Reforming Institutions

Thirty years of inertia fueled by public funding of motorized recreation has resulted in 21,688+ miles of snowmobile trails and a state wide open to ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks. (Minnesota is the only state among our neighbors that allows ATVs open access to public land.) Thirty years of public funding of motorized recreation has also created political-economic institutions that serve primarily to promote continuous expansiion of motorized recreation access to public funding and to public and private land. Decades of open access to public funds and public and private land have created tandem cultures of entitlement amoung riders and obligation among DNR staff whose salaries are paid with public motorized recreation gas-tax funds.

MRR's 2005 Strategic Plan recognizes that after ten years of confronting this expansion on a trail by trail basis, what is needed now and into the future is institutional change to more broadly protect our state from the unfettered expansion and unwanted effects of motorized recreation.

Snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and jet skis have turned Minnesota's trails and waterways into raceways. If the public is to continue funding motorized recreation, a fundamental shift from promotion to mitigation is needed. MRR's 2006 campaign to Reform Public Funding of Motorized Recreation works at the grassroots level to implement the following before any public funds for motorized recreation are disbursed:

1. Public and environmental review, ie, completion of an Environmental Assessment Worksheet or Environmental Impact Statement, to select ATV, dirt-bike motorcycle, and four-wheel drive truck routes
2. "Designated Routes Only Policy" requiring machines to stay on selected routes
3. Adequate enforcement to keep riders on selected routes
4. Repair all accumulating damage
5. Oversight and accountability to ensure above objectives are accomplished. (Implement recommendations from the Legislative Auditor's 2003 Program Evaluation Report: State Funded Trails for Motorized Recreation)

Go to MRR's Toolkit for the Quiet Majority on the left
to implement these policies and practices in youir backyard.