NEED LOSS OF LAND Mike Ketterhagen has not received any info from anyone on land that may have been lost for trailriding with a bit of background etc. Please contact Mike with this info so he can compile for reference as we go along.

LAKE STATES RESOURCE ALLIANCE (LSRA) I receive their newsletter. John Schnorr is on the board representing W4WDA. There will be no Banquet this year. However there are raffle tickets they are selling and they would like our help. You can contact John for these tickets that you can proceed and sell or just buy.

CHEQUAMEGON-NICOLET NATIONAL FOREST PLANNING The Final Plan is pretty much ready and will be distributed this Spring. If you have been involved you should already have been notified with your desires as to what format you wish to receive this plan in.

BLACK RIVER FALLS/JACKSON COUNTY The Black River State Forest is the next to be reviewed by the state on their "25 year plan" and we need to keep a watch for that. To my knowledge it hasn’t started as of yet. Is there anyone that can keep an eye on this?

We have opportunity up there on both a county and state level if there are folks ready to work on this. Let me know of interest out there and let's see what we can put together.

COUNTY TEN YEAR PLANS AGAIN AGAIN I am informing you that the County ten year plans are starting up soon if not already. Contact your county and find out when your county’s plan will be starting. You can also check their website at www.co.(name of your county).wi.us for what is coming up or send them an e-mail through their website. I know the folks in Oneida county are working with their county—how about some of the rest of you?

MEMBERSHIP I am glad to see Mike Kasten is proceeding to get a letter out to non-members who participated in the rally last year. I have sent Mike the 2003 Rally participant list and hopefully he has sent out info to new participants that are non-members.

VEHICLE PATROL PROGRAM Jason Feucht has taken this over with some real vigor!

LOBBYIST I was asked to check on this at the last meeting. I have two possibilities in mind. One I have in mind who may be the most effective just went through a reconstruction and the individual that I was looking at is not there anymore. So I am not sure if this is still the best route. I also have another lead that is apparently quite good and not real expensive—for a lobbyist that is. I really question that a lobbyist is where we need to go until we get our ducks in a row organizationally. Do you have any ideas on this?

BLUE RIBBON COALITION There is a particular article on the Forest plan and OHV policy and cross country (just go wherever you want) use that was very good in the last issue. Hopefully you have had an opportunity to read. I do have a few copies with me.

LAND USE CHAIR FOR YOUR REGION AND YOUR CLUB We need to have every region appoint a land use chair and also every club. These folks then can follow through with many things found in this report. Rueben Gosewisch and I need the names of these folks so we can communicate more closely and timely on things.

GET INVOLVED Everyone seriously think of taking on one project and then follow it through. We need more people to get involved in order to even keep what we have. There are many of us ready and able to help you out, we just can’t be also working on all these projects. I know there are now some regional Vice Presidents that are jumping in and working in their areas and that is GREAT. However there are many other projects that need to be done.

STATE TRAILS COUNCIL

On Monday, April 12, the meeting the Spring meeting of the STAC was held in Madison in the Governor’s Conference Room of the State Capitol.

I met Donald Kirn (the new OHV representative on the Council). He wasn’t sure why he was there or what he was supposed to be doing. I explained he represented ATVs, Offroad motorcycles and Four Wheel Drives and was advisory to the Governor on trails. I am not real sure he is real pleased with his charge and what he will be doing about this. I had sent him a lengthy letter of introduction of who we are and what our needs are beforehand. I also invited him to our conference in Black River Falls of which after the meeting he told me he would not be attending since between Pat & I we could report on the STAC meeting. I told him it wasn’t so much to report on the meeting but for him to meet us and the members of the W4WDA to meet him, but he declined. Note: Apparently after thinking it over he decided he should come because he did come to the meeting and spoke a bit about his position and how he can hopefully help us.

NRTA Funding application packets are available and the deadline to submit is May 1. You can retrieve both the application booklet and the application form from the websited http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/cfa/grants/forms/forms.html. Look under Stewardship for publication CF-003-2004 which covers information on the recreational trails program in addition to other grant programs. The recreational trails application form is also found under the recreation trails listing (Form 8700-191). If you have an idea of an area that trails could be set up for the public with some funding look this up on the internet and talk to me about it and I’ll work with you to contact the right people to get something started to possibly access some of these funds. These applications have to be in by May 1. However, it’s probably too late to make anything happen this year anymore but need to get started on discussions NOW for next year.

The DNR ATV Advisory Committee has an Internal Policy pretty much set up that can also be a pattern for Counties etc. to use. I am asking for a copy of this to see where it really stands and how it may affect us.

There are four plans currently being worked on by the DNR. The Statewide Forest Plan, the Land Legacy Plan, State Wildlife Plan and State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP).

The Statewide Forest Plan is now out and ready for comments with a deadline of May 14. I have not at this point reviewed this plan and it is quite a thick booklet. I consider this plan to be quite important for “trails/roads” for us to use since it is in the State Forests we can ride on not on State Parks (however, this is not to mean that Parks is not an issue since we could end up having a “OHV Park”). For review of this plan you can go to the internet at http://dnr.wi.gov/land/forestry. For a copy to be sent to you call 608-264-8883 e-mail Teague.Prichard@dnr.state.wi.us.

Senator Neal Kedzie, 11th District, Representative Spencer Black and Representative Scott Gunderson attended the meeting for part of the time. Also Governor Doyle attended for a brief time and stated the importance of trails and how they are more than just trails but in many cases a means of commuting. Also DNR’s Secretary Scott Hassett attended a large portion of the meeting. One of the key points that all these folks were asked to be sure of the interpretation was of 2003 Act 89 that became effective December 18, 2003 (date after publication) that encourages siting of electric transmission facilities with the third priority being Recreational trails. It says in the law…to the extent that the facilities may be constructed below ground and that the facilities do not significantly impact environmentally sensitive areas…. The Council was real concerned about the word “may” and all the distinquished guests believed that to not imply they could put these wires above ground on recreational trails. However, there are those that think the word “may” is not an assurance of this.

One of the things that kept popping up during the meeting was that obesity has now surpassed tobacco use in health problems. Therefore getting people out and using trails is also a need for public health. This gets further translated by anti-motorists especially that there should be much less emphasis on motorized recreation since they presume motorized activities are not physical activities. We have to establish a stand on this and explain the physical part of our “sport”. Some of this can be just the jostling around etc. that uses muscles in riding in these vehicles on rough terrain. How when we get to a specific site we are climbing hills by foot to see a specific site or possibly walking up a trail that has a downed tree or whatever to see if it is realistic to clear the trail and go forward. How when a vehicle’s forward motion is stopped due to very difficult terrain the work it takes to get that vehicle going forward again or to get that vehicle out of the spot that impedes its forward motion. Ummm…this is my first attempt at writing up a stand on this issue. Let’s see some input and ideas on what to say on this.

To get more information on the Council members you can go to www.dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/trails/council.

Remember our various events that are trail type events where the public is welcome we should submit to the Dept. of Tourism. So keep that in mind when planning your event and looking at advertising angles.

During public comments I stated the concern on how SCORP was going to establish the need and numbers for Four Wheel Drive and that other user groups too may want to know more on what the questions are going to be on the phone survey part. I also told them we were looking forward to working with Don Kirn our representative on the Council and introduced Pat Jacobosky. Pat explained the goal of getting funding through legislation for an ORV Park and some of the problems he was encountering. He received some suggestions on what to do.

The next meeting will be held in Horicon on July 12 starting at 10:00 with location to be announced later.

OHV COUNCIL have not heard anything recently in regard to the OHV Council. I did talk to Rob McConnell who is a representative on the Council and he said there should be a meeting shortly. My understanding is that I will be notified when that meeting is to occur.