ATVs cause too much damage to land?

[BobT]

This past weekend some friends and I went back to my home town area around Kinney to do some camping and 4-wheeling. I still have family around the area but I haven’t been able to spend enough time up there to realize how things have changed over the years. In particular north of Kinney and east to Mountain Iron.

Checking the DNR aerial photos, which were updated in October of 2005, the west pit of USX Steel is approximately two miles wide and five miles long extending from Mountain Iron west to county highway 25, encompassing approximately 10 square miles. That’s just one of the many open pits that dot the landscape in northern Minnesota.

Ten square miles of land add up to 278,784,000 square feet of land area. The average ATV uses a trail that is conservatively 5 feet wide. The land area consumed by just that one pit would be equivalent to 10,560 miles of ATV trails. I doubt there are that many miles of ATV trails in the entire state including designated trails, road ditches, abandoned roads, illegal trails, and private trails combined.

Talk about your double standard. Those that would like to close the state to ATV use have no problem with the destruction caused by the open pit mining operations. Regardless of what anyone has heard, the fact is very little is done by the mining companies and those that gain from the operations to restore the land. Oh sure, through former Governor Perpich’s pet project the IRRRB some of the pits have been reclaimed into trout lakes that suck up more of our tax and license dollars to maintain fish populations that can’t possibly do it on their own. And yes, some of the waste rock dumps have had trees planted on them.

Reality is that most of the remaining open pits from past operations remain fenced in, water-filled, sterile holes in the ground, off the beaten path and useless to anyone. The waste rock dumps grow over with vegetation after many years but as I discovered this weekend the trees on average are still no bigger than they were 25 years ago when I lived in the area. Aspen maybe will get to be 4” to 6” diameter and lucky to reach heights of more than 25’. In neighboring forests these trees grow to in excess of 20” in diameter and reach heights of 60’ and more. In most areas there is little underbrush to speak of as well. The sides of these hills are so steep they are difficult at best to navigate except for what remain of the old haul roads leading to the top. And they’re worried about a 5’ wide ATV trail.

Go figure.

Bob