To:  Senator Ann Rest, Chair Legislative Audit Commission
        James Nobles, Legislative Auditor
        Representative Alice Hausman
        Legislators

From: Jeff Brown, Executive Director, Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation

Re: Request and Supporting Evidence of Need for Legislative Program Audit of Department of Natural Resources Trails and Waterways Division "Grant-in-aid Motorized Trail Assistance Program"

Date: February 19, 2002

Attached please find the following for your review and consideration:

• Recent communications with Minnesota’s Legislative Audit Commission requesting legislative program audit of the DNR Trails and Waterway’s "Grant-in-aid Motorized Trail Assistance Program listing concerns regarding the unintended, unwanted impacts of this program
• Photographic evidence and other documentation of problems warranting a program audit and enumerated in letter to Legislative Auditor
• Additional documentation of the need to direct program funds to MN/DOT and local units of government to repair all-terrain vehicle damage to state, county, and township right-of-ways

Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation asserts that the following documentation is evidence of statewide systemic problems with the DNR Trails and Waterway’s "Grant-in-aid Motorized Trail Assistance Program". MRR requests a legislative program audit of the Grant-in-Aid system to reveal the plethora of unintended and unwanted outcomes resulting from this program.

To protect Minnesota’s forests and wetlands and the rights of private property owners from further negative program impacts, Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation is requesting that the Minnesota legislature and Department of Natural Resources commence an immediate moratorium on the disbursements of all grant-in-aid funds to local snowmobile and ATV clubs until a program audit is completed and necessary adjustments to correct current program deficiencies are in place.

___________________________________________________

February 13, 2002

Jim Nobles, Legislative Auditor
100 Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155

Dear Mr. Nobles,

At the direction of Representative Alice Hausman we are writing to request a legislative program audit of the Department of Natural Resource’s "Grant-in-Aid Trail Assistance Program". We have scheduled a February 19 meeting with Representative Ann Rest to discuss this request and send this to you in advance for your review.

As stated on page 5 of the 2001 –2002 DNR Minnesota Snowmobile/Cross-Country Ski Trails Assistance Program Instruction Manual: "In 1973 the DNR was delegated the responsibility by the legislature to administer a cost-sharing program for the development and maintenance of snowmobile … trails. The goal of this program was the creation and maintenance of local trails, at the initiative of local trail organizations and local units of government." While there may have been benefits from this program there has also been an accumulation of unintended negative, unwanted impacts that warrant closer inspection.

In the past several years Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation has been gathering evidence of these unwanted impacts. Significant problems that warrant an audit of this program include:

• Environmental damage and lack of oversight and accountability: Millions of dollars in program funds are being disbursed to local snowmobile clubs with little if any oversight as to how funds are used. MRR has mounting photographic evidence and public documents that local snowmobile clubs are using these funds to illegally construct and/or alter trails on public land without and/or in violation of permits. Minnesota’s most respected scientists are recognizing the damage these clubs are doing to our wetlands and forests. Local units of government sponsoring snowmobile club trail building activity lack expertise required to assess environmental impacts of this activity. Local units of government and the DNR do little to provide consequences to discourage this damage as local snowmobile clubs continue to receive these copious funds unquestioned and unchecked.
• No obligation to repair damage: Program funds are being used exclusively for motorized trail expansion without obligation to repair resulting motorized recreation damage to private and public property. One landowner in Northern Minnesota incurred $12,000 in damage to his property from a "grant-in-aid program trail". The local club refused to repair this damage. Elsewhere, sponsors of a regional ski marathon incurred great expense to repair

damage to ski trails resulting from unauthorized off-highway vehicle use. While grant-in-aid funds expand motorized access they are not made available to repair damage that can result.

• Property rights violated: Program funds are being used to violate the property rights of Minnesota citizens. A recently released 2001 – 2002 Northeast Minnesota Snowmobile Trails Map, published by the DNR with program funds, includes trails on private property for which easements have been withdrawn by local property owners. These property owners and those in other communities have suffered significant expense and even harassment protecting themselves from aggressive local snowmobile clubs funded by the grant-in-aid program.
• Inflated accounts: The collection of "unreimbursed gas taxes" to fund dedicated trail accounts in this program for snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles, and off-road vehicles (four-wheel drive trucks) does not reflect mandated allotment of these funds. For example, gas-tax funds collected in dedicated accounts for "off-road vehicle" trails far exceed the mandated proportion of the state’s gas-tax due this trail assistance account.
• No public access to local club records: While the DNR program manual assures that "Record keeping by the local club is required in a manner sufficient to allow full auditing at all times", MRR’s experience has been that these records are not readily available for public inspection. A recent request for information of program funds disbursed in Lake County revealed only that the county has released $80,000 to local clubs with no additional detail. While "Area [DNR] Trails and Waterways [Division] Supervisors are the main contact for local organizations", these DNR staff have not been forthcoming in responding to MRR’s requests for information regarding the use of program funds.

Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation finds that the current Grant-in-Aid Trail Assistance Program lacks accountability and inappropriately promotes motorized recreation at the expense of our environment, quality of life and the property rights of Minnesota citizens. Collection of millions of dollars of "unreimbursed gas-taxes" into "dedicated motorized recreation accounts" is arbitrary and the distribution and use of these funds occurs without oversight. Record-keeping is currently inadequate, housed by private groups for their own private purposes and unavailable to the public for accounting how these funds are being used. While this program fuels motorized recreation trail expansion, adequate funding for enforcement of existing laws, monitoring of on-going impacts and reparation of accumulating damage is not being provided.

Over the last thirty years, the DNR Trails Assistance Program has resulted in a host of unintended, negative, and unwanted impacts. MRR is prepared to provide substantial evidence of these unintended outcomes. MRR requests a program audit of the collection and disbursement of grant-in-aid trail assistance funds and resulting outcomes to assist our legislature and Department of Natural Resources in adjusting this program to better serve Minnesota’s environment and citizenry.

Sincerely,

Jeff Brown,
Executive Director

3. Representative Ann Rest

Representative Alice Hausman