They're great for dragging a deer out of the woods, plowing your driveway, getting decoys into a muddy field, and getting to places ice fishing you're truck would either get stuck or fall through. In that sense they can be pretty bad ass. Driving them while doing any number of chores or jobs can be pretty fun.
But...
...if you and a couple buddies like to load up your wheelers and go on a bro-date "riding" them somewhere special for the sole purpose of "riding" them....
...then you are one gigantic F-A-G.
I can only think of a few things more flamingly homosexual.
What's next, a tractor park? Don't the dudes with tractors need a special place they can meet up with their other buds that have tractors and tool around and then share a cold one in the parking lot and talk about how sick the trails were and share your close calls because you're so extreme?. Where are they going to go to give the guy riding an international some friendly shit because the other guy has a deere, and vice versa?
WTF is wrong with people? Riding a 4 wheeler just to ride it is so phucking gay.
THEY'RE NOT MEANT FOR THAT! They handle like you're riding a box with wheels because that's what they are!
If tooling around some organized trails on an ATV trips your trigger then you really need to make some changes. Start doing some hard drugs. Lots. Or quit doing drugs if you already are on them.
Or here's an idea...
...if you really want to have some fun riding trails...
....BUY A PHUCKING DIRT BIKE.
ATV plan on Legacy-bought land draws fire
Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN), 2015-02-15
Feb. 15 --A plan to maintain more than 25 miles of ATV trails with Legacy Amendment-bought land near Brainerd has a number of key wildlife-habitat officials crying foul.
Crow Wing County is entertaining a proposal by a local ATV club to make official and maintain a network of trails within a 1,857-acre complex of forests, wetlands and Mississippi River shoreline purchased with $11 million from the state's Outdoor Heritage Fund .
The county's land manager and the head of the ATV club behind the proposal note that four-wheelers have been using the property for years and no new trails are planned. But several lawmakers and conservation leaders are demanding scrutiny, with some even suggesting the state could seize control of the land if the project moves ahead as envisioned.
The dustup has raised concerns among some that buying property with Legacy funds and handing it over to local units of government risks betraying the principle voters supported in 2008 when they approved a constitutional amendment to raise sales taxes to "protect, enhance, and restore" wildlife habitat.
It also underscores longtime tensions between motorized recreation and non-motorized uses and highlights a fundamental question officials were left with after the amendment passed: How intensely can humans use a landscape without violating that mandate?
"Habitat is destroyed by recreational ATV use in the summertime," said Bill Becker , former executive director of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council who was directly involved in the taxpayer-funded purchase of the land.
Becker accused Crow Wing County officials of being "disingenuous" in representing their plans for the land -- a charge a county official disputed.
The Outdoor Heritage Council is charged with vetting projects vying for a piece of the roughly $100 million in annual proceeds that the Legacy Amendment generates for wildlife habitat. That's a third of the total annual funds generated by the Legacy Amendment, which also funds projects for clean water, parks and trails and arts and cultural heritage.
The Outdoor Heritage Council supported the plan to buy the land, which had been targeted by conservationists for years as prime real estate worthy of protection, and in 2012 the legislature and governor authorized spending $11 million to buy it for the county.
The Mississippi Northwoods Habitat Complex Protection initiative was hailed as the crown jewel of the Outdoor Heritage Fund for its eternal protection of nearly three undeveloped miles of the Mississippi and expanses of backwoods and wetlands used by ducks, deer, woodcocks, ruffed grouse and those who hunt them just east of Brainerd . The backwaters of the stretch of Mississippi are spawning grounds for muskellunge, otters, fishers and weasels lope along the river banks, and rare species, such as the Blanding's turtle and red-shouldered hawk, have been known to nest there.
ATVS NOT NEW
The property was previously owned by Potlatch Corp. The timber company had built a network of logging roads and for decades allowed ATVs to roam the trails.
Russell Heittolla of Brainerd first rode his four-wheeler in those woods in the early 1990s.
"That area is one of the nicest trail-wise," said Heittolla, 44, trail coordinator for the Cuyuna Iron Range Riders ATV club. "We went back in there on these nice trails that were wide enough for two vehicles to meet without any problems. There are scenic views of the river. It's just a great place to ride."
When Crow Wing County took over the land, via the Legacy funds, the riding never stopped. The county's motorized-vehicle policy is opposite from state policy. In state forests, ATVs are prohibited from riding anywhere that's not posted as a designated ATV trail. In Crow Wing County , riders can go anywhere unless an area is posted as off-limits.
Heittolla and his club are proposing to make those trails official, so they will appear on maps, feature signs, and be eligible for state grants doled out to such clubs to maintain trails for safety and environmental protection. The club has submitted its plan to the county for approval, and the application is in the first stage of a five-stage process that could last between five and 15 months. A map of the proposed system shows trails crisscrossing the land and adjoining county-owned parcels, with at least nine loops inside the Legacy-bought acres.
Nothing has been approved, but Kirk Titus , land services supervisor for Crow Wing County , said he believes ATVs should be allowed to continue and a management plan for the trails will help improve safety, the environment and riders' experience.
"What we really seek out there is some sort of managed designated trail system," Titus said. "There's all kinds of people using it during the hunting season. What we would like to do is manage them."
ORIGINAL INTENT?
There are varying opinions as to Crow Wing County's flexibility regarding ATV trails on the land, and a number of people involved in the purchase have begun digging through documents, notes and their own memories.
Several members of the Outdoor Heritage Council said their intent was never for a forest roaring with motorized vehicles.
"It was going to be a habitat project. It wasn't going to be a recreational project," said David Hartwell , the council's current chair and a member of the council since its inception.
"I probably thought they weren't going to be allowed there," said Rep. Denny McNamara , R- Hastings , a member of the council, which includes citizens and lawmakers.
"It clearly doesn't seem to be the intended use," said Becker, whom council members relied on for facts and guidance when weighing the project's value. "I'm disappointed by this. They ( Crow Wing County officials) didn't testify any intent to do this. ... They represented the use of those roads as an access issue and not a recreation issue. You gotta get in there to go hunting and you gotta get in there to slip a canoe in the river. So I envisioned there might be some vehicle use, but not ATVs as a recreation in itself. That's not what the fund was for."
Hartwell, McNamara and state Rep. Rick Hansen , DFL-South St. Paul, who also serves on the council, said any land that was intended for recreational ATV use should have come from the Parks and Trails Fund , a separate and small fund of Legacy Amendment dollars intended for developed parks, not the Outdoor Heritage Fund .
LEGAL QUESTIONS
Although critics said they were taken aback by the extent of ATV use on the land, it doesn't appear anyone with the council ever told Crow Wing County officials to outright ban ATVs.
An official with the Trust for Public Land , which brokered the sale, said he was researching the transaction to get a clearer picture of what all parties believed was the intended use of the land.
The law that authorized the purchase specifically prohibits the development of a "paved trail" without Outdoor Heritage Council approval. The provision was added because council members knew that a paved bicycle trail to link the Cuyuna Lakes State Trail and the Paul Bunyan State Trail was envisioned, and the council has taken a dim view of paving of any surfaces on land intended for wildlife above all else.
But the ATV trails aren't paved, and Titus noted that the land was "to be added to the county forest system," according to numerous documents, as well as the legislation itself.
"We always said that we would maintain the property under our forest management plan like our other 110,000 acres of county forests," Titus said. Like many rural counties, recreational off-road vehicle opportunities are an integral part of Crow Wing's forest management plan.
Bob Meier , the DNR's lead lobbyist, said the grant agreement -- the document that legally committed the state funds to the purchase -- does note the potential for motorized use. "They're following the terms of the grant agreement," he said.
'ATV PARK'?
But Meier said the map he's seen involves so many trails that it could alter the landscape to such a degree that wildlife is affected, as is access to hunting and fishing -- two recreational activities not specified in the Legacy Amendment itself but so closely associated with it that the Outdoor Heritage Council demands they be allowed on all lands unless other laws prevent it.
"You've got spring turkey hunting, small game hunting in September and of course the fall deer season," he said. "You've got real problems doing those if this becomes an ATV park. We're not anti-ATV, but they never said 'ATV park.' The real question is whether this alters the use of the land."
Several critics used the phrase "ATV park" or "county park" in suggesting that the extent of the trail network and amount of ATV activity is a nuanced but crucial question.
"What if it gets turned into an ATV park in 10 years?" Hansen said. "Is that permanent protection for $11 million ? I would say no. This is nothing against ATVs. This about what it means to protect."
Titus said the whole point of the county's process to review the ATV application is to determine the environmental impacts of the trails. "We have to let this process work," he said. He noted that the county's plan carries the seal of approval from two third-party stewardship programs: the Sustainable Forest initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council .
"As such, our management of the property is focused on protecting the integrity and longevity of forest lands, habitat, and enhancement of recreational opportunities," he wrote in a Feb. 11 letter to Mark Johnson , current executive director of the Outdoor Heritage Council . Johnson and Titus exchanged letters last week as lawmakers and members of the council became aware of the ATV plan, which was originally submitted in November and also would allow mountain biking and horseback riding on the trails.
LEVERAGE
Critics of the ATV plan might have leverage over Crow Wing County .
The DNR controls state grants that ATV clubs rely on to maintain trails, and Crow Wing County needs the Outdoor Heritage Council's permission for a separate plan they have for Mississippi Northwoods.
County officials have envisioned taking 160 acres of the project along Minnesota 210 and converting it to commercial use. Titus said the county is considering the notion of swapping those acres with another 160 acres of county-owned land that borders Mississippi Northwoods on one side and Crow Wing Regional Airport on the other.
Everyone agrees such a swap needs approval from the council, and a number of council members are wary of the idea because the "new" 160 acres has no road access and is effectively wildlife habitat today.
Lastly and perhaps most significantly, the state might have the ability to simply seize control of the land.
"I would remind ( Crow Wing County officials) that the statute provides for returning property to the state if it's not being used for its intended use," Becker said.
Meier said the possibility has come up in his discussions with lawmakers.
"I think the legislature is more than likely to take a hard look at this if it really becomes an ATV park," Meier said.
Dave Orrick can be reached at 651-228-5512. Follow him at twitter.com/OutdoorsNow .
ATV PLAN
To see the proposed trail network, go to blogs.TwinCities.com/outdoors
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