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Copy and paste the below letter to the Senators into an e-mail or onto your personal stationery. Please send MRR any replies you might receive. In 2003 Minnesota Sen. Tom Bakk succeeded in suspending Minnesotan's right to oppose proposed ATV, dirt-bike motorycle and four-wheel drive truck routes. In a recent news article Sen. Bakk stated he broke arms and broke legs ... and even had an Environmental Impact Statement waived on another project in NE Minnesota. Read short background on this and the issue of public and environmental review of proposed ATV, dirt-bike motorycle and four-wheel drive routes in Minnesota forests.

Sen. Tom Bakk
226 Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155-1606

Dear Senator Bakk,

As a taxpaying citizen of Minnesota, I want public and environmental review, i.e., completion of Environmental Assessment Worksheets, as recommended by the 2003 legislative audit of the DNR's motorized recreation program, of proposed ATV, dirt-bike motorycle and four-wheel drive truck routes in Minnesota forests. Since I, along with other Minnesota taxpayers, provide $15 million every year for motorized recreation, I reserve the right to challenge these publicly funded projects. I expect my tax-dollars to be used to mitigate the unwanted effects of motorized recreation. Completion of Environmental Assessment Worksheets is the first, most basic step, in addressing the noise, fumes, and damage to our environment caused by ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks.

I support MRR's Five Standards for Protecting Minnesota for which completion of Environmental Assessment Worksheets as the first priority in determining where these machines should and should not go. I understand that you were directly involved with suspending my one and only right to oppose a statewide system of routes for these machines in Minnesota state forests. This is unacceptable to me.

As a taxpaying citizen of Minnesota who values democracy and our environment I refuse to be intimidated by your obligations to Arctic Cat, Polaris Industries and publicly funded snowmobile and ATV clubs you cause me to unwittingly subsidize. And while you may have intimidated Minnesota's established environmental groups, I won't let you break my will or my arms and legs.

Sincerely,

cc.

Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, Chair, Sen. Env. Policy Com., 317 Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155
Sen. Ellen Anderson, Chair, Sen. Env. Finance Com., 120 Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155
Jeff Brown, Executive Director, Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation, P.O. Box 111, Duluth, MN 55804