Off-Highway Vehicles in Minnesota –a Legislative Review
OHVs = All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), Off-Road Motorcycles (ORMs), and
Off-Road Vehicles (4x4 mudder trucks – ORVs)

1999
Legislation rescinding the original DNR cross-country travel ban passed on the last day of the legislative session. Authored by Rep. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) & Rep. Mark Holsten (now DNR Commissioner), this enabled OHV's to travel off road legally anywhere in 95% of our state forests until the end of the 2002. session.

2002
February 24: Tom Meersman’s two-part article began in the Strib on ATV destruction; the Spider Lake area in Foot Hills State Forest was highlighted.

The Kinkel Amendment in 2002 set the ground work for all subsequent OHV legislation. The Kinkel Amendment passed Senate @ 40 to 20 and (1) eliminated cross country travel - did away with "managed forests" statewide; (2) mandated simple environmental review; and (3) set a time table & minimum trail mileage. It came about when about 200 JPCers met with Senator Kinkel in Backus (Feb 2002) about the problems in Foothills State Forest. The bill was not heard in the House. Rep. Holsten was chair of the Env. and Nat. Resources Comm. and Rep. Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) was chair of the Env. and Nat. Resources Finance Division.

The Legislature instead set up a Motorized Trails Task Force (MTTF) of 21 individuals representing motorized, non-motorized, and land managers to address OHV issues on public lands.  MTTF non-motorized group includes Barry Babcock of JPC, Jamie Juenemann of MRR, John Hunt of Trout Unlimited, Darrell Spencer of the IWLA, Matt Norton of MCEA, and Jerry Bahls of Audubon.  Few important recommendations achieved the 100% consensus required for approval.  Motorized interests rejected the report from the MTTF immediately after it was finalized, and almost none of its recommendations were adopted by policy makers or DNR.

DNR Commissioner Garber made it DNR policy that "challenge areas" in state forests are an "inappropriate use of state forest land." (In 2005, DNR Commissioner Merriam may have weakened this policy memo under the guise of a "clarification" of what constitutes a "challenge area.")

2003
January: Office of Legislative Auditor (OLA) Report "State-Funded Trails for Motorized Recreation" recommended several excellent modifications to current practice. www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/

Senate Environment Policy Committee heard “Responsible Rider Act,” SF850, Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville), Sen. Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point). Hours of testimony. Many excellent provisions, including:

• 1-800 number to consult for conditions and to report problems
• closed road right-of-ways unless the local unit of gov’t opened them
• withheld grants-in-aid to any club for any violation of the law or the terms of the grant
• allowed local units of gov’t access to OHV dedicated funds to repair damaged property
• restricted OHVs to routes designated by DNR.

Senators Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) and LeRoy Stumpf (DFL-Plummer) each had a bill written by the All-Terrain Vehicle Assoc. of MN (ATVAM) – goal = “trails on the ground.” Exempt from environmental review all “legal” trails as of Jan. 1, 2003. (All trails in managed forests = legal unless posted closed)

April: Senate Environment Finance Division heard Responsible Rider Act as well as Bakk and Stumpf bills. Hearing packed w/ Polaris jackets an hour early. Endless testimony from ATVAM lobbyist and supporters. Hearing recessed – massive lobbying from environmentalists – some getting calls and e-mails 10-1 in favor of Marty bill.

May 1: Continued Env. Finance hearing – hours. By now Marty bill a careful compromise between environmental groups and OHV crowd. Bakk’s effort to replace Marty’s bill w/ his own failed on close vote.

House never heard the companion to Marty’s bill. Env. Chair Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) carried companion to Bakk’s bill. Hackbarth’s bill passed.

May 6: Strib reports results of a survey on Minnesotan's views of motorized recreation in state forests. A consistent 17-18% wanted to ban ATVs from state forests; 61% favored providing some designated trails and requiring riders to stay on them; 18% favored fewer or no restrictions on ATV travel.

May 12: Gov. Pawlenty called a press conference to announce his administration's (DNR's) position that ATV use would be allowed only on designated trails and the DNR would be reviewing all state forest classifications and ATVs would be allowed only on designated trails.

Late May: A fairly decent bill went to conference from the Senate. The conference committee, appointed by Leadership, eviscerated the Responsible Rider Act. Three important provisions:

• The DNR will review and reclassify all state forests as either “limited” (trails closed unless posted open) or “closed.” The “managed” classification (trails open unless posted closed) will disappear.
• Riding in wetlands was prohibited.
• Environmental review will be suspended until Dec. 31, 2008, as the DNR designates trails in limited forests

2004
The OHV Coalition* planned to work on enforcement measures, requiring audits to discover how grants-in-aid to OHV clubs were being used, and other items from the OLA Report.

These efforts were derailed by a major effort to return to managed forests and by a frontal assault on wetlands with bills allowing OHV operation in frozen type 3, 4, 5 and 8 wetlands on public property, OHV operation in unfrozen type 3, 4, 5 and 8 wetlands on private property, and on public property for hunters. Authors of this assault in the Senate were Stumpf, Tom Saxhaug (DFL-Grand Rapids, Paul Koering (R-Ft. Ripley), and Bakk; authors in the House were Hackbarth and Ozment.

Again, a bad conference committee, an impasse reached, DNR charged w/ putting together a compromise, Rep. Ozment produced a bill. Result: A very unsatisfactory compromise finally came out of the conference committee and passed. It included vague protections for wetlands, but did not prohibit recreational riding in wetlands. Significantly, it did not reverse the 2003 forest classification provision.

2005
The OHV coalition’s work throughout the summer and fall of 2004 resulted in Sen. Marty’s SF720 which included the following:

• Required mufflers, prohibited snorkels and extreme tires
• Require a larger license plate on the back and front of an ATV
• Increased fines up to $1000 for the third offense
• Allowed a gross misdemeanor charge for repeat and egregious violations of OHV laws; operator may lose right to ride OHV for two years and may lose OHV
• Gross misdemeanor conviction for threatening public safety or causing more than $1000 in property damage will appear on driving record
• 4x4 mudder trucks limited to forest roads; they are not allowed on forest trails

February 17: Polaris shut down the second shift and bussed over a thousand employees to the DNR public hearing on reclassifying Beltrami Island State Forest. It was a very ugly scene w/ Matt Norton standing up for the environment, and Senators Stumpf and Saxhaug and Rep Hackbarth calling for a reversal of the 2003 compromise.

Career DNR employee, Paul Swenson, with 29 years of service, the last 12 as regional director in northern MN, was demoted and assigned to work w/ area Indian tribes. In addition, after 35 years w/ the DNR, Jim Breyen, Regional Wildlife Manager, announced his retirement rather than accept reassignment. Breyen was one of the DNR’s real experts on land use. According to Shawn Perich in Outdoor News, 2/25/05, “The recent removals [of these two men] – in the midst of a local uprising over ATV trail designation – sends a clear message to the troops as to how the political winds blow w/in the agency’s leadership....”

Features of Senators Bakk and Stumpf’s and Rep. Hackbarth’s bills included:

• An “independent study course” for those who violate ATV laws; after three violations the course must be coupled w/ the operating part of ATV safety training
• Provided $400,000 for ATV clubs to train and police themselves – the Ambassador Program
• Prohibited the DRN from using gates to manage state forest roads
• Allowed cross-country travel year-around through various hunting and trapping loopholes
• Required that all forests north of Highway 2 be classified as “managed.”
• Designated the North Shore State Trail an ATV trail

Unable to get his (our) bill through his Env. and Nat. Resources Comm., Sen. Marty prevented the Bakk and Stumpf bills from being passed as well. So there was no Senate bill specifically on our issues.

Rep. Hackbarth’s bill moved through the required committees despite our best efforts. We found authors for amendments to eliminate the worst features of this bill during House floor debate.

May 5: Rep. Hackbarth’s bill was ready for floor action; our amendments were in the hands of our friendly House members. Before session the DFL caucus met and decided they would offer no amendments and they would not pressure their members to vote for any pro-environment amendments. Rep. Ray Cox (R-Northfield) offered three good amendments – all went down to defeat. Hackbarth’s bill passed as part of the Omnibus Environment and Natural Resources bill (HF902)

May 23: Legislature failed to complete its business. Special session began May 24.

Pattern repeated: The senators appointed to the “Working Group” to compromise the House and Senate environment bills were slanted toward the ATV crowd; all the House members were ATV enthusiasts. The bill that emerged included exempting the forests north of Highway 2 from the 2003 compromise.

June 30: Sen. Marty moved an amendment to protect state forest lands and remove the ATV language from the Environment Omnibus bill. It passed 34-25! Sen. Maj. Leader Dean Johnson immediately called for a caucus meeting, wherein the DFL members were convinced to reconsider the Marty amendment and to send an unaltered bill to the House. One problem = had to pass this bill or the state parks would have been closed over the July 4th holiday.  The amendment failed 26-37 on second vote, the bill passed both houses.

Thus was the 2003 compromise reversed and 74% of our state forests opened to the “go anywhere” managed classification.

They did not open the North Shore State Trail to ATVs (DNR would study the proposal) and they did not give ATVAM $400,000.

2006
The OHV Coalition’s goals were straightforward: (1) Repeal the “go-anywhere” policy for forests north of Highway 2; (2) Prevent the North Shore State Trail (NSST) from becoming an ATV trail; (3) Reduce the amount of the gas-tax set-aside for OHVs and direct some to enforcement; (4) Oppose the Ambassador Program. A last minute opportunity gave us hope of eliminating 4x4 mudder trucks from our state forests.

The OHV promoters also had an agenda: (1) Open NSST from Duluth to Two Harbors to ATVs and (2) increase diversion to OHV accounts from .15 to .27 of one percent of gas tax revenue. They assumed there would be no repeal of the north of Highway 2 exception.

The NSST bills were introduced by Bakk and Hackbarth on day one of the session, March 1, in spite of the DNR study of the proposal. The DNR study concluded that it would take 276 new culverts, 190 “treadway alterations,” nearly 12 miles of fill for wetland and other low areas, and the flattening of about 100 hills to make the trail suitable for ATVs. The trail envisioned by the authors of these bills is about 1/3 the length of the entire NSST. (All-Terrain Vehicle Use on the North Shore State Trail: A Feasibility Study. DNR, pp. 22-26)

By the end of the session, our two “successes” were both negative. The NSST proposal failed in committee first as a bonding issue and then as a straight appropriation from the ATV funds from the gas tax. The gas tax increase, also a Bakk/Hackbarth product, was part of an Omnibus Transportation bill which failed.

We had hoped a bill that passed both the House and the Senate to prohibit mudder trucks in our state forests might become law, but the carefully chosen conference committee simply refused to include it in their final report. Senator Saxhaug and Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake) were key players in this result.

2007
The OHV Coalition’s goals were again straightforward: (1) Repeal the “go-anywhere” policy north of Highway 2; (2) Require DNR to designate at least 50% of each state forest as a “traditional area,” closed to motorized recreation; (3) Prohibit 4x4 mudder truck trails in state forests; and (4) play defense on NSST and any surprises that came our way. To these we added the effort to require the DNR to close Mississippi Headwater State Forest to ATVs.

After the 2006 election we had a new legislative landscape w/ some new players and some old ones in more powerful positions.

Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley) the new chair of the Senate Env. Comm. was one wild card in the mix. Sen. Marty and Sen. Dennis Frederickson (R-New Ulm) authored bills to accomplish #1 and #2. Sen. Mary Olson (DFL-Bemidji) authored a bill to accomplish #3. None of these bills received a hearing because Sen. Chaudhary had his own ideas of how we were all going to “get along.”

After a confusing and frustrating session, we thought we might be a step ahead when both houses passed and the governor signed the Omnibus Environment Finance bill (SF2096) which included a ban on 4x4 trucks in Cass, Crow Wing and Hubbard Counties and a state-wide mapped trails plan that Sen. Chaudhary had been promoting. This states that after the DNR has mapped OHV trails in a forest, a person must not operate an OHV on a trail not mapped for that type of OHV.

We should not have been surprised when Rep. Dill had a last-minute surprise. On May 7 he offered a “delete-all” amendment for his Game and Fish bill; a substantially new bill was substituted for the original language in SF1131. This “delete-all’ was co-authored by Rep. Kent Eken (DFL-Twin Valley). Reps. Dill and Eken are chairmen respectively of the Game, Fish and Forestry Division and the Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

They were never asked to explain the provisions of the new bill to the House members who would soon be voting on it. After some damaging amendments by Rep. Hackbarth, the House passed the bill.

Once again, our pleas to leadership for a conference committee friendly to the environment were in vain. Motorized recreation had a 5-1 advantage with only Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley) sympathetic to our concerns. The results were not a plus for OHV control.

The final 2007 tally of new provisions affecting OHVs includes the following.

SF1131, the Fish and Game bill:

• The provision in SF2096 stating that people may operate OHVs only on trails mapped for that type of OHV does not apply north of Highway 2 until after June 30, 2009. This provision does not apply to forest access routes in a managed forest north of Highway 2. Forest access routes will not be signed or maintained and will not be included on published user maps of the forest.
• The Willard Munger Trail System is established in six counties.  Most of these trails may be open to motorized recreation, including the current Willard Munger Trail. It also establishes a new trail section that will include the cities of Proctor, Duluth, and Hermantown in St. Louis County. This segment has been a source of local opposition for some time. (Emphasis added)

SF2096B, the omnibus environment finance bill:

• A conservation officer will be stationed at Mississippi Headwaters State Forest to work with local jurisdictions on enforcing OHV laws.

• The DNR Commissioner will prescribe seasons for OHV use in state forests.
• People may operate OHVs in state forests only on trails mapped for that type of OHV, except as noted above.
• The commissioner will establish a program to promote safe and responsible OHV activities, entering into agreements with organizations for volunteer services to promote safe and responsible OHV operation.
• Money in the OHV Damage Account will be available until the money is expended, rather than expiring on July 1, 2008.
• 4x4 mudder trucks will not be allowed in state forests in Cass, Crow Wing and Hubbard Counties. 
• The commissioner will appoint an OHV Safety Advisory Council.
• ATV three-year registration fees are increased from $30 to $45 for use on public land, the money to be credited to the ATV account in the DNR.  (We hoped to require that all increased funds be used for enforcement; there will be some increase in funding for enforcement.)

HF2362, the omnibus tax bill, had an increase in the percentage of the gasoline fuel tax diverted to the ATV account in the DNR.  The increase was from 0.15 to 0.27 of one percent of gasoline tax revenue.  The tax bill was vetoed by the governor, but may be back on the table if we have a special session this fall.

*OHV Coalition: Audubon MN; Audubon Mpls; Isaac Walton League MN; Jack Pine Coalition; League of Women Voters MN; MN Center for Environmental Advocacy; Sierra Club N. Star Chapter; Friends of the Boundary Waters until 2005