Greg Spaulding, retired long-time DNR conservation officer, is quoted by columnist Joe Fellegy recently in Outdoor News as follows:
Q. ATVs are a big issue. What’s your take?
Spaulding: “When I got hired, in 1980, DNR had no Trails & Waterways. Public accesses were typically acquired by game wardens, who’d arrange property purchases and work contracts. For example, I’m the one who had ramps put in at Red Lake. Now, we’ve got this huge and powerful Trails & Waterways Division, through which our DNR and governor give away Minnesota resources—our wildlife management areas, state forests, etc.—to the ATV industry. They sound like they’re protecting natural resources. But they make laws that are difficult for COs to enforce. The civil penalties for violations are small. And we’re really permitting people to tear up Minnesota!
“This whole ATV mess was avoidable. Years ago, some of us cautioned DNR not to license and register three-wheelers, and to say they can’t be used on public land. Simple enough. But they got greedy and collected all this license money. Then the ATV folks could say, ‘Hey, you’ve got the bucks, so let’s have ATV trails across state land.’ This is not enhancing our natural resources.”
Obviously, neither Joe nor Greg Spaulding are interested in keeping or making friends at the Minnesota DNR, but Spaulding's assessment is on the mark. Neither the ATV industry nor those of us who are fighting to save Greater Minnesota doubt that the governor's office and the folks on Lafayette Road have sold both their souls and the state to the ATV lobby.
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