmotorized.

Now comes the hard work, however. A state grant of $180,000 for trail development is on hand, but we’ll be lucky if that gets half of the trail built. Because snowmobiling will be allowed on the trail in the winter, the trail will be eligible for state snowmobile maintenance funds.

A number of us are already talking about forming a Friends group to help see the project through, provide volunteer maintenance and promote the trail. We are open to working with anyone else interested in making the trail the success we know it can be.

As I told one of the leading ATV proponents and a Black Creek resident after last night’s vote, “Hopefully, we’ll see eachother on the trail. That’s possible now.” He’ll have to leave his ATV at home, but he’ll be welcome to walk and pedal a trail that’s safe for him, his kids, grandparents and everyone in between.

Again, congratulations to the county board, which showed tremendous foresight, and to my fellow nonmotorized trail advocates. It’s nice to win once in awhile.

To the ATVers who are disappointed in the vote, I sincerely hope we can work together on this trail. If you decide to pursue an appropriately located and contained ATV park, you can count on me to support that project. Good luck to you.

– Joel Patenaude

The strong public belief that ATV riders and nonmotorized folks ought to have seperate trails may have convinced a committee of east-central Wisconsin’s Outagamie County supervisors to recommend against mixing the two on a yet undeveloped rail trail.

This afternoon, the county airport/property committeee voted 3-2 to keep ATVs off the Seymour-New London Trail. The vote was a lot closer than public opinion on the issue. In an online poll conducted over the weekend with the results published in this morning’s Appleton Post-Crescent, more than 74 percent of respondents said ATVers, bicyclists and pedestrians should not mix.

The newspaper was prompted to conduct the poll by an ongoing debate over whether the 22.8-mile Seymour-New London Trail should be either nonmotorized (allowing bicycling and walking, but also winter snowmobiling) or “multiuse” (the same but with year-round ATVing added).

The newspaper didn’t mention the Seymour-New London Trail in the question it posed. Instead it asked more generally, “Should all-terrain vehicles be allowed on recreational trails used by bicyclists and walkers?”

The results of the poll – open between Friday morning and Monday evening – were as follows:

With 503 votes cast, 25.6 percent said, “yes, ATV users deserve more trails” and 74.4 percent said, “No, ATVs should be on their own trails.”

That was the result despite a link to the poll and a call for votes on the Wisconsin ATV Association messageboard. The nonmotorized majority carried the day.

But if you think the poll results will convince WATVA and an area ATV club to build trails where they actually make sense instead of turning a prime regional bicycling rail-trail connector into a noisy motorized speedway, think again.

And if you think the 36-member Outagamie County Board will automatically follow the committee’s lead when it discusses use of the trail on March 25, as is expected, then that too would be a naive assumption.

We won this round, but the trail has not yet been saved. Stay tuned.

– Joel Patenaude

I feel spoiled. I’ve now skied two American Birkiebeiners – first in 2006, then this past Saturday – on days with ideal conditions for a hilly, 50-plus kilometer grip-and-glide. (Last year, when 50-degree temps melted the course to a 20K recreational ski outing, I just skipped it; packed up my skis and high-tailed it home.)

I’m a bit late with these observations, but Saturday was lovely. Cloudy and a few degrees below zero at the start, but by the end we had a clear blue sky, a radiant sun and temps in the mid 20s. Although the new classic trail added 2K to my fellow striders’ race, it was a wonder to behold. I imagine elite and Wave 1 skiers are accustomed to trails that pristine. But for mid-packers like me, it was a welcome gift. And the hills on it were not so easily scaled, as some predicted. I had waxed for grip wisely so I was able to stay in the tracks for the most part.

I was practically out of gas by about 30K, though. But at 35K, Adam caught me. That’s the same brother-in-law who, a month earlier, had finished the Noquemanon an hour after me. But having set aside his waxless classics for this, his first Birkie, he pulled me for the next several K. I went out ahead of him after the last feed stop and he fell back. I finally found my stride again on Lake Hayward – “Someone who still has grip!” a spectator observed with as much surprise as I had – and finished just three minutes ahead of Adam.

We were pleased with our sub-five-hour finish. Then we were humbled to learn that John Kotar, 68 – who was about 5K from the finish of his perfect streak of skiing all 35 Birkies when Adam and I passed him – beat us by more than 30 minutes because he started in an earlier wave.

Actually, I was pretty pokey compared to the rest of “Team Silent Sports.” It proved to be a much faster race for columnists Mark Parman and Mitch Mode, who also classic skied the full distance, and Donna Marlor, Tom Kaufman, Bruce Steinberg, Bob Richards and advertising manager Jim Wendt, all of whom skated from start to finish.

Goat Farm proprieter and trail groomer Paul Walker, despite passing away Feb. 12, was still very much present at the race he skied some 25 times. A giant banner reading “We Love You Paul Walker” greeted us at the top of Bitch Hill, and several skiers wore “Team Goat Farm” signs on their backs. Walker’s friend and ours, Phil Van Valkenberg, toasted him at The Moccasin after the race. Written tributes can be found here and in the March issue.

Yes, the 35 anniversary Birkie is another for the history books. I was just thrilled to be a part of it.

– Joel Patenaude

A little more than five months since he was appointed secretary of the Wisconsin DNR, Matt Frank appears unconvinced ATVs ought to be allowed in the state’s largest and most ecologically diverse state forest.

Maybe he’s been convinced by the more than 2,500 public comments overwhelmingly opposed to the development of 60-some miles of ATV trails through the Northern Highland-American Legion (NH-AL) State Forest.

Maybe his own resource managers have impressed upon him the widespread damage ATVs would cause to that unique natural resource.

Or maybe the nearly $13 million price tag of the ATV trails – $110,000 to $179,000 per mile – has soured Frank on the whole idea.

Actually, I’m not certain Frank would come out against one or all three ATV trails proposed for the NH-AL if the Natural Resources Board (NRB) asks him for a recommendation. But in a 4 ½-page memo from Frank to NRB members, dated Feb. 13, he included few unqualified reasons to support ATV traffic anywhere in the 225,000-acre state forest.

In the memo, Frank describes how “extremely challenging” it would be to locate ATV trails where they won’t harm the state forest’s 900 lakes, 300 miles of waterways, 14 threatened or endangered species, 79 rare species or displace the more than two million hikers, campers and bicyclists who visit every year.

“Substantial improvements, with significant costs, would be necessary to avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental and social impacts stemming from summer ATV use,” Frank wrote.

One option is a 49-mile linear ATV trail from Lake Tomahawk in Oneida County to the community of Sayner in Vilas County; a trail that would “dead end” for lack of connections to existing or likely ATV trails outside the state forest.

“Some positive economic impacts to local businesses are expected, but these may come at the expense of displacing other users, which may negatively impact other businesses,” Frank wrote.

This trail would unavoidably conflict with users of a paved bike trail, three campgrounds and the Bittersweet-Prong Recreation area. And although the trail would mostly follow existing forest roads and snowmobile trails, Frank said it would nevertheless cost more than $5.4 million to develop.

There are also two options in Iron County – an 18-mile trail connecting existing town and county ATV trails at a cost of $3.3 million or an 11.6-mile trail that would incorporate 8.1 miles of town roads and snowmobile trails for nearly $4.3 million.

The first of those two trail options would greatly impact a remote campground and paddlers on the Manitowish River. The trail would need to cross the high-quality stream twice and State Highway 51 twice.

The Iron County alternatives would also pose significant law enforcement and maintenance challenges, Frank implied, because the trails would be located more than 23 miles from the nearest DNR facility.

The various ATV trail plans generated more than 2,500 emails and letters, mostly critical. “Local opposition far outweighs local support, and support is generally from statewide ATV users,” Frank wrote.

It has taken three years of study and rancorous public debate to bring the issue of ATVs in the NH-AL before the NRB. Until its agenda was amended last week, the NRB was set to hear one last round of testimony on Feb. 26.

Instead, the board will hear next week only from NH-AL Superintendent Steve Peterson, who will summarize the recently completed NH-AL Trail Feasibility/Suitability Assessment. The board has put off a public hearing and a vote until it meets again March 26 or April 23.

In the mean time, the public can review the trail plans, read a summary of the comments about the plans, the subsequent assessment as well as Frank’s memo. All of that has been posted here.

What is not being released in advance of the March or April NRB meeting is the section of the DNR feasibility study titled “conclusions and recommendations.”

But if Frank’s memo is any indication of what most concerns the DNR, there are numerous reasons for the NRB to keep the gates closed to ATVs altogether.

– Joel Patenaude

A final hearing and decision on whether ATVs should be allowed in Wisconsin’s Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest (NH-AL) will not take place on Feb. 26 as planned.

For reasons not yet clear, the Feb. 26 meeting agenda posted yesterday includes the NH-AL ATV trail plan as an informational item only.

NH-AL Superintendent Steve Petersen will be given 45 minutes to speak on the feasibility and suitability assessment of the plan to develop 60 miles of ATV trails. But the public will not get an opportunity to speak and the NRB will not vote on the issue.

It is now likely the NRB won’t take testimony or discuss the issue until it meets in March or April.

– Joel Patenaude

From the Wisconsin Off-Road Bicycling Association:

Wisconsin has a Governor’s State Trails Council (STC) that advises the DNR regarding the planning, acquisition, development and management of state trails. There are presently nine members on the STC with none of the positions identified as specifically dedicated in the legislation. These members are typically aligned with a specific interest group such as snowmobilers, hikers, bikers, etc., but they are responsible for representing all trail users. There are two members who are aligned with snowmobiles and ATVs respectively, one who represents the DOT, another who represents individuals with disabilities, and the rest are aligned with the “silent sports.”

Assembly Bill 600 would increase the number of STC members to eleven with four of the positions being specifically identified for motorized users – ATVs, snowmobiles, off road motorcycles and off road trucks. This would significantly change the complexion of the Council by giving more representation to motorized users. The motorized users feel that the change is appropriate because the federal Recreational Trail Program (RTP) funds administered through the STC are generated from federal exercise taxes levied on motor fuel sold for use in off-road vehicles. RTP funds are used for both motorized and nonmotorized trails.

Many motorized users do not feel that the STC, as currently constituted, has been attentive enough to their needs. Nonmotorized users point out that their numbers/usage is much higher than motorized users and that the present distribution of STC positions is appropriate.

Mountain bikers have had, and in some areas, continue to have, a history of conflict with and nonacceptance by other trail users. The Wisconsin Off Road Bicycle Association (WORBA) was born out of the need to resolve some of the conflicts and to establish mountain bikers as legitimate and responsible trail users. Mountain bikers can sympathize with the frustration and problems that motorized trail users have in gaining access to recreation sites. However, WORBA does not believe that enlarging the STC and dedicating specific seats to motorized users is appropriate.

Mountain bikers do not have, nor see a need for, a dedicated mountain bike seat on the State Trails Council. Bikers of all ilk – bmx, road, commuter, mountain, cyclocross, etc. – are represented by a single biking representative. Our interests and needs are not the same and may even be in conflict at times, but we do not need separate representation under the current arrangement. Our position might change however, if STC seats should become assigned to specific user groups.

WORBA opposes AB 600 because it provides special privilege to certain user groups to the exclusion of others and therefore is inherently unfair. The RTP fund argument is without merit. The federal government regularly spends tax dollars in ways with which the taxpayers do not agree. Furthermore, it appears that the addition of dedicated positions has the real potential to further polarize the STC and thereby inhibit its ability to function effectively for the best interests of all trail users.

WORBA encourages all members, as well as non-affiliated mountain bikers, to voice their opposition to AB 600. Contact your state representative by referencing www.legis.state.wi.us and tell him/her to vote NO!

You can monitor the progress of AB 600 by registering for notification services on the legislative website. The bill has been forwarded to the Assembly Committee on Rural and Economic Development. Assembly sponsors of this bill include:

Ann Hraychuck, 28th, Balsam Lake, (608-267-2365)
Dan LeMahieu, 59th, Cascade, (888-534-0059)
Joel Kleefisch, 38th, Oconomowoc, (608-266-8551)
Phil Montgomery, 4th, Green Bay, (888-534-0004)
Jeff Mursau, 36th, Crivitz, (608-266-3780)
John Townsend, 52nd, Fond du Lac, (888-529-0052).

Senate sponsors include:

Senator Breske, 12th, Eland, (800-334-8773)
Senator Grothman, 20th, West Bend, (800-662-1227)
Senator Lazich, 28th, New Berlin, (800-334-1442)

Mr. Mursau, one of the Assembly sponsors, is also chair of the Rural and Economic Development committee. Other committee members include:

Jeffery Wood, 67th, Chippewa Falls, (888-534-0067)
Al Ott, 3rd, Forest Junction, (888-534-0003)
Mary Williams, 87th, Medford, (608-266-7506)
John Murtha, 29th, Baldwin, (608-266-7683)
Thomas Nelson, 5th, Kaukauna, (888-534-0005)
Phil Garthwaite, 49th, Dickeyville, (608-266-1170)
Steve Hilgenberg, 51st, Dodgeville, (888-534-0051)
Kim Hixson, 43rd, Whitewater, (608-266-9650)

If you live in the district represented by any of the above be sure to contact him/her, let him or her know you vote in the district, and urge them to vote against the proposed legislation.

No sooner had I bagged the first of two ski marathons this season by completing the 51K Noquemanon on Jan. 26, my 18-week running marathon training program began.

I wasn’t adequately prepared for the Noque – a “race” that took me 4 hours and 41 minutes to stride. My longest ski outing before that was less than three hours. I’m still hurting.

Even with that painful lesson and now the Birkie on Feb. 23 breathing down my neck, I’m still not concentrating solely on skiing. I’ve got the May 18 Green Bay Marathon in my sights, too. As someone who’s run 10 marathons but never one in the spring, training over the winter is proving to be unique challenge.

This past Saturday I skied 9 miles in 90 minutes and on Sunday ran 13 in 1:50. I’m no speed machine (be it in snow on the trails or roads), but I’ll be further tested in the coming weeks as I attempt to do faster and longer outings in both disciplines.

I need only survive the Birkie. But less than three months later in Green Bay I’m hoping to shave two minutes off my PR and earn my place at the starting line for the Boston Marathon.

To do this, I’m running just three days a week and cross training two or three days more per instructions found in the book Run Less Run Faster. I know this approach, promoted by the Furman Institute of Running & Scientific Training in Greenville, South Carolina, goes against the grain. It is more widely believed that to do well at distance running you need to do a lot of distance running. Well, I’ve found I’m not biomechanically cut out for high mileage. And besides, I would like to have time and energy to ski and bike, too.

So we’ll see. So far the book’s very specific program for a Boston qualifying time in my age group is intense. Running 800- and 1,600-meter repeats in snow and sub-freezing temps ain’t easy, I’ve found.

The first 20-mile run on the schedule falls on the day of the Birkie. But I expect to ski 30-odd miles and call that “close enough.”

– Joel Patenaude

Over a three-hour period last Sunday, Dodge County Sheriff’s deputies issued warnings – no tickets, unfortunately – to 10 ATV and snowmobile riders speeding on the Wild Goose State Trail, according to an article based on a sheriff’s department press release in today’s Fond du Lac Reporter.

The short piece points out that the Wild Goose Trail – a 34-mile crushed limestone rail-trail between Juneau in Dodge County and the city of Fond du Lac, and skirting the western edge of the Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge – “is a multiple use trail used year round for walking, cross-country skiing, ATVs and snowmobiling.”

The speed trap was a response to complaints the sheriff’s office receives from nonmotorized users every year.

Although state law requires ATVers and snowmobilers to slow to 10 mph when within 100 feet of another person, the motorized users issued warnings were traveling 14 to 28 mph. If nearly three times the speed limit doesn’t sound very fast to you, consider the fact that that would still constitue speeding in a car on most residential streets – streets the Wild Goose hikers and bicyclists are not traveling so as to get away from motorized traffic and closer to nature.

A year ago, silent sports enthusiasts in Fond du Lac County successfully fended off an outrageously greedy attempt by ATVers to get access to all nonmotorized state trails within the county. The hikers, bikers and skiers lost a subsequent fight, however, to keep ATVs off the Eisenbahn Trail in the winter when conditions are not conducive to snowmobiling, which has been allowed there.

Motorized and nonmotorized trail users are still mixing it up on the Wild Goose despite Dodge County recreation enforcement officer Mike Matoushek pointing out that “the last thing we need is for a pedestrian to be struck, injured or killed by a snowmobile or ATV.”

The fact that there any self-propelled users of the trail to complain about speeding motorheads at all is worth noting. Multiuse trails that allow ATVs tend to become defacto ATV trails because of what the DNR calls “asymmetrical recreation conflict.”

As the DNR’s 2005-2010 SCORP report states, “It is evident that ATV riding is incompatible with every other land-based activity but snowmobiling. Hiking, on the other hand, is supplementary or complementary with all other activities.”

ATVers and snowmobilers, accustomed to the noise and speed they generate and wearing helmets that muffle that engine noise and narrow their line of sight, are not affected in the least by the presence of walkers and cyclists. Silent sports enthusiasts, however, who prefer to hear their own footsteps, breathing and the natural world, are and will be driven away by the presence of ATVers. The only question is whether someone gets hurt or killed before the hikers and bikers leave for good.

It is the contention of an increasing number of silent sports advocates, myself included, that “multiuse” trails are a myth; a cannard promoted primarily by ATVers to fool public officials into thinking “no one will be excluded.” But as incompatible as motorized and nonmotorized users are, the latter have little choice but to cede ground to the former.

ATVers seeking access to nonmotorized trails – be they the Badger, Eisenbahn, Gandy Dancer, Seymour-New London, Amery-Dresser state trails and Ice Age Scenic Trail, among others – by getting them designated “multiuse” are simply stealing trails from the vast majority of users, insulting the public’s intelligence and jeopardizing its well being.

– Joel Patenaude

For more than a year I looked forward to seeing on the big screen “Spirit of the Marathon,” a five-year effort to capture the considerable training and emotion citizen and elite runners alike go through preparing for and running 26.2-mile races.

The film was all the more poignant because it focused on a handful of runners heading into the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Neither I nor 99.9 percent of my 40,000 closest friends who ran that race were profiled, but we endured as much as the movie’s stars. Watching the movie last Thursday allowed us to experience the event anew.

The 20 minutes of “extras” that followed the film, like you would find on a DVD, were illuminating as well

That “one-night-only” screening at thousands of theaters across the country did not disappoint. Fortunately there will be an encore presentation at select theaters on Thursday, Feb. 21. For a list of participating theaters, go to www.fathomevents.com.

– Joel Patenaude