This was in todays paper.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5209376.html

"
DNR aims to settle dust over trail rules
Tom Meersman, Star Tribune
January 28, 2005




Top Department of Natural Resources officials plan to travel to northwestern Minnesota next week to try to resolve a growing dispute about trail restrictions for off-road vehicles in state forests.
Roseau County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Jan. 18 that closes many township roads to DNR vehicles unless they obtain special permits.
Roseau Board Chairman Orris Rasmussen said the resolution is designed to protest the state's plan to close hundreds of miles of trails in Beltrami Island State Forest to off-road driving without consulting area residents.
People are up in arms," he said. "We made the resolution out of frustration, you might say."
Irresponsible use of off-road vehicles has been blamed for damaging wetlands and destroying other natural areas. Much of the criticism has fallen on users of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).
In three nearby counties -- Pennington, Lake of the Woods and Koochiching -- officials passed resolutions in support of the Roseau County measure.
"They've certainly got our attention," said DNR Deputy Commissioner Mark Holsten, who will meet with county commissioners next week. "We're going to work on this and open the lines of communication. I just hope it doesn't escalate to where they do enforcement action."
Holsten said the counties don't have legal authority to restrict state vehicles from township roads. DNR forestry workers and conservation officers need unrestricted access to township roads to survey forests for timber sales, to enforce laws and to respond to emergencies, he said.
Holsten e-mailed DNR employees in Roseau County and surrounding areas this week advising them to continue working as normal. If ticketed on township roads, he wrote, workers should accept the citation and report it to his office. So far, he has had no reports of DNR vehicles being ticketed.
Rasmussen said the board passed the measure because DNR planners did not include local officials as they decided which ATV trails in Beltrami Island State Forest would be approved for driving and which would be closed. He said the DNR has proposed to close too many miles of trails and would deprive local citizens of recreational opportunities. "The ATV issue in northern Minnesota is the sacrificial lamb being used to shut down the forests like the spotted owl was used in Oregon and Washington to shut down the timber industry," he said.
Northwestern Minnesota is also the manufacturing home of two of the nation's largest ATV companies: Polaris in Roseau and Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls.
George Swentik, chairman of Lake of the Woods County Board, said DNR officials need to "come to our table" before they make decisions about off-road driving trails. He said state planners have overreacted to reports of trail and wetland damage from reckless ATV drivers, which he said occurs rarely in northern Minnesota. "We don't want to go out there and tear everything to pieces," Swentik said. "We haven't been doing that ...we don't want to do that, and we support enforcement when there is abuse."
Holsten said next week's meetings probably will likely include broader discussions of about other matters of concern to area residents. "My guess is this is not going to be resolved in one meeting," he said.
"

 

Great for a chuckle this morning. That's pretty much giving the DNR a big middle finger. Gotta love it.

Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

 

I'm glad they got the ***** to stand up to the dnr.

 

thanx honda for finding an article of what we have been going through and yeah we were all pretty pi$$ed when the dnr did this but all of us were laughing out butts off when our county commissioners gave them that big middle finger and i dont' think you will see the dnr getting ticketed to much at this time of the year but wait till summer rolls around and the atv's start coming out and i don't think they can give us tickets if they are out of jurisdiction and this whole thing has made people up here hate the minnesota dnr more then they ever have before but all i gotta say is they deserve this i guess we are a bunch of stubborened norweigien's up here and won't give up without a buttkicking [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

oh and that went into effect on january 24th about the dnr not being able to drive on township roads so what is that a week today? it would be nice to see some of them potlickers getting busted