Roger Hilde
Sentinel Correspondent

"Opening the Gandy Dancer Trail to wintertime use is the first step in opening it to year round use for ATVs," Judith Poe predicted to the Burnett County Parks, Recreation and Tourism committee last week.

Poe, continuing her opposition to ATVs, stated that ATV use not only creates problems on private property because the operators do not stay on trails, but they that they also do damage to the trail itself.

She pointed out that in the 10 years the trail was open to ATV use, it was contrary to bicycle and pedestrian legislation as is related to TE funding. Under that legislation, motorized vehicles would be allowed on the trails for very specific limited use. In the case of the Gandy Dancer Trail snowmobile use is permitted as an exception.

Poe listed her reasons for opposing allowing ATV's on the Gandy Dancer.

1. When these trails were created it was specified in the above statute the only motorized use was for snowmobile.

2. Local citizens don't want township roads open to ATVs, which indicates there isn't much support for expansion of ATV use.

3. The Gandy Dancer runs through private property exposing it to the abuse and degradation of the environment that ATV use is known to cause, which can still be a problem in winter.

4. There is growing evidence that ATV use has a significant negative impact on hunting and fishing. There was a study published by the Izaak Walton league written by its director that supports this premise.

5. A recent study by Bob Smail, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point college of natural resources found that six percent of the state's population actually are active ATV trail users as compared to 20 percent stated by tourism officials. He also believes the economic impact may be overstated, citing that the data used by the state were collected by the Wisconsin ATV Association.

6. The county and the state have already accommodated requests by the ATV lobby by legalizing a trail along State Highway 77 in Danbury to provide easy legal access to businesses and other trails.

7. Expansion of trail use without providing expanded law enforcement isn't wise.

Poe believes that by expanding ATV use, we will make it less desirable to people looking for a quiet north woods experience and less desirable to people thinking of moving here.

"Businesses need to come up with creative solutions when they encounter new challenges, such as those caused by changing environment, not just ask government to fix it for them," said Poe.

Jake Nichols, Forestry and Parks Commissioner reiterated that ATVs were on the trail up until 2003 for 10 years.

"This is not something brand-new. Snowmobiles and ATVs were the winter use and the silent sports were summer use," he pointed out.

Nichols went on to review activities based on discussions at the previous meeting. He was able to talk with Representative Ann Hraychuck and made her aware of the situation with the federal funding.

Nichols indicated there are two options:

The TE grant would need to be changed to allow winter ATV use as it does for snowmobiles. "This is probably the best-case scenario," Nichols said.

The other option, since there is a letter from the Federal Government indicating that only TE funds would be affected, is to find out from the state of Wisconsin what the penalties would be for opening the trail to frozen-ground ATV use.

If the committee knew what the penalties would be it could make a decision. "Wisconsin DOT needs to put in writing what the penalties are going to be." explained Nichols.

Committee member Gerald Pardun added, "Until we know what the results of a decision to open the trail to ATV winter use are, I will not be in favor [of proceeding]. I want in no way to jeopardize Burnett County from future grants that might be available."

Pardun went on to explain that the assumption that granting of winter use is going to result in summer use, is making a big jump. "We don't need to concern ourselves with [that]," he said.

He pointed out that the ATV group spoke to that as being one of their goals. "That doesn't mean that that's going to be an attainable goal for this committee," said Pardun.

"I would like to kill a concern for the assumption that if we make it available for winter use that it will result in summer use, because I can't see that jump at all." he continued.

ATV's on the Gandy in Winter..... NO WAY!